My name is Jurgen Roeland, I live in Belgium and I'm very proud to call myself an aircraft builder. Wish you a warm welcome to my builders blog.

 Some people called me nuttzzz. Some people buy a porche when they get into the mid life crisis age. Other people take a second wife. Others get depressed.  I decided to start building an airplane.  A what ???? Yes, an airplane ! I skipped the phase of building the small plastic versions with glue and paint and went right into the real thing. My time is precious now so let's cut the obvious questions upfront. I heared them too many times already so here is the -mandatory FAQ reading- if you plan to visit my workshop.
 "You're building an airplane?" : Yes, I am.  "A REAL airplane?" : Yes",  "In your garage?" : Yes. "
 "One you can actually fly in?" : Yes!   "You can do that?" : Yes!!!

If you look at history, it's been thousands of years that people have dreamed about flight and it's only in the last 100 years that we have now the opportunity to build our own airplanes and fly. The current project work is the results of years of deliberation, evaluation and planning. I took the advice of fellow builders very seriously and so should you. The type I have decided to build is the Van's aircraft, RV-7. I will motivate my choice in one of the subsections of this site. I hope you enjoy following my building adventures and that you will return frequently to check on the progress. The latest activity will always be posted on the main page. You can also subscribe by RSSfeed. This will send you an email each time I post new progress. For subscription, click on the RSS icon in the bottom of the left menu on this page.

For people that live nearby, feel free to come and have a look. Don't forget to bring a six-pack. The most frequently used lubricant in my workshop is called "Jupiler", bring some as I'm frequently running out of stock.

 

16/11/2024 - Bringing the plane outside and testing lights - 9h

Today was one of those days that makes airplane building fun. 
It was a long day but it was definitly worth it.
(Keep reading till the end, there's a nice video of the lights at the end of the article )

As all my electrical connections are made for the aircraft lights, I decided that I wanted to see it all in action with the wings on and the tips attached. I also needed to re-test my com radio and this is better done with the plane outside than in the workshop. Now with all the tips and fairings attached, this will give a more finished view of the airplane overall and leads to some good photo-memory-moments.

Slipping the wings on took a while and went more difficult than I remember from the last time but in the end we managed to slide the temporary bolts in place. The tips went on and the electrical connectors attached. With the RV standing on it's own legs, this is truly a wonderfull sight. As you can see, this was in front of my garage with the public street in front of it. No need to say I got a lot of very strange and surprised faces as people walked by.

09/11/2024 - Wiring outer wingtip - 2h

With the suntail tested and working, I thought it was a good idea to continue the wiring of the wing tip lights. My plan is to bring the plane out, attach the wings and have everything lighted up.

Installed the molex connectors for the Aeroson Pulsor NSP lights first. This will allow for easy removal of the wingtip or replacement of the NAV light if ever needed.

08/11/2024 - Aeroson Suntail wiring and test - 2h

In previous session I had some time left to make a small aluminum adapter  for the suntail light.
I taped this new adapter to the rear of the rudder bottom and made some markings for cutting out some epoxy. This hole will allow the Aeroled suntail cable to protrude inside the rudder fairing.

02/11/2024 - Rudder fairing (cntd 2) + suntail adapter - 6h30

FInal steps in the assembly of the rudder bottom fairing. The holes were drilled #19 and now need countersinking. I will attach these with stainless #6 screws and tinnerman washers. 
Countersinking in epoxy fairing is no fun. It's very easy to chatter the hole, the material is very thin do anyway, the hole gets slightly enlarged. On top of that, the epoxy wears out your countersink bit. All the more reason to hate this job. I used a thick backing plate in aluminum with #19 hole and slightly countersunk to guide the countersink bit.

01/11/2024 - Rudder fairing (cntd) - 4h30

Moving on with the R-911 rudder bottom fairing. The cutout and fitting is finally ok. The next step is drilling the fairing to the R-918 bottom attach strip. 

I started by laying out the positions to drill the holes. There are 8 holes from the rear up to the rudder horn. 

To ensure perfect rear alignment, I placed a piece of scrap aluminum angle along the rear edge of the rudder and ensured the epoxy fairing butts against the angle.

There is a slight angle between the rear of the rudder fairing and the rear edge of the rudder. This is because the front of the rudder fairing has been lifted up a bit to give sufficient clearing for tail wheel spring. On an RV7-A you can probably have a nice straight line here but with a taildragger, you have to take into account the flexing of the tail wheel spring during landing or tailwheel shimmy. 

Visit Oshkosh

Oshkosh is to you like Mekka is for a Muslim.
If you haven't been there at least once in your life, you will NOT go to aviation heaven !

From Belgium, it's quite a trip but in the last five years of building, we managed to go twice to Oshkosh.

Nothing beats the experience of Oshkosh air venture in Oshkosh Wisconsin.

The first time we went, I visted sun'n fun in spring and decided to also visit Oshkosh. On sun'n fun there were rv's but the experimental parking there is kind of isolated and more difficult to make contact.
So my idea before arriving in Oshkosh was, 'wel I hope there will be some RV's'.

There are hundreds !

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In some articles, I made corrections at later date on the original article to rectify my own stupidities or faults. Read through the entire article if you intend to use my findings/experiences on your own project !

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Hobbs meter

     Start  End Time  
   Horizontal  Stabiliser  01/01/11 22/01/11  79h  o
   Vertical  Stabiliser  22/01/11 05/02/11  27h  o
   Rudder  05/02/11 06/03/11

 36h

  o
   Elevators  06/03/11 23/08/11  124h  o
   Wings 01/09/11 31/12/12  928h  o
   Fuselage 01/01/13  ongoing

 1229h

  o
   Finishing 24/08/20    01/07/23 

 496h

  o
   Electrical 02/07/23  ongoing

 365h

  
   Firewall FWD    

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting a living legend

At the Oshkosh airventure 2013, I took this cool shot with Richard VanGrunsven, founder and CEO of Van's aircraft. We had a short chat after he came out of a presentation where he attended putting the young eagles project in the spotlights.

Richard -usually known as "Dick" or "Van" was born in 1939 and became an American aircraft designer and kitplane manufacturer. These days his kits are so popular that the number of VanGrunsven-designed homebuilt aircraft produced each year in North America exceeds the combined production of all commercial general aviation companies.

Legal Mumbo-Jumbo

It’s possible (not likely) that I’m not as smart as I think I am. (Occasionally, I have moments when I know this to be true. Fortunately, the feeling passes quickly.) Although I have tried to make this information as accurate as I can, it is not only possible, but also quite likely, that erroneous and misguided information lurks within these pages. I cannot and do not warrant these pages to be error free and correct. Furthermore, I accept no liability for the use of this (mis)information. And, as many would say, your mileage may vary. If, after reading this, you are intent on proceeding, please be aware that the contents of this site are protected by copyright (copyright © 2011 and 2012). Nonetheless, you may copy this material subject to these two conditions: (1) any information used is for non-commercial purposes, and (2) the source of the material is properly credited. Of course, you may link to any page herein. At some articles, snippets of the plans from Vans are visible. These are for educational and illustrations purposes only and should never be used as plans for part construction or assembly as plans may have changed since the picture was taken and more important they are protected by Copyright by the Vans Aircraft Mothership company.