October 25, 2026 - Hanging Wings on Mike's Rocket
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| Long-time friend and fellow RV-builder Mike R. asked me to come over to Montgomery County Airport and help him mount the wings on his Harmon Rocket project. This is the first time I've seen it. |
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Wings are ready to go.
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| Except for some wire bundling and attaching the exhaust pipes, the six-banger is ready to go. |
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The panel is redy to go too.
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| Mike, his airport friend Andy, and myself managed to get the left wing without too much trouble. Nothing is ever easy doing this sort of thing, of course. |
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| Left wing on! |
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| We're just using drift pins at this point. The close-tolerance bolts won't go in until the permanent wing installation. |
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The right wing went on reasonably well also.
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| The Rocket looks great with wings attached. |
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We broke out the digital level, tape measure and plumb bobs and made sure the Rocket wings were straight and true. After some minor adjustments, Mike is drilling the all important bolt hold in the rear spar.
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| Now Mike is match-drilling holes the fuselage bottom skin and wing bottom skin. |
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| Mike and I built our RV-7s about the same time 20 years ago. But Mike is a "repeat-offender", having built an RV-8 and upgraded an RV-4 and RV-8 since building his original RV-7A. |
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| Andy checks Mike's work. |
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| Andy restored and flies this beautiful Cessna 185. |
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| I flew in a 185 on a flightseeing trip around Mount Denalis up in Alaska. It was a working bush plane and wasn't a show plane like this. |
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| Where'd the wings go?! We had to take them off so a bunch of little tasks could be completed. Here Mike works on flaring the main fuel line that goes to the right wing fuel tank. |
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| Main fuel line and fuel vent line are done on the right side. You can see the hole drilled in the right rear spar tabs. |
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MIke dimples the fuselage bottom skin. He'll have to install nutplates on the wing bottom skins.
We ended up putting in a full day but got a lot done. This plane will be flying in less than a year from now I predict. With that powerful engine, it will truly be a Rocket!
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