David's RV-10 Build

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.

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.

The first thing I did this morning was to prime the skins. I didn’t have room on the cardboard last night so I decided to wait till today. I used some rivet tape to make my lines to cover the proseal area from the primer.  After priming, I riveted the trim cover reenforcement plate to the skins. I put the nut plates on last night but I believe I forgot to document that.

Next involved back riveting the rib halves to the skin not too much excitement here.

Next I followed it up with riveting of the rear spar to the skin with the larger of the 2 rib halves. I also installed the shear clips and gussets at the same time.

Right around this time I ran home for dinner.

Today I began by finishing any dimpling & coutersinking that I had to do.  That really didn’t take as long as I had thought it would. Next  I grabbed the skins and began to mark where the PVC foam blocks would go. After marking the areas with a sharpie I grabbed my die grinder and a scotch brite wheel and made a rough pass with it to give the proseal a place to stick.

Now that that was complete, I began cleaning and rinsing every.. single.. piece… I elected to break this up into 2 sections. I did all the “small” pieces first. After they were final rinsed from the acid etch and dried. I began priming them. While those parts were drying I started working on the spars & skins.  Due to their size, I used the office shower to clean those up. For the spars & skins I decided to try skipping the acid etch step as more and more people are saying it is a waste with self etching primer. I may keep at it for the small stuff though. After the spars & small parts dried I began some assembly.

I riveted the tip rib assemblies, as well as the reinforcement plates & nut plates on the front spars. I finished off the night with riveting the Root ribs, Spars, and elevator horns together.

I love when I get to put the hardware in. I always feel like I just accomplished something major. Even if its something as small as a bushing.

On thursday my new rear spar came in and I quickly got to work drilling, dimpling and counter sinking it. I got tired of counter sinking about halfway through one of the trailing edges so I called it a day.

Today I finished off the skins for the most part (still need to hit the tabs). I also began dimpling the elevator ribs. Corey created some rivet lines for me on the skins and we called it a day.

I arrived at my shop around 9 or 10 am and began quite literally a marathon session. I finished all the match drilling to this point. Worked on the trim cable access plates. and then began deburring and sanding. Good thing I had a computer with speakers as doing this without the ability to watch movies would be dreadful. After sanding I dimpled 2 skins, the trim cover doubler, & trim plate.

Nothing too exciting today. Matched drill one elevator and called it a day.

Today I really kicked the crap out of the elevator section. I started by by cleaning up the ribs that I cut earlier. I also deburred all the edges of every part I had out. That took quite a while and was quite relieved when I finished that. Next the plans have you assemble all the elevator ribs and mark them as parts of sets. After that its time to cut the shear clips. They were quite easy to cut and fabricate.

All the elevator ribs cleco’d together

Next I had to take the blue plastic off of one side of the skins. I managed to find one of my heat guns and this will by far make this task so much easier. The plans call for you to bend some tabs up on each skin. I grabbed a piece of aluminum that I had laying around to give me a nice flat surface to bend against.

Skins laid out

tab bent up

Next began the process of creating the elevator itself. I had to match drill some stiffeners to the spars, as well as dedicate a #30 hole and make it a 5/8″ hole for the trim cables. Next after clecoing the front spar to the lower skin I began to attach the ribs as well as the rear spar. This was followed up with match drilling all the holes as they lined up.

Next I set and match drilled the trim access cover reinforcement plates. I used a sharpie to identify which holes I wanted to match drill

Next the plans call for you to install the outside ribs and various other bits and pieces. Getting the outside ribs on can be tricky if you are not paying attention. A lot of stuff going on in that one area that things can get caught on.

After that I placed the top skin on and made sure it was cleco’d well. With everything firmly in place I grabbed the trailing edge piece and cleco’d it into place. Once that was set I marked the edges on each end and moved it to the other elevator and repeated. Once I had my cut marks done I cut the trailing edge into 2 pieces. Next was onto the shear clips I cut earlier. Those were lined up on the rear spar and appear to strengthen the aft most part of the elevators. I finished the day by mounting the elevator horns and match drilling with a #30 drill bit.