Rudi's RV7 build progress...Done and Flying

DELETED · Unread post by **DELETED** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 3:08 pm

DELETED

RudiGreyling · Unread post by **RudiGreyling** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 3:47 pm

Lurker wrote:Hi Rudi, beautiful project Forgive my ignorance but I can't make out what you have on there
Thanx for keeping us up to date

Hi Lurker,

Thanx for the kind comments.

It’s my pleasure to educate…The Aluminium sheets come protected with a layer of blue plastic vinyl to help protect against scratches during the manufacture and build process. The picture shows where this layer was compromised during the shipping or manufacturing by something scratching deep back and forth on the Aluminium. One usually take this blue vinyl of just before priming and or riveting.

Some people would say it is not that bad, but I paid for new sheets and want it so, and Vans even offered to replace it, no questions asked. Fantastic service so far...let's wait and see how it pans out.

RudiGreyling · Unread post by **RudiGreyling** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:37 am

WOW! Now this is Fantastic Service:
3 Oct: email Vansaircraft about problem with photos
4 Oct: Vans email back saying they will replace it. The same day I get a FEDEX email saying its on the way, estimated delivery date 12 Oct.

Vans Aircraft what a good company to deal with.

Since the skin will only arrive next week, I decided to slip out the weekend with the family for a small break-away, so little progress will happen until then.

RudiGreyling · Unread post by **RudiGreyling** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 8:32 am

To my fellow RViators,

I find this very Funny: Welcome to Africa, where a package takes 3 days to travel half way across the world from USA to Paris to JHB, and then an estimated 6 Days to clear & travel 15km from JHB airport to Boksburg where my house is. Amazing!

Anycase I went ahead and cleco'ed all the skins less the damaged one to the wing skeletons so long. I am amazed how well the pre-punched holes line up. Looks like all that work I did on straightening the ribs paid of...and of course a fantastic quality kit!

I also build a simple cradle to assemble the leading edge... One use one of the nose ribs shown as a template.

Till next time,
Rudi

Ed · Unread post by Ed » Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:47 am

Thanks for the update, Rudi, looking goooood!

papa-g · Unread post by **papa-g** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 11:03 am

Hi greylingr, been to see a RV10 being built not far from FAVG, the amazing quality of the kit is fantastic - the build manual can easily be framed, such is the beauty of the drawings !.....

Unread post by **Steve** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 11:13 am

Looking great Rudi....have you got an anticipated completion date in your mind?

RudiGreyling · Unread post by **RudiGreyling** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:37 am

To my fellow RViators,

I have to eat my own words

. Looking at the estimated delivery date given by Fedex, 6 days from JHB to Boksburg, I jumped to conclusions, well when I got home Friday, there the skin was, delivered 5 days early…Fantastic!

I wanted to jump in and start, but I had a weekend planned with the family in the bush, one has got to get one's priorities straight, and it is fine balance between family, building RV and day time job!

Any case when we got home on Sunday, there was nothing to stop me. Jumped straight in, put the new skin into place and started drilling.

After 4 hours, 2040 holes, and 2 skin blisters later, all the wing skin holes was match drilled. Cool <Sorry no pictures, nothing really to show>

Well next I have to debur those holes...I am not looking forward to deburring all those holes, since it is both sides of the skin and both sides of the rib, that is x4 or 8160 holes

. I'll try and do that in-between some other work in order to break to boring deburring work.

Responding to some of your comments:

papag wrote:Hi greylingr, been to see a RV10 being built not far from FAVG, the amazing quality of the kit is fantastic - the build manual can easily be framed, such is the beauty of the drawings !

I have not seen the manual for the RV10, but I believe it is superior to the RV7, since it has many more drawings included as part of the manual. The RV7 has a manual and then a lot of big drawings; I fit the drawings on magnetic whiteboards. You can see them in the workshop in some of my previous pictures.

Big Ed wrote:]Thanks for the update, Rudi, looking goooood!

Thanks for the kind comments

FAWG Pilot wrote:Looking great Rudi....have you got an anticipated completion date in your mind?

Yes and No: When you have a family and a demanding day job, one should keep a fine balance between this and building an RV. That said, I know that it typically takes a first time builder 2000 hours to complete, no matter what Van's website says (quicker for the quick build, and quicker the second time round). I reckoned on average I can spend 8 hours a week on it for 50 weeks of a year, that will make it 5 years. But currently I am spending more than the 8 hour average on it so maybe 3 years?

It’s a labour of love! (No matter how many freaking holes and rivets there are)

Till next time,
Rudi

RudiGreyling · Unread post by **RudiGreyling** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 8:42 am

Hi Guys,

I know the pictures are not showing!!!
It looks like the place I was hosting had a fire in the Datacenter. These guys didn't take any backups, or have a Disaster Recover Site, so everything is lost.

Being in IT myself this astounds me!

Luckily I have a copy of it, but need a place to host it.

It looks like I'll have to wait 2 weeks to get operational. I'll see what happens. Please be patient...

Freepgs.com wrote:The data center which housed the FreePgs server is no longer operating at this time due to a fire at the data center. We will be purchasing a new server and relocating it within the next 1-2 weeks if possible. All data was lost.

RudiGreyling · Unread post by **RudiGreyling** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 3:02 pm

To my fellow RVators,

D@mn it's been almost 4 weeks and my web hosting site is still not operational, the guys say maybe next week. Any case I had a couple people asking about my progress. Well 2 of the 4 weeks I was out on some good fly outs with the micro light, first to the Parys Dome Festival and second a trip to the Lowveld Baberton.

Anycase here is a couple of pictures of the progress which I'm hosting at http://www.imageshack.us for the time being until my webhost is operational again…

1) My wife went out to the shops leaving the little one with me. The little one did not want to stay quite until I put her in the pouch and walked her around. Presto! I quickly got the idea to go pull some clecko's while she was in the pouch. My wife came back from the shops, found it very funny and snapped this picture. I thought you guys would appreciate the new foreman (actually forewoman) watching over my progress!

2) The leading edge being clecko'ed together in the cradle.

3) The insides of the leading edge

4) Both leading edges positioned on the wing

Till next time,
Rudi

Ed · Unread post by Ed » Mon Nov 07, 2005 5:42 pm

The wings, she is getting bee-eeger

RV · Unread post by RV » Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:38 pm

Hi Rudi

I still cannot believe your progress & the quality of your workmanship.

Absolutely lovely.

Is your forewoman going to let your copilot into the other seat

RudiGreyling · Unread post by **RudiGreyling** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:56 am

To my fellow RVators,

Website is still down, but here are some more pictures of what I did the past 4 weeks:

1) The Tank attachment Z plates. These hold the tank onto the spar

2) The tank being clecko'ed in the cradle

3) The tank out of the cradle ready to be mated with the wings...looks like a pin cushion

4) The tank on the spar, and mated with the leading edge...Perfect!

5) A view from the other side!

It feels good and at least it looks like a wing!
There is still a lot of freaking work to be done on the wings before they're done...ribbit..ribbit...brrrrtt..brrrrt - Catch my drift?

Till next time,
Rudi

RudiGreyling · Unread post by **RudiGreyling** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 3:33 pm

I'm reposting this here to keep all my RV info together: Stop Animation

Here is a Alpha version of the .exe Screen Saver at 640x480 of the wing building to date [6.6MB]
http://www.securefilehost.com/download. ... 70fba40b71

and here is the raw .jpg files play them back in sequence unstretched at 640x480 with your own application like windows slide show. [6.0MB]
http://www.securefilehost.com/download. ... 241ee74758

Regards
Rudi a.ka (Computer keyboard operator by day, Rivet gun operator by night)

RudiGreyling · Unread post by **RudiGreyling** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 1:41 pm

Jippie!! Finally my web page is up and running again, so it means the pictures in this topic is showing again.

I updated my website with the latest info:
Current Project Status: 411 Hours +/- 21% complete

Kind Regards
Rudi

Rudi's RV7 build progress...Done and Flying

WEB Site burned Down