Final Assembly

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On this "Final Assembly" page I will be covering installing some of the parts that have been pre-fitted during other phases of the construction. I will also be installing some things that did not require any pre-work. At the same time I am working on this phase of the project I will also be completing painting the wings and all the trim pieces so keep please visit the Painting Page also.

Click on Pictures to enlarge!

04-06-02 This is a picture of the seats for the S7. I have been putting off assembling these for fear I would spend too much time setting in the fuselage making airplane noises and never get this thing done. The seats have aluminum frames and separate back seat cover and bottom seat covers. You use zip ties to pull the covers up tight.

Well, you didn't think I could wait forever did You!!!! Zoom....Zoom!!

In the excitement of getting everything installed I forgot to take pictures during the process. What I am doing here is installing all the flight control systems.

04-12-02 This shows the control stick in the front cockpit which I had chrome planted. The wood floor boards were stained and finished in a high gloss. For the foot wear pads under the rudder peddles I use a non-skid aluminum that you see a lot on tool boxes in the back of trucks. The rudder peddles and most of the other controls and push pull tubes were sent off and powder coated in a high gloss black.

This is the throttle assembly for the front cockpit. I spent a lot of time polishing the aluminum to make it smooth and shine to match the chrome control sticks. The assembly is not complete in this picture because I will not run the cables till I install the engine.

This is a picture of the Seat installed without me setting in it!!

04-21-02 This picture shows the rudder temporally mounted so I could line up the "N" numbers. The N364TB is vinyl and looks much better than the ones I tried to paint on! Check out the painting page to see how I painted the stripes on the rudder.

The Rans S7 uses a heater that brings fresh air from outside the cowling and sends it to a muffler wrap chamber around the muffler where it is heated up. It then goes to a gate valve that either sends it to the cockpit, or sends it overboard if no heat is needed. You can turn the heat off or on from the cockpit with a push-pull cable. This pictures shows most of the parts needed to build the heater. You can see the muffler, aluminum wrap, stand-offs, insulation rope, and heater hose inlets and outlets.

This picture shows the general location of each of the parts.

To start with I wrapped the stand-offs around the muffler and safety wired them to hold them in place.

Next I safety wired the insulation rope to the stand-offs in three or four places around the muffler.

As you can see this holds everything in place while you try and get the aluminum wrap material in place.

After the aluminum wrap was in place I used clamps to hold everything together while I drilled the needed holes. The clamps pulled the wrap down tight against the stand-offs and insulation ropes.

Next you have to drill several number 30 holes through the aluminum wrap and into the tops of the stand-offs where later you will rivet them together. You do the same thing across the wrap to connect the two ends of the wrap together. After all the holes are drilled you take it almost all the way apart and add insulation rope around the hole in the wrap where the exhaust pipe comes out of the muffler. It's not easy getting everything back in alignment but the large clamps help. You then rivet the aluminum wrap and rivet the heater hose inlets and outlets.

This is the finished product, ready to install and add the heater hoses. This took two or three hours to figure out how best to do it and then get it done.

09-02 This picture shows how close a fit it is when the muffler with heater is installed. I was having trouble getting clearance for the water pump. A call to Rans instructed me to take a hammer and dent in the heater for the needed clearance. Here I was so careful not the scratch the aluminum when building the heater and then had to take a hammer to it!!

This shows the other side of the installation. The red hoses are for the fresh air coming from the front of the cowling and the heated air going into the cockpit. If the heater is turned off the hot air is dumped overboard at the bottom of the cowling.

11-24-02 I decided to buy vinyl numbers or the sides of the aircraft. I went to Signs Etc. in Knoxville and ordered 3M heavy duty vinyl that is guaranteed for 8 years. I figure since my aircraft will be hangared it should last even longer. This picture shows Glenda from Signs Etc installing the numbers. I chose 318 for our March 18, which is when we go married.

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11-25-02 These pictures show the final assembly of the doors. The holes in the lexan are over drilled to allow room for the rivets to expand when squeezed. This helps prevent cracks from forming in the lexan.

Dec 2002 The instrument panel is just a blank piece of aluminum when you start. You have to decide what all you are going to put in the panel in the way of instruments, radios, switches and circuit breakers etc. Each builder has his or her own preferences on what they want to put in their project. After you decide what you want, you have to come up with a loyout of where to put everything and then drill our cut out all the holes. Pic #1 shows my panel after all the holes have been cut. Pic #2 shows the back of the panel while trial fitting some of the instruments. Next comes the good part! In Pic #3 I have completed all the wiring I can do with the instrument panel on the work bench and must now complete the rest of the wiring while the panel is in the airplane. You can see we are talking about a LOT of wire! Pic #4 shows the completed panel in place and Pic #5 is of the engine instruments and the three knobs that are used for cabin heat, the choke and the parking break. I have one space left for a G-Meter if I ever decide to get one and then I have no more space on the panel. I am very pleased with how it all turned out.

I have already test ran the engine and all the instruments seem to work good. Now it's time to install the windshield for the last time! The picture on above shows the windshield laying in place. The picture on the right shows everything in place being held with clecos and ready to rivet in place.

I have installed Vortex Generators(VGs) on the wings to help the airplane stall at a slower speed. These pictures show the template used to install the VGs at a 15 degree angle to the leading edge of the wing. You glue 50 VGs per wing in a straight line down the wing. You can find out more about these VGs at

12-29-02
Well, as you can see in the photos above N364TB made its 25 mile journey to its new home at the SkyRanch. The loading was nerve racking but everything went great. I only had time to get the wings on. Will have to do the flaps and ailerons later but it sure is nice to see the wings on and get a better idea of what the paint scheme looks like. I still have a lot to do but at least this part was a success.