From the Maplewoods workshop: Steve's RV7 project: Fitting the front cowling

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!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Fitting the front cowling

Doug insisted that I take the plane off the cradle we had built to assemble the fuselage on. He wanted to get a sense of how it looked on it's own three wheels. Then, of course, he had to sit in it.

Our interior arrived from Classic Aero. I can't say strongly enough how beautiful the seats, carpet and Sportsman2 side panels look. I am very motivated to get thie wiring done so I can install them. This aircraft is starting to look REALLY good.

Could that be the "RV grin" that I've heard so much about?

I had heard that the cowling was quite a rodeo to get everything lined up and to get the top and bottom cowling trimmed. It seems to be going pretty well, so far, although there is going to be need for a little micro on the inlet apertures and around the transition immediately behind the spinner.