About
Build log for an RV-10

By
Jae Chang
web@jline.com

Contents (Index)
These are links to the major kits for the project.

Section 11: Empennage Attach

I decided to take a break from working on the doors by starting on the empennage attach. I got as far as temporarily laying the horizontal stabilizer and vertical stabilizer on the tail cone, just to see what it looks like. I also took plenty of pictures.

I think i want to do the actual work some time later, when i can take over the entire garage for at least a month or so. In addition to the empennage attach, i can also work on the fairing tips and such.

posted at: 19:51 | path: /aviation/build/airframe/tail/sec11 | permanent link to this entry | add a comment

Section 45: Cabin Doors and Transparencies (5 hours)

I started the "final" fitting of the doors. This involved basically drawing a line around the entire door about 1/16th to 1/8th inch in to just trim off slight bits.

The main problem is that you do not know how much to trim, until you have trimmed too far. Thus, i figured it is better to take off small increments than to try to do it all at once.

I reached a point where the door edge no longer was the binding point. The door frame now needed trimming because it was touching the inside door shell. Thus, I shifted to drawing lines on the door frame for sanding down, to approx. a 1/8th gap.

The pictures below show my favorite tool and the most used, besides the drill. I have been able to cut almost anything and now i am sanding using the same tool. I have the craftsman clone of the rotozip, but i may buy a rotozip to have a spare around. That way I do not have to swap out tool heads as much.

posted at: 10:12 | path: /aviation/build/airframe/finishing/sec45 | permanent link to this entry | add a comment

Section 45: Cabin Doors and Transparencies (5 hours)

Glued up the pilot side door. Because the door fit worse than the right door, I used about 13 fl oz of the epoxy/cabosil mix instead of 10 last time. Hopefully, the excess will be put to good use to fill in all the gaps.

I continued to trim the right door bit by bit. The fit is definitely getting closer. I decided to stop here and think a bit more about how i want the final fit to work out.

posted at: 19:03 | path: /aviation/build/airframe/finishing/sec45 | permanent link to this entry | add a comment

SB 08-6-1: F-1010 Bulkhead Reinforcement (8 hours)

Van's service bulletin announcement can be downloaded here: sb08-6-1.pdf

It took roughly 8 hours to complete. There were quite a few rivets to remove. The trickiest part is just making sure to cleanly remove the rivets without "overly" oversizing the hole. I used a mirror, a light in the tail cone, and plenty of patience, were on order for the day.

posted at: 19:25 | path: /aviation/build/airframe/sb/sb_08-6-1 | permanent link to this entry | add a comment

SB 08-6-01

SB 08-6-01 Photos

posted at: 19:22 | path: /aviation/build/airframe/sb/sb_08-6-1/photos | permanent link to this entry | add a comment

Section 45: Cabin Doors and Transparencies

For some reason, my pilot's side door is a lighter shade of pink than the passenger side door. The passenger door is in much better shape. The flanges on the pilot's door have holes and divots and does not maintain a clean line. The passenger door is much much better in this respect.

Also, in this first picture, you can see that the outer shell had its tab completely cut off. The tab is in absolutely the wrong location!

posted at: 12:43 | path: /aviation/build/airframe/finishing/sec45 | permanent link to this entry | add a comment

Broken Hand

Well, this is my first post in probably 5 months. unbelievable. however, on May 20th, i broke the 4th metacarpal bone in my hand while windsurfing - a spiral fracture into 4 pieces.. i had surgery a week later. instead of putting hardware on my plane, i am having hardware put into my hand - 2 screws and a plate.

as best as i can tell, i just crashed into water and just held onto the boom too tight. break wasn't caused by an impact on the hand.

thus, now, i am enduring physical therapy to get utility from my hand again, instead of being just a hook. it looks like the airplane will continue to wait longer.

posted at: 01:40 | path: /aviation/build/airframe/fuselage | permanent link to this entry | add a comment

Match: #11 Message: #9098 Date: Mar 10, 1996 From: "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" <72770.552(at)compuserve.com> Subject: Re: Ground Bus and Other Grounding Issues

>An excellent source for a ground bus is B&C Specialty Products (316)283-8000. >They have one that uses PIDG spade terminal connections. >Stan Blanton >RV-6 Fuselage skeleton While the topic of grounding is up . . . I thought I would share some words with RV-LIST which are currently being incorporated into the 6th edition of the 'Connection. Some salient points to ponder . . .

1. The most important wire in your airplane runs from battery (-) to crankcase. In all but rotax powered airplanes this should be a 2AWG (oh well, you RVers with 12" ground leads can get by with a 4AWG . . . BUT NO SMALLER. There are a number of reasons for this which I won't elaborate on here . . . you'll have to get details by reading the book!

2. The next wire to go in runs from crankcase to firewall. This wire is alternator and/or systems load sized, 4AWG for 60 amp alternators, 6 AWG for 40 amp machines.

3. If your airplane is tractor type, the next items to install are B&C ground buses on both sides of firewall. A 48-pin device on cabin side, a 24-pin device on firewall side. Both them back to back with 5/16" BRASS hardware. The firewall to crankcase lead should go to the 5/16" thru-stud. Install the stud with just ground busses and locktite under the first nut. Put the firewall to crankcase jumper under a second nut with an internal tooth lockwasher.

4. Now, if you're building an RV, your ground SYSTEM is done. Only remotely located components like light fixtures at tips, strobe supplies under seat, etc . . . are grounded locally (right next to where they mount). All goodies behind panel should get their own ground wire to the ground bus . . . don't daisy-chain a number of components onto the same ground wire. All goodies under the cowl, except for those which achieve ground by virtue of it's enclosure being mounted to metal, get their own ground lead to the forward firewall ground bus.

5. Special Cases: All headset and microphone jacks should be INSULATED from local ground with fiber washers or fabrication of non-conducting mounting brackets. All unbalanced antennas (comm monopole, Archer's wing-tip vor antennas, etc) must get good local ground. All balanced antennas (g.s. dipoles, vor dipoles in canards, Archer's gamma-matched dipoles, etc) generally require no local ground and may cause problems if they ARE locally grounded. Check with manufacturer but in any case, leaving it ungrounded is generally the best thing to do FIRST. Canard pusher aircraft with battery mid-ships or forward will have an engine side firewall ground bus as above but no cabin side ground bus. These aircraft need a 48-point ground block behind the panel attached to battery (-) with 4AWG wire.

In a nutshell, the techniques described will save you a lot of fuss and all but guarantee a noise free, voltage stable electrical system.

Bob

. . . AeroElectric Connection

posted at: 16:22 | path: /aviation/build/avionics/aeroelectric | permanent link to this entry | add a comment

Section 43: More Canopy Trimming (4 hours)

On this New Year's Eve 2007, I did some more cabin top trimming. yeah!

1. Trimmed the far aft edge, against the tailcone top skin. I took a bit off here and the fit looks very good. I was afraid the cabin top was not flush with the tailcone top skin, but after clecoing everything in, everything was pulled flush.

2. Trimmed the windshield area. I had no scribe lines to go by and had to do this more or less by feel. I think I did a pretty good job. The only thing I could have done better was to accommodate the curvature of the forward skin in this area. I trimmed more or less in a plane for the tangent of the curve, so there is a gap to the skin away from the tangent point. It is a minor point. The results look better than I could have expected, i think.

posted at: 18:49 | path: /aviation/build/airframe/fuselage/sec43 | permanent link to this entry | add a comment

Section 23: Aileron Actuation (10 hours)

I finally reordered the aileron control tubes and redid them. This time I did a MUCH better job. This is what i learned:

1. Everything up to the point of primering the insides of the tubes is pretty straight-forward. I still can't seem to drill straight with the drill-press - did my best.

2. Primering. The best technique was as follows:

a. Heating up the control tube to get the fittings off of each end is a must sometimes.

b. After deburring holes, clean by soaking a paper towel in acetone and pushing thru the tube with a dowel.

c. Put one fitting on one end. This will be the cap for this end of the tube.

d. Tape over all the drilled holes, so that paint won't leak all over the place.

e. Pour paint into the other end, liberally. Cover end with just a paper towel and swirl the paint around for even coverage.

f. Then just pour the left over paint.

g. Also, it's good to get this set up ahead of time. Hang the tube with open end down, so the rest of the paint can dribble out the end into a cup or whatever.

posted at: 14:56 | path: /aviation/build/airframe/wings/sec23 | permanent link to this entry | add a comment