Rob and Kelly’s RV-10 N819K

Tailcone is now permenantly attached.

We’re also in the process of trimming the canopy.

We’re done!  Okay, not really.

For those keeping score: the house rule when we started building the airplane was that airplane parts would only be in the garage.  Today this rule was broken in a big way.  Please see the picture below for what you see as you walk into our home…. yes those are 13ft long airplane wings!!!

On the bright side we went to the Glasair airplane facility last weekend for a tour with Rob’s EAA group.  They had an airplane painted in the exact color scheme I have suggested for years, dark blue on top and light on the bottom.  I grinned from ear to ear when we walked into the hangar to see this fantastic paint job (Rob isn’t a fan and still needs more convincing) :)  The tour of the Glasair plant was very interesting and they even have a program where you can pay almost $200k and in two weeks go from kit parts to taxiing your newly built airplane.  Craziness!

It is now time to attach the tailcone to the fuselage and work like crazy to hopefully gain my front room back in time for Rob’s 30th bday/Christmas.  This would be only 8 months and Rob is predicting we still have 1.5 years to go.  Please send us good airplane assembly vibes, we are going to need it!

Last weekend we test fit the tailcone to the fuselage.  With it attached, we drilled the holes for the bolts that hold the longerons together.  We also match drilled a few holes, then detached the fuselage.  We then deburred and dimpled the holes, so it’s ready for permanent attachment.

Now we need to put the wings someplace to make room in the garage.

It’s been a long time since the last update, but we have gotten some work done.  Here are a few things we’ve done over the past few months.

Rudder Pedals:  This was mostly Kelly’s job.  We mounted the pedals in the fuselage, then Kelly made and installed the brake lines.  Here’s a picture:

Fuel lines:  I finished the fuel lines (well, except for the lines that run from the side of the tunnel to the wing).  They’re not pretty, but they’re safe and meet the specs.  If I did this all the time, I’d invest in a decent tube bender.

Tunnel:  I modified the forward tunnel cover by splitting it in two.  This will allow us to remove the forward half of the cover to inspect/service the fuel filter, pump, and flow sensor without having to remove the fuel selector.  You can see in this picture where I split it.

I’ve also heard the front seats get in the way when removing the tunnel cover, so this will solve that problem, too.  Speaking of the fuel selector, I finished creating and installing the mounting bracket with good results.  You can see the bracket installed in this pic:

Flap system: I installed the flap torque tubes and temporarily installed the motor.  I also installed the “Flap Positioning System” and wired it to the motor.  Basically, this will allow us to raise and lower the flaps in “notches” instead of having to hold up/down the flap switch.

Having assembled and painted the pedals themselves, it was time to attach them to the weldments (the parts that actually move to control the rudder).  Kelly did this herself, which gave me time to work on the mounting of the Andair fuel selector.

Using the Andair fuel selector (rather than the one that comes with the kit) is a common modification.  The Andair valve is better built, looks better, has better detents, and is more difficult to acidentally turn off.  Also it is said to last longer than the standard valve.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t mount the same way as the standard valve, so we’re on our own figuring out how to do it.  After a couple hours thinking, drawing, and making some parts, I think I have it figured out.  Details to follow in a later post.

Here’s a pic of Kelly working on the pedals.

Both left and right are now ready to be mounted in the fuselage.

The first step is to cut the hole in the fuselage where the baggage door goes.  After cleaning that up, we started putting together the door itself.  It’s drilled and dimpled, ready to be primed.

Some of the floorboards can be riveted in at this point, since nothing is installed below them.  Kelly is handling that.

This was my first serious attempt of bending and running the soft aluminum tube.  This part of the project involves running the brake lines from where the gear legs enter the fuselage, under the seats, through the tunnel, and up to the firewall.  It also involves attaching the fittings and flaring the ends of the tube (same as the fuel lines).  Seemed to turn out well.

One of the last steps on the wing is installing the aileron trim.  As mentioned in an earlier post, it’s a spring bias system.  Here’s a picture of the springs and trim servo attached to the torque tube (as vewed from inside the wing, outboard of the trim location).