Roee Kalinsky's RV-7A Project

Background: Rather than have the kit crated and freighted down to San Diego, I elected to pick it up at Van's and drive it down myself in a U-Haul truck.  While less common, this IS one of the Van's preferred methods of kit delivery and they claim hundreds have been delivered this way.  After speaking with a few builders who have chosen this route, I gained confidence that this is a good way to go. 

Saving money is NOT one of the reasons for doing so.  In fact, this may be the more expensive of the two options overall, especially when you factor in missing two days of work.  Also contrary to popular notion, I chose this option because for me it was logistically easier.  The key difference being that with the U-Haul option, crating is not necessary.  Arriving home, it's easy for two or three guys to unload everything in a couple of hours.  The biggest/heaviest single item is the fuselage, which is about 16 ft long and about 200 lbs.  No problem.  Compare that to a 19 x 5 x 5 ft fuselage crate weighing 900 lbs.  Getting that crate off a truck -- parked along my sloping narrow driveway -- and maneuvering it into my 2-car garage would be an interesting endeavor, with or without a forklift.

About the truck: Per Van's, the necessary equipment is a U-Haul 24' or 26' truck.  Both flavors of truck do have wheel wells that protrude into the cargo area, but this is not a problem with an un-crated kit.  The fuselage fits between the wheel wells, and the wings fit forward of the wheel wells.  U-Haul no longer distinguishes between the 24' and 26' trucks as far as reservations go.  You get whichever is available, and apparently there are far fewer of the 26' trucks around.  Still, it's worth requesting the 26' truck if available, as it supposedly gets significantly better gas mileage.  Gas, by the way, was the largest expenditure of this trip (not counting the kit itself of course), coming in at $415.  Also needed are 30 or so furniture pads which can be rented from U-Haul for $10/dozen, and 50' of nylon rope which can be purchased from U-Haul for $2.99.  I also bought a padlock for the truck.  That's it.

2005.04.14:

06:20 My friends Vay and Chris arrived at my house.  The trek to Van's begins with a ride to the airport -- thanks Vay!

07:40 Southwest flight 544 departed San Diego, California bound for Portland, Oregon.  During the flight, Chris took some very nice pictures of Mt. Shasta, while I caught up on some sleep.

11:00 We arrived in Portland more or less on time.  Now the real race begins.  I was told by Van's that to load up the kit I have to arrive at their facility no later than 13:00, as the loading crew leaves around 14:30.  So off we go.  After a short taxi ride we arrived at Fort Knox Storage Center where our U-Haul truck should be waiting.  Upon arrival we were informed that the truck was taken away for repairs and another one will be arriving from another location around 14:00.  Exploring our options, we decided to go to the other location ourselves and pick up the other truck.

12:00 After another taxi ride we arrived at the second U-Haul location, where a truck was indeed waiting.  We promptly finished the paperwork and hit the road.  With a variety of sounds and smells, It became immediately clear that this truck will give us a precarious journey.

13:04 We arrived at Van's Aircraft on the eastern end of the Aurora Airport.

Barbara greeted us at the lobby.  We were a few minutes late but still ok, just in time.  We promptly parked the truck in front of the hangar, which contained a few of Van's demonstrator airplanes (the rest were at Sun 'n Fun) and my shiny new QuickBuild kit.

While the shipping crew started loading up the truck, we got a factory tour with Ken Scott.  It was great seeing where RV's are born.  There was also a family there for the tour who were interested in building an RV-10.  Both RV-10's unfortunately were at Sun 'n Fun.

As promised, in just over an hour Van's shipping crew had everything loaded and expertly secured in the truck.  We were ready to go.

16:00 After a quick lunch nearby, we hit the highway.  No need for a map -- interstate 5 for about 1100 miles down to San Diego.

For the first few hundred miles the truck ran like crap and gulped fuel at about 4 to 5 mpg.  It sounded like it probably wasn't firing on all cylinders and I had serious doubts that it would survive the trip.  But we pressed on.

Later at night it seemed to run better, and the gas mileage also improved slightly.  We theorized that the improvement could have been attributed to 1. the colder night air alleviating an overly rich mixture, 2. better (maybe less contaminated) fuel, 3. cleaning out the engine by virtue of the freeway driving, or 4. Chris's magical driving ability.  We may never know.  We drove on through the beautiful scenery of Oregon and northern California.  Among the most impressive was another view, this time moon-lit, of Mt. Shasta.  Sorry, no photos.

2005.04.15:

00:00 We arrived at a truck stop in Redding, California to get some food and gas (the food was for us, the gas was for the truck).  Our original plan was to spend the night at my friend Annie's place in Davis, which was approximately at the half way point of our drive.  But from Redding that was still about four hours away at our current pace.  I called Annie to let her know we probably wouldn't make it.  Back on the road again.  Driving and sleeping in shifts, we pushed on through the night.  We passed through Sacramento (Davis area) around 04:00 and kept on going.

09:00 With California's Central Valley now behind us, we made one last fuel stop at the foot of the Grapevine.  Climbing the Grapevine, the truck did surprisingly well.  We were soon on the other side, sitting in the ever-present traffic jam of Los Angeles, breathing the foul air.

12:00 The roads were clear on the segment from Orange County down to San Diego, but the truck was again sounding like it might just croak.  But it didn't, so I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky.

13:30 We made it.  Parked the truck at my house and went to Rubio's for some lunch.  (Mmm... tacos ... we had nothing but Cliff Bars for the last few hundred miles).

14:00 Chris and I began to unload the truck, starting with all the miscellaneous parts that have been stuffed into the cockpit area of the fuselage.  A short time later Vay came over, and the three of us easily maneuvered the now empty fuselage off the truck and into the garage.  We unloaded some more parts that were sitting under the aft fuselage, and now all that remained were the wings.  As I didn't have the  wing cradle yet from Reuven and Larry, I decided to just leave the wings in the truck.

18 Not yet flying, but an exhausted RV grin times three!  Thanks guys for all the help!

2005.04.16:

09:00 Since we made it back to town earlier than expected, I was able to come over to Reuven and Larry's hangar on Saturday and give them a hand with the final mounting of their wings.  In short order we had both wings on the airplane with the close tolerance bolts through the center section and spars.  We then spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon torqueing them down, which proved to be challenging due to interference with the main gear weldments.  Reuven and Larry generously gave me their wing cradle, and I headed back to my own "hangar".

19:00 Chris came over and helped me unload the wings off the truck.  The complete QuickBuild kit is now home and waiting to be inventoried.

2005.04.22: (4.0) After a busy week at work I finally got to start the process of inventorying the kit.  I put up some new shelving where the many miscellaneous parts will be stored.

Making efficient use of space is always beneficial, but it becomes crucial when your hangar is a townhouse.  I still need to build yet additional shelving where I'll store the control surfaces, wing tips, etc. that are currently residing in what used to be my guest bedroom.

2005.04.30: (4.0) Finished inventorying the kit against the main packing list.  Found no discrepancies, but did find two parts that are defective and will be returned to Van's.  Also, I plan to return the fuel valve to Van's for credit, as I intend to use an Andair fuel valve.  Inventory work still remaining with the contents of all those little brown paper bags.

2005.05.03: (4.0) Got started inventorying and sorting parts from the brown paper bags.  Why Van's does it this way is beyond me.  Throw a bunch of different little parts into the same bag, just so the builder will have to hand sort them again...  Anyway.  I'm about half way done, and so far have found two bags that contained the wrong size rivets.  Glad I checked before mixing them in with the bins of rivets I already have.

2005.05.04: (4.0) Finished inventorying and sorting the parts from the brown paper bags.  A few more minor discrepancies.

2005.05.04: (2.0) Inventory complete.  Called Van's about the few inventory discrepancies and defective/damaged items.  Sent the return parts back to Van's via UPS.  Also talked with Scott Risan about two defects that I noted on the fuselage and left wing.  My inspection of the fuselage and wings is far from complete at this point, but these are just things I noticed as they're easily visible and in structurally important areas.

1. Firewall dent: The firewall is slightly indented out (i.e. forward) at the union of the F-719-L forward skin stiffener, F-601B-L firewall stiffener, and F-719B-L angle clip. This area is shown on DWG 23 detail B and C.  I'm not certain whether the dent was caused by tool (bucking bar or squeezer) damage, or whether the firewall was force-fit onto a F-179B-L angle clip that's slightly misshaped or misplaced.  My concern is that if it's the latter there might be added stresses on the region.  Nothing to worry about according to Scott Risan.  Still, I'll give this area further attention when I remove the pop rivets that are currently holding the forward skin to the firewall.  Currently it's impossible to get a good view from the cockpit side, even with an inspection mirror.


2. Spar scratch: There's a small scratch on the aft side of the main spar of the left wing at the root end.  It has the appearance of untreated aluminum, meaning it occurred after the spar was anodized.  Scott Risan advised that I smooth it down if I deem it necessary, and then prime the area to protect from corrosion.  Will do.  Also, notice what look like scuff marks nearby, but that have been anodized over.  I've heard countless other builders fret over these, but apparently it's fine and normal according to Van's, as Scott Risan confirmed.  Another surprise was that identification markings were engraved into the spar using a vibrating pencil or other similar device.  These also were anodized over, and are no cause for concern according to Scott R.  Perhaps after too many words of caution, us RV builders have become too phobic about any "scratch" in the aluminum.  Still, never hurts to ask, especially when it comes to wing spars.


Removed the forward seat floors and the plywood "wing spar" stubs that were bolted into the fuselage center section for shipping.

Cleaned off the oily coating on the flaps and ailerons so they can temporarily be stored in an upstairs bedroom and not ruin the carpet.

2005.07.07: (40.0) Spent the past two months thoroughly inspecting the wings and fuse by going through the "slow build" manual step by step and checking the work.  Overall, the quality of the work is satisfactory, but I did find a few defects that will need to be corrected: