RV3 Project Progress and Plea for Help

You can see in the picture that some progress has been made. The airplane is on its gear and the vertical and horizontal stabilizers have been redrilled and temporarily bolted on to the fuselage. The windscreen and canopy are just sitting loosely on the fuselage. The elevators have been checked and will align with the hinges on the stabilizer. This was a minor concern since the elevators came from the original donated airplane and the stabilizer came from the parted out plane from Van’s. I have been in contact with Van’s Aircraft and I’ve been told they are planning to make us a “display cowling.” I have not heard of such an item before but I think it’s a lighter weight cowl that would not be suitable for a flyable aircraft. They tell me it will be easier to work with than the normal cowling but it sounds like we will be doing some fabrication work to put it on the airplane. Once the cowling is in place, we can work on a mounting solution for the propeller.

I have been a kit builder but not a restorer. The work that needs to be done at the present time involves the windscreen, canopy and horizontal stabilizer, wheel fairings and the tail fairing at the junction of the horizontal and vertical stabilizers. It involves some repair work as well as preparing these items to the primed stage ready for painting. I don’t have a background in this but I’m sure some of you do or could take on some work as a learning experience. Please contact me and let me know what you would be willing to do. So far, along with me there have been six other club members who have been involved with the project. I’d sure like to see several more pitch in and take on a task or two. If we can keep moving along I think we could possibly have this project out the door before the start of winter.

President Gary