RV-7: Here We Go Again

As mentioned in the notes from Oshkosh, I ordered an RV-7 tail kit while at the show. It's the first of four sub-kits. Below is an example of what the entire RV-7 quick-build kit looks like, as well as the finished plane. Mine will be a tail-wheel model with a tip-up canopy and fuel injected Lycoming engine. In many ways it's a lot like the RV-8 we have now, except seating is side-by-side instead of tandem.

About a week after my return from Oshkosh, Ema alerts me to the airplane parts on the front porch! Good girl find the airplane!

Before tearing into the boxes, I spent a couple days getting the barn back in order for aircraft production and retrieving many of the tools from the hanger. I also built another table from the crates left over from the RV-8 wing and finish kits. Inventory of the two boxes showed everything is there. It doesn't look too intimidating, does it?

About 10 work-hours into the kit, I was at the stage of drilling the second half of the horizontal stabilizer. So far it's going pretty smooth. The kit is noticeably more advanced than the RV-8 tail I built in 1998. (Good grief! Has it been that long already?) The plans and instructions are laid out better too. And maybe I'm a wee bit smarter at the airplane building stuff than I was the first time. This is going to be fun...