From the Maplewoods workshop: Steve's RV7 project: Too busy working to post

The Mission:

I am building an airplane. I really can't tell you how weird it sounds to me to hear those words in my head as I type. I am keeping this blog as an adjunct to my written log, which is required to comply with FAA requirements for Experimental Aircraft construction. My son Doug is my partner in this project. There are two goals: to build the best, safest, and yes, COOLEST, airplane we can, and to allow Doug to acquire some truly awesome experiences, not to mention building skills. Thanks for viewing.

How to use this blog

The most current post is displayed on this opening page. To access the older posts, click on the "Blog Archive" on the right hand side. The drop down menu is arranged by the month and lists the posts, by title and by date posted, in reverse chronological order.

I will arrange the hypertext links to other websites I find interesting better some day, but they are at the bottom.

If you navigate to my first post, there is a link to my luthiery pages. I miss working with wood. Aluminum is nice, but it's boring. Give me a highly figured maple any day!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Too busy working to post

Doug and I finished adjusting the canopy frame, installing (temporarily) the rails and bolting on the roll bar. The rear track is in positioned and held briefly with duct tape prior to drilling final position. The plexiglass canopy has been positioned, and we actually made the trim cuts and the "big cut", separating the windscreen from the canopy, but no photos of that yet (next post).

For fun, we are working on louvers for the cowl to be installed later. Since Doug is a huge fan of the Shelby Cobra 427, we are adapting some Shelby replica louvers for the cowl (see photo).

Finally, my panel is on it's way: a "plug and play" from Aerotronics. Finished in carbon fiber, it will blend down in to a center console that I am doing which is also finished with a carbon fiber look (again, more pictures later)