24/02/2017 Drilling lighting holes in F-7101 - 1h

I saw on Dan Checkoway's site that he cut some lightning holes in the F-7101 gear attach brackets.

As I am building an RV-7 and it's an opportunity for saving some ounces left and right, this seemed like a good idea. This part doesn't have that much structural function as for an A model where it is a reinforcement for the landing gear mount.

To make sure, I cross checked with the mother ship and Sterling confirmed that a lightning hole is allowed in that location as long as it wasn't larger than the picture I sent him from Dan's site.

In the end, I decided to cut one 2.5" hole near the F-902 bulkhead.

Dan also enlarged the fuel hole opening to about 2" but I decided to leave that unchanged and just leave the hole large enough for the rubber grommet.

Clamped the part under the bench drill and located the centerpoint that would leave nice distance from all sides and drilled a pilot hole for the fly cutter center drill.

 Then used the fly cutter to cut the holes, deburred and sanded them for a smooth finish.


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