New Shop Layout and Tailcone Attach

I had what was described as an ADD Saturday. I pilot friend of mine had free tickets to the Memphis Speedway, I've never been to anything like that before so we decided to fly to Memphis for a few hours to watch the races. The costs would be split 3 ways since we would be bringing a passenger with us as well. So, a cheap flight and free tickets, sounds like a great plan.

Saturday morning brought some large storms over the Memphis area cancelling our plans. So plan B; we'll fly East instead to Chattanooga for the day and do some zip-lining, sounds like a great plan.

The storms are moving East and looks like by the time we tried to head back we would probably be stuck in Chattanooga. So Plan C; we'll fly around town and just shoot some approaches and get lunch.

Weather briefer states the storms will be in our area within 30 minutes, ok no flying today. So plan C; with nothing to do for the day the guys decided to help me rearrange my shop moving the wings to the loft and shifting the large work table to the side so I could position the airplane in the center.

So after a day of bouncing from one idea to another it turned out to be a very productive afternoon. All the finished parts: wings, ailerons, flaps, vertical stabilizer, rudder, elevators, horizontal stabilizer are all stored in the loft. All the piece parts have been moved down and on the shelves for easy access. And the entire shop rearranged to make room for what was about to become something that resembles an airplane.

The next day I called a good friend of mine to stop by for a few hours and help me finish riveting the aft skin of the tailcone. Being the lightweight of the two of us I laid down some blankets and crawled into the tailcone. I good day to be a smaller guy, but still very tight and uncomfortable. We finished the skin and started lining up the two parts, tailcone and fuselage, for what I hope will become a very long relationship between the two. It was pretty easy and went a lot faster than I thought it would. I then swept up the shop, sat down, and just stared at it for a while....awesome.

Total time over the weekend - 6hrs

(including moving airplane parts, riveting the tailcone, and clecoing the tailcone to the fuselage,

not counting sweeping the shop and moving tools)

 

 

 

The shop's new layout.

Completed Structure Overview (626hrs)

Time for an update to the big picture. I'm leaving the Fuel Tanks as "in work" until they get tested, so those are still highlighted red. And I'm starting on the ailerons tomorrow, so I went ahead and highlighted those as "in work" as well.

626 hrs Total Time Building
185.5 hrs of the total belong to the Wings (includes tank time)
75.25 hrs solely to the Fuel Tanks
440.5 hrs is a mixture of tail and fuselage, both still have work to be done on them

 

As always blue is completed and red is in work.



One Year of Building an RV-10

Saturday March 23rd 2013 marked the 1st year anniversary of starting the RV-10. A year ago I unpacked my tail and fuselage kits (I ordered them together to save on shipping). I must say it feels as if the year has gone by very quickly. Although, at times, I feel that I will never get this project completed. It helps to look through my building log (this very one) and see just how far I have come in one year. I look back a month or two ago and realize how much I have accomplished in that time. Small bits of encouragement and excitement happen periodically as well as the discouragements. Brush off any of the discouragement and go back to building. Soon the time will come when the wings will be complete and moved up to the loft of the workshop and then the tail will go on the fuselage, that day will be a great feeling. The shop will be reorganized and something that really resembles an airplane will be sitting in the middle of the shop.....see I'm excited again!

2012
March 23rd   - Started building my RV-10
April 8th       - Finished Vertical Stabilizer
April 9th       - 51.75 hrs
April 15th     - Finished Rudder
April 16th     - 61.0 hrs
May 13th      - Finished Horizontal Stabilizer
May 14th      - 127.5 hrs
June 10th      - Finished Elevators
June 12th      - 166.0 hrs
July 5th        - 175 hrs
July 12th      - 29th Birthday
July 15th      - Started Fuselage Section
July 2nd       - Fuselage Bulkheads Completed
Aug 15th      - 218.5 hrs
Sept 13th      - Tailcone Completed
Sept 18th      - Lower Fuselage Completed
Sept 19th      - 286.0 hrs
Oct 1st          - Ordered Wing Kit
Oct 8th          - Firewall Complete
Oct 31st        - Lower Fuselage Complete
Dec 2nd        - Fuselage Side Skins Complete
Dec 3rd         - 440.5 hrs
Dec 4th         - Wing Kit Arrival
Dec 5th         - Started Wings
Dec 9th        - Wing Spars Complete
Dec 17th      - Wing Ribs Complete
Dec 21st      - Ayla was born.
2013
Jan 3rd        - Aft Spar Complete
Feb 11th     - Otbd Leading Edges Complete
Feb 11th     - 534.25 hrs
Feb 18th     - LH Wing Top Skin Complete
Feb 25th     - Started Fuel Tanks
Feb 25th     - 546.75 hrs
Mach 25th  -587.25 hrs

Stats As of March 25th 2013
587.25 hrs total

146.75hrs of the total belong to the wings (includes tank time)
43hrs solely to the fuel tanks
440.5hrs is a mixture of tail and fuselage both still have work to be done on them.
About 49 hrs per month, 11.3 hrs per week

As always blue is completed and red is in work.

The following are pictures of all the parts I have completed in one year or are still in work. A tour around the shop!

Fuselage on top of stand. Taicone stored on top of fuselage. LH Fuel tank stored under fuselage. Bottom wing skins on LH side of picture in storage.

RH Fuel tank in work.

LH Wing waiting to moved to stand after RH wing top skin is finished being riveted.

RH wing on stand waiting to finish riveting. Notice harware bins to left side of picture, very handy.

Vertical Stabilizer, Rudder, Elevators in storage. Hardware bags and lists layed out on top for convenience. Stairs to loft on right side of pic.

Horizontal Stabilizer stored on loft. Canopy stored up on the loft waiting to be used, along with many other piece parts.

Panoramic view (makes it look huge) showing the crowded workshop. When the wings are completed they will be moved to the loft and the shop will be rearranged to gain a lot more space.

A normal picture just to put the scale of the shop in perspective.

My other joy that arrived in Dec of 2012. She is now 3 months old and a tiny 10lbs.

Fuselage Complete

Complete might be a bit of an exaggeration. The side skins are on, finally, and all the sheet metal work is complete. I'm calling it complete though because this is as far as I want to go before starting in the wings. The next steps involve attaching the tail which would make storing the parts difficult as the aircraft would instantly grow to 19 feet or so. For now it's "complete".

I haven't posted in a while since I have been very busy with the airplane and getting ready for the baby. I even refinished a rocker for her room upholstery and all. Also, the steps I completed each day seemed so small: deburr, dimple, rivet, repeat. So instead of boring everyone with a tiny post of riveting a row here, wrestling with the landing gear there, I decided to wait until I had some real progress to write about.

So here is the catching up:
I pro sealed between the skins and firewall. Riveting the skins felt like it took forever. Every night I would knock out a couple more rows. Some of the rivets were very difficult to get access to requiring a new bucking bar to be made. At one point 5 rivets took about 3hrs, frustrating. Over the Thanksgiving holiday my in-laws visited and my father-in-law was great help with the rivets I couldn't buck by myself. I installed soundproofing in the cockpit floor and then the floor panels get installed permanently with blind rivets. The soundproofing is 1/2" thick rubbery feeling foam and cuts best with just scissors. I ordered it from aircraft spruce in an 8ft roll. The landing gear was then installed with a lot of grunting and a little cussing. Some of the bolts were persuaded with a hammer but then they all agreed to be installed. I had to use some child labor from the 10 year old boy across the street to reach with his skinny arms in-between the fuselage bulkheads to start the nuts on some of the bolts. I then rigged up a new tool to reach the nuts. It's just a 3/8" ratcheting wrench with a piece of aluminum riveted to it to extend the handle. After it was all finished up I put a board across the front of the fuselage and the wife and I lifted the tailcone to rest on top of the fuselage. So the whole thing can now be rolled out of the way for the wings.

Date Time
13 1.5 riveted skin, difficult rivets
16 2.5 deburr, dimple skins
17 6.0 finish dimpling, start riveting
19 2.0 riveting skins
20 2.5 Proseal, rivet skins
24 2.5 riveted side skins with father in law
25 4.5 riveted side skins with father in law
27 1.75 riveted side skins
28 1.5 riveted skins
29 2.0 riveted skins
30 6.0 riveted skins, installed LH floor panel with soundproofing
December
1 3.0 installed landing gear bracket LH, floor panel RH
2 3.75 installed landing gear bracket RH, finished a few other steps