Yesterday I put out a posting on the OhioValleyRVAtors yahoo group trying to find a riveting buddy. I got a couple responses, and Dan Hempy was nice enough to come over. He's thinking of starting an RV7A this summer. Anytime I have a new riveting partner, we always do a few practice rivets first. It was obvious after the first rivet that Dan had a natural feel for riveting. He's gonna do a great job on his -7A when he gets going.

Dan and I worked for a couple hours and got the right leading edge ribs attached to the spar. Thanks, Dan! The best part is that he offered to come back to do more! :-)

After Dan went home, I decided to rivet the rear spar to the left wing. On all of the other ribs, I put the manufactured heads on the rib flange and the shop head was formed on the spar. However, for the outboard most rib this isn't possible. You have to use AN426 rivets here and the flush head has to go on the spar side to allow the outboard aileron bracket to lie flat. As you can see, the shop head puckered the rib flange.

Here's the left wing with the rear spar attached. Jim's supposed to come over tomorrow, so maybe we can get one of the skins on. That would be too sweet!