Well, there goes all my "spare" time!

[Gern_Blanston]

Thanks for the updates. It's pretty cool to watch this thing come together.

[Hybrid VW]

Thanks Gern! Fly out to KBDN when they have their airport appreciation day. I might haul the fuse to the airport and do a riveting session on it where our EAA chapter meets to allow the general public to learn a little about building planes. I'm sure the 7X would get some foot traffic too

[AR GTI]

Just wanted to say you've done some great work and to keep it up!

Really enjoy reading this. I have 2 student (father, son) who are going to buy a kit plane and build it once they get their licenses. I'll be sure to pass this thread onto them, sure they will love it.

[Gern_Blanston]

Thanks Gern! Fly out to KBDN when they have their airport appreciation day. I might haul the fuse to the airport and do a riveting session on it where our EAA chapter meets to allow the general public to learn a little about building planes. I'm sure the 7X would get some foot traffic too

If only I were allowed to fly the 7X whenever it suited me. Crap.
It'll have to be the Super Cub. I'll let you take me around the patch in it. It's pretty good sport.

[Hybrid VW]

That'd be cool I'll build my dragontail time one takeoff and landing per year

[Hybrid VW]

A little more progress this weekend. The forward fuselage floor stiffeners and skin going into place:




And some ribs to stiffen the skin in the baggage area:


I'm getting pretty close to the stage where I disassemble the forward section of the fuselage for the beburr, dimple, prime routine, and right now, I'm not really looking forward to it- too many pieces to keep track of!

[Mike_Honcho]

Ok this never needs to be off the front page cause we need updates!

[Twistedsix]

still very jealous.

[daviddepin]

Been following this for about 2 years now, great stuff.

Please forgive my ignorance, two questions.

Do you have an instruction manual on putting it together? How big has that book got to be?

and...

A little more general, but I'm not quite understanding the true purpose of the cleco. You install a cleco where you plan to rivet correct? Why not just put a rivet in the first place and be done with it?

[Hybrid VW]

Sorry I don't have many updates at this point, but I'm close to disassembling the forward portion of the fuselage to do all the prep work for final assembly. There's a LOT of pieces, so my plan is to take a few pieces out at a time and prep them individually, instead of tearing the whole thing down and having a pile of parts on the floor of my shop.

Do you have an instruction manual on putting it together? How big has that book got to be?

and...

A little more general, but I'm not quite understanding the true purpose of the cleco. You install a cleco where you plan to rivet correct? Why not just put a rivet in the first place and be done with it?

The instruction book is a 3" thick 3 ring binder. You can get one for roughly $50 from Van's for most of their planes I believe. It has smaller versions of all of the drawing that are supplied in each of the subkits, so you can get a real good idea of what lays ahead should you decide to build.

The clecos are a temporary locking fastener that allows you to assemble the structure, drill all the holes to final size, then disassemble it so you can debur the holes and dimple them for flush head rivets if required. When it comes time to rivet the structure, you cleco the assembly together using every other hole, then put rivets in the empty holes, remove the clecos and rivet the holes previously filled by the clecos

[Twistedsix]

any updates ?

[Hybrid VW]

Not much, just prepping and priming a few parts (fuselage side stiffeners and floorpans)- about 6 hours of work in the past month and a half I'll be prepping and priming one side of the fuselage here hopefully soon though

[Twistedsix]

Not much, just prepping and priming a few parts (fuselage side stiffeners and floorpans)- about 6 hours of work in the past month and a half I'll be prepping and priming one side of the fuselage here hopefully soon though

[Hybrid VW]

A couple of pictures I took while working on it on Friday.

Forward fuselage side skin removed, exposing the structure underneath:


With the seat and baggage floor in place:


And a sample of how I plan to paint the interior with silver Rustoleum "Hammered" paint:


A little progress here and a little there isn't exactly the speed I'd like to be going, but at least it's progress

[Gern_Blanston]

Thanks for showing. Very cool.

[Hybrid VW]

6ish month update! It's only taken me all summer to get to the point that I thought I'd be at sometime in July, but that's the way things go sometimes....

I've basically got the lower portion of the fuselage all riveted up, and I have the place to myself all next weekend, so there SHOULD be some good progress made

Rivets in the fuselage side:


A smooth belly:


Look ma! (almost) NO CLECOS!


This aft deck sets whatever twist there is in the fuselage, so after clecoing on the aft turtledeck, it came in an 0.0 degrees of twist, so I drilled it!



The turtledeck needs to come off to install some brackets and the shoulder harness anchors, but it looks good up there

[Elbows]

This is awesome. I built a plane once. Out of legos. That is the extent of my mechanical/engineering prowess.

[Hybrid VW]

Legos.... clecos..... They both end in O's, you can doooo eeet!!!

[Hostile]

I just found this thread. Wow, talk about awesome. My dad is an aviation nut, I'll have to forward it to him.

[palakaman]

I knew I remember seeing this thread somewhere! I saw the first few pages and then lost it and couldn't find it.

Great progress! A coworker at an old job built a kit plane. Took me for a spin. let me do some barrel rolls. What a blast!

Looking forward to seeing this completed.

P.S. I'm subscribing this time so I don't lose it.

[Hybrid VW]

Got 17.5 hours in this weekend! Started off match drilling the shoulder harness anchors to the longerons, then some gusstes for the bulkheads:



Then assembled and drilled the elevator bellcrank:


Then fit and drilled the aft and forward top skins on:





Then I got to move on to the baggage compartment! First installed the ridder cables, then the aft side baggage covers, followed by the floors:





Then I had to cut the corners of the top portion of the rear bulkhead, plot all the screw holes, and drill them to the bulkhead they get attached to:



Then screwed the forwrad side covers in place and the tunnel cover and called it a day:





It's really starting to come together, but it's all going to have to come apart again for deburring and dimpling

[palakaman]

I look at some of these pictures and think "hell raiser"

[Hybrid VW]

Long time no updates I've made a little progress since my last post, butnothing major, and I haven't updated my build log yet. What I HAVE been doing though is trading aluminum and rivets for wood and glue. Now I have two unfinished airplane projects, but I think this one will get done first:



I can't wait to see his response when it's on all three wheels and painted!

[WeenerBoy]

I can't wait to see his response when it's on all three wheels and painted!

holy ****! is this a custom job? i see $$

[Hybrid VW]

holy ****! is this a custom job? i see $$

Pedal planes The plans are pretty cheap, but if you opt for all the kits (precut wood, etc.), you're looking at several hundred $'s. For me, the time saved with the kits is WAY worth it though- all the wood is cnc cut, metal parts fabbed and welded, etc. Still PLENTY of work left to be done to finish one though I've got a solid day just in shaping the wheel pants, for example.

[Gern_Blanston]

Nice!!

[Hybrid VW]

When are you gonna cross the bumps and take me flyin', Gern?

[Gern_Blanston]

Say when. We get a little good weather goin' steady and no trips, let's do it.

[Hybrid VW]

Cool! Probably headed to McMinville with the family this weekend. Can't wait to see the kid's expression when he sees all those planes

[joness0154]

Any updates?

[Hybrid VW]

I haven't touched the RV all year But I did start the Flintstone mod on the Stinson on Sunday


Have you done much with your tail kit yet?

[joness0154]

I haven't touched the RV all year But I did start the Flintstone mod on the Stinson on Sunday


Have you done much with your tail kit yet?

Not really. Between moving and getting my new house fixed up (house > airplane at the moment) I haven't had any time. And now that the -14 has been announced I'm seriously rethinking the -7.

I did build the EAA1000 workbenches a few weeks ago so one of the kits (be it the 7 or 14) will be starting this winter

[Hybrid VW]

My first reaction to the -14 was "sonofabitch, my plane is obsolete already!" But the more I read about it, the better I feel about having the -7. The improvements in the kit and instructions for the -14 would sure be nice, but for me, that's about where the benefits end. The -14 is a little bit slower, uses a more expensive engine (not sure if there will be other options at this point), and while it can carry more weight, it's still limited to 100lbs. in the baggage area. It also carries more fuel, but with the extra tanks I installed, I have 51 gallons vs. 50 for the -14.

Overall, it seems to be a nice plane for the larger crowd with some mission overlap with the -7. It seems that Van's is trying to address some of the issues with experimental safety by making kits that are more standardized to eliminate builder discrepancies. I look at the -12 and -14 as being production line airplanes that individuals build at their own shop

[joness0154]

My first reaction to the -14 was "sonofabitch, my plane is obsolete already!" But the more I read about it, the better I feel about having the -7. The improvements in the kit and instructions for the -14 would sure be nice, but for me, that's about where the benefits end. The -14 is a little bit slower, uses a more expensive engine (not sure if there will be other options at this point), and while it can carry more weight, it's still limited to 100lbs. in the baggage area. It also carries more fuel, but with the extra tanks I installed, I have 51 gallons vs. 50 for the -14.

Overall, it seems to be a nice plane for the larger crowd with some mission overlap with the -7. It seems that Van's is trying to address some of the issues with experimental safety by making kits that are more standardized to eliminate builder discrepancies. I look at the -12 and -14 as being production line airplanes that individuals build at their own shop

Yeah I hear ya. I sat in the 7 and 14 up at Oshkosh with my girlfriend and even though she's tiny, with my shoulders it was much more comfortable in the 14. I couldn't imagine getting me and one of my pals in the 7 without wanting to land after an hour. Haha

I'm still on the fence but the guys at my local EAA chapter have convinced me to build the 7 empennage anyway. That way I can get some build experience first and either continue on with the build or sell it to start the 14. As for the engine, someone on VAF stated the 390 is only a few hundred dollars more expensive than the angle valve 360 (which Vans stated may end up working in the 14 anyway). But the 390, at the moment, is not certified for auto fuel which would be a big hit for me too.

Decisions, decisions!

[Hybrid VW]

Yeah, I don't think you'll lose much by building the -7 empennage. You'd be looking at 5-6 weeks if you put in about 20 hours a week. Just look at it as an oversized practice kit

I honestly haven't priced new engines recently, but I'm under the impression that the 390 is going to be a $40k engine in short order. As time goes by, it'll be easier to find used ones, but still a lot harder than for the 180-200hp. Maybe I'm just a cheap ass...