David's RV-10 Build

Just another RV-10 builders log

Month: March 2014

Disassembly day

10) Tailcone
Comments

Today I started by finishing up some odds & ends prior to disassembly. I finished making the F1011D & F1012D angles.

F1011-D

F1011D Complete

After completing these parts, I matched drilled all the holes in the F1014 skin. Next I clamped the newly completely angles to the F1014 skin and began match drilling all the holes in them to the F1014 skin & longerons.

Next began the process of placing the rear passenger seat belt attachment anchors. This was pretty easy to accomplish.

Next the plan’s call for a line to be drawn on the triangle of the right side skin so that it could be cut off. This was quite nerve racking in its own right as I was worried about butchering the cut. I ended up using my snips and cutting piece by piece until I was really close, then finished it off with a grinding wheel.

Next after disassembling everything. Boy that was disappointing I tore off the blue plastic on the insides of all the skins and all of it on a bunch of pieces. I skipped ahead a few steps and drilled the 11/16″ hole for the rear tie down point. I also sanded, deburred, & dimpled 1 stiffener. I am thinking of deburring the pieces as they are called out to be assembled. This will break up the monotonous of scuffing, deburring & dimpling. I think this will only really work due to the fact I am using spray can primer.

Match Drilling

10) Tailcone
Comments

Today I finished up match drilling the skins. Nothing too exciting. I also began working on the F1011-D Attachment Bar Support Angle & the F1012-D Elevator Stop. By that I mean, I just cut the pieces and called it a night.

Wings Ordered!

Wings
Comments

Every year around this time Van’s announces a price increase. This year they announced it for any orders placed received on April 1st. So today I sent in my order form for my wing kit. It is expected to ship within 6-8 weeks of when they receive my order. So hopefully come June 1st I will be ready to tear into the wing kit. I elected to go with the standard build with aileron trim & the fuel senders. I decided to skip the light option as I want to go with a LED kit when the time comes.

Tailcone work

10) Tailcone
Comments

Today I finished drilling the left side longeron. After that I finished match drilling all the holes in the skin. This wasn’t as bad as it has been in the past as I already had drilled most of the holes in previous steps. After that I installed the remaining bulkhead & stiffeners and installed the top skins.

Tailcone buildout

10) Tailcone
Comments

I knocked out a whole lot today and when I began to think about what I did I thought I spent several days on this. I started out by making a jig to draw the centerline on the stiffeners.

Next after marking up the stiffeners, I bent the longerons per the plans, this was alot easier then I’ve read about. Maybe I just got lucky.

Next the plans call for some 38″ saw horses to hold the skin up. I elected to use my work benches and some stuff around the shop. I started by placing the bottom skin upside down between 2 tables and install 2 of the bulkheads and the stiffeners.

After drilling the stiffeners I flipped the tailcone over and began installing the aft most bulkheads and the a small skin.

Next was more stiffeners and the left side skin

my ugly mug in front of my hard work

Next I made sure that there was no twist in the tail cone by using a digital level

I did little bit more odds and ends, but nothing major. The biggest thing I can recall was installing the longerons but I did not go as far as drilling.

Tailcone Start!

10) Tailcone
Comments

I haven’t had much time to do much over the last 2 weeks. Between being busy at work or having a poor nights sleep I avoided working on the plane. I finally got started earlier this week though. I’m not going to go into every detail I did this week, but I’ll show some pretty pictures.

Rear tie down mounting point

The angle on this next bulkhead really caused me alot of grief. This is when I knew to stop and get some rest. I cut the angle with a 5/16″ angle from the angle portion to the flat portion inwards. I had my dad pick up some angle from fastenal but it turned out to the wrong type. Then I ventured a 30 minute drive to a metal retailer, found a piece, hopped in the truck and realized I did not screw the part up in the first place. That all I needed to do was finish machining it the proper way. Sleep is good!

bulkhead

rabble rouser aluminum angle

rear most bulkheads

Yesterday I nailed out a couple of pages. I grabbed all the rear bulk head pieces and began stripping the plastic off of them. Then began deburring the edges. After what seemed like forever I cleco’d them together and matched drilled them.

foremost bulkhead

After this was accomplished I began working on the stiffeners. If you have 0 patience, you should probably abort this project now. Cutting to length wasn’t so bad, but the deburring aspect was. I finally got to use my disc sander for some real fabrication work on this though. I set my guide to 45* and ground down the edges to make the angles called out in the plans. I called it a night here as the plans call for a center line down the length of each stiffener

stiffeners

 

Elevators Complete!

09) Elevators
Comments

Im writing this about a week after I finished the elevators. I was so excited I completely forgot to do it.

The first thing I did was rivet all of the trailing edges on the elevators.

Next thing I did was roll the leading edges. I hate doing this and I always think the seam line looks terrible. I had the same issue with the rudder. This is one thing I am sure by the time the project is over with will be redone.

After that I began to cut the lead for the counter balance weight. a Kneemill would of been great for this.

Next was the fun part of attaching the trim tabs to the elevators. For some reason I enjoyed this part. After having difficulties getting one of the pins in, i decided to use some graphite I had and coated the 2nd pin. Went in nice and smooth. I will have to redo the other hinge pin with graphite later.

Elevators

09) Elevators
Comments

Today I did a pretty poor job taking pictures. I started off by making the jigs for the elevators. After that I just rolled through the steps. Once I got to the part that required proseal I mixed up what I had left from the rudder. Turns out I had far less than what I thought I had. I had enough for all the foam ribs but I was scraping for the trailing edge pieces in the elevators. I was able to get a bunch on but missed a few spots here and there. I don’t think this will be an issue once I get the rivets in place.  I don’t like how one of the trim tabs came out and I will probably reorder those pieces when I order the wing kit. Once I was done prosealing, I did a few rivets here and there in the elevator skins where called out. I’ll let this sit for a bit to cure and hope to do more on sunday.

Marathon Sunday Pt 2

09) Elevators
Comments

After eating a hearty sunday dinner. I came back to the shop. I grabbed a can of spray glue that I asked my dad to pick up while he was at home depot, and glued the foam blocks. I figured I had a little while to do these and might as well let them dry good.

Next I began by riveting the two skins together for each half. This is where my airplane almost went for its first flight. Right after I got done riveting, I realized one elevator had 2 trim access ports on it. This is what I get for being distracted by my brother and his friend. I spent about 2 hours drilling out all the rivets and re-riveting the skins the proper way. I think the plans make riveting the 2nd skin appear to be far harder then it is. My tool kit came with the special bucking bar for the RV10 and it was quite easy to do.

I finished the night off by riveting the front spar assembly into each elevator.

David's RV-10 Build © 2015