Another beginning...
 

Howdy all.

Welp, I pulled the trigger.

I have ordered tools (I'm sure this is an ongoing thing) and the tail kit! I'm very happy and extremely excited.

I was already pretty much sold on the notion but Bill Thomasson flew up from Atlanta in his -10 and let me sit in his baby.. Wow.. It's perfect! This absolutely sold me.

This is exactly the right plane for me and my mission; Plus, I get to build it!

Awesome.

Working on adding an RV-10 section to my website and will be thorough on filming and documenting the process.

Congratulations!!
 

Jason, big huge congrats to you.

Ever heard about eating an elephant????

Welcome
 

Welcome Jason.
Keep eating. You'll finish that elephant.

A good beginning is a half done nice to have you here Jason! When finished come to Nooo Yaack for a tour. An RV10 (Goodbye Girl) was visiting recently :D

Welcome!
 

Congrats on your "leap" into a 10 build.

Thanks everyone! I'm very excited.

I find I'm now sitting at the door waiting for packages to arrive..heh I feel like a little kid again =)

Welcome! Next time we will get you (and maybe your wife) in the air.

Congrats!

Also, make sure when you're building your website, you can streamline the posting process as much as possible. Towards the end of the build, at least for me, the videos and documentation starts to take a back burner to getting the thing done. The easier the posting and video process, the more likely you are to keep up with it!

That being said, I'm about two weeks behind on posts and videos... I have some work to do...

Absolutely! I'm going through that process now of setting up my blog to have a second section that will be the build log.

Since my blog is based on jekyll its custom software that I can add my own plugins to that should make this easier =)

Just took delivery of my Emp kit.

I am a little unhappy with the shipper.. they beat up the box pretty good, but everything inside seems okay..

The big issue for me was that they shipped it on a semi-truck with no lift gate or any way to get it to the ground once it was at the house, nor even get it all the way to my house.

I had to go meet the guy down the road with my truck.. slide it off into the truck and then get it home that way..

Did they expect me to have a forklift at my house?

Any way its here now and tomorrow/over the weekend I begin the process of ensuring everything made it.

The rest of the kits will come the same way, and they only get bigger from here. The shipper will send it on a truck with a liftgate if you pay extra (arrange it when they call to schedule delivery). If you pick up your crates from the shipper's distribution facility you can save some extra cash. I picked up all of my RV-9 crates with the Home Depot rental truck, and I've been getting my RV-10 crates with a flatbed trailer. I believe there was a $75 discount for picking it up from them. They even loaded it with a forklift for me (both Fedex and ABF).

Yeah clearly I will have to do this for the next ones..

Pick up
 

+1
You also get the peace of mind knowing your baby is well handled. I rented a U-haul and they loaded it for me. Slid them down the ramp into my RV factory.

Honestly, it didn't even occur to me to do this.

I'm so used to, in this day and age, ordering something online and having UPS or Fedex ship it.. larger shipping concerns didn't cross my mind..

Lesson learned!

1 month update!
 

Hi all! Time for an update!

I'm now officially 1 month into the build and I just finished the Vertical Stabilizer section 6..

In my build log - I have each days worth of work grouped as one post (sometimes more than one if it's a long day) with photos and video where I talk about my goings on;

http://randomstringofwords.com/build-log/

Comments are 100% welcome!

So far only a few mistakes were made that I can tell. I had to drill out a couple rivets just due to them not seating correctly during the riveting process (read: operator error.) But in each case they drilled out cleanly and the replacement went in without a hitch.

The squeezer is a god send. It really makes your life a lot easier. Once you get it shimmed up correctly the rivets come out perfectly every time. I used the little rivet testing tool (the bent piece of metal with a hole in a one end and a gate in the other) on just about every rivet and they all were just right.

This has been one **** of a fun process. It's hard to believe a month has gone by already.

Today or tomorrow I'll start on the rudder! Fun!

I love my rivet squeezer. I'd really recommend the adjustable set holder. You can very quickly get to the right gap. If one of the rivets in the line isn't quite squeezed enough, give it an 1/8 turn, squeeze again and move on.

I'm finishing up the HS riveting this week and moving on to the Elevator this weekend (I hope!!)

I'd also recommend getting a rivet buddy if you can find one. I've found a second set of hand to be really valuable on the HS. We haven't had to drill out a single driven rivet.

Have fun!

Oh I'll have to check out the set holder. Right now I'm using the "shims" (washers) they supplied. It works because they come in lots of different thicknesses but yeah it sounds like you have the better setup.

Whats a rivet buddy?

^ Note this was meant to be a joke.. I'm doing most of my riveting alone =) Once it gets warmer the wife will likely come out.

Checked out your build log. Thanks for sharing!! I hope to building and found your blog very informative! Keep it coming. Keep pounding those rivets, one at a time.

Luis

Jason,

Not sure how it took me this long but I finally stumbled on your post and over to your blog.

We started at almost exactly the same time and I see now that you've shot far ahead of me onto the HS. Well done!

First let me applaud you for the blog. You're obviously investing a great deal of your time to create narrated videos to help other guys and gals along. That was something I'd hoped to also be able to do but alas let life get in the way and stuck to typed commentary.

What I find amazing is that the thought process we are going through is nearly identical:
- dang these vs spar caps need to be clamped on tight to prevent gaps
- gee the manual doesn't really say when to remove the vinyl
- how the heck do I cleco this vs skin to the skeleton when it's so tight, and uh oh I better shape down those nose rib tips some more

Well, however selfishly, I find myself obsessively watching your videos to forsee what issues are coming next now that you're well ahead of me! I really did get bogged down using a cheap squeezer and have probably drilled out 40 rivets by now!

Thanks again, and look forward to trying to catch up to you!

Sumit