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Am I really doing this? Introduction

huse0054

Well Known Member
Hello, we wanted to introduce ourselves as we anticipate spending countless hours on here over the next number of years. My wife and I live 15 minutes south of the Mpls/St Paul area and have placed an order for the tools to build an RV-10. We plan on placing our order for the empanage kit in January. Should give us time to finish some house projects, clean out the garage and work on the practice kits that will be arriving shortly.

If there is anyone local who is working on or completed a 10 we would love to meet and ask questions.

Thanks

-Matt and Sarah
 
Welcome to VAF

Matt and Sarah-----welcome aboard the good ship VAF.

Good to see another husband and wife team building a plane:D:D
 
Steinair

U must be near KFBL. Look in on Stein. I’m sure some of your $$$ will end up there.
 
Suggest you find a nearby EAA Chapter and visit with them. You should be able to find a Tech Counselor to help you out, as well as lots of willing conversations. (At least once the pandemic has subsided anyway.) Looking at the EAA website - find a chapter (https://eaa.org/eaa/eaa-chapters/find-an-eaa-chapter) it shows both a South St. Paul chapter (southsaintpauleaa.org) and a St. Paul chapter ( eaa54.org).

Welcome to the RV-10 builders madness.
 
Welcome to the world of airplane building. I’m a newby too! Just started the elevators on my 10. It’s a great experience...hours of boredom: deburing, filing, drilling and fitting, cleco then un-cleco etc. Then followed by fear, trepidation and finally the grin when you get a section riveted!

Cheers
Keith
 
Thanks and all great advice! We joined the Twincities RV builders group last week. A real bummer that with covid not much for in person meetings or networking. We have attended one of the South St Paul chapter EAA Pancake breakfasts and will explore that chapter further.

Have also heard great things about Stien Air and fully anticipate using their services when the time comes.

I ordered the electronic plans for the RV10 that supposedly come on USB drive. Any ideas on how to best make use of those in the short and long term?
 
I ordered the electronic plans for the RV10 that supposedly come on USB drive. Any ideas on how to best make use of those in the short and long term?

I keep a copy of the electronic plans (pdf files) on my home computer and on an old iPad that I leave in the shop/hanger. This allows me to view the plans at home without taking the paper plans book home, which helped me occasionally with my builder's log entries and in looking up specific plans pages to better understand other VAF member postings. Having the plans on the iPad at the workshop location also makes it much easier to do a search for a specific part number (using Acrobat search function) or key word when I was trying to look ahead to understand a particular instruction (e.g. leave rivets out for now, etc.) or when I wanted to look back at earlier operations once I reached a place calling out previously performed or omitted work. Now that I am flying, the search function of Acrobat helps me find the right section when I want to service or check a part of the plans.

Also, Van's only sends you the paper plans for each specific kit shipped to you. So if you have only purchased the Empennage kit and want to figure out how something in that part of the kit fits with the rest of the plane, you will need the electronic plans to look ahead to the rest of the build.

In other words, the electronic instructions are well worth the small price that Van's charges.

Cheers,
 
Welcome Matt and Sarah to the greatest hobby on Earth! Welcome to the site and looking forward to seeing progress in the future.

You’re going to love that plane!!!!!

v/r,
dr
 
I keep a copy of the electronic plans (pdf files) on my home computer and on an old iPad that I leave in the shop/hanger. This allows me to view the plans at home without taking the paper plans book home, which helped me occasionally with my builder's log entries and in looking up specific plans pages to better understand other VAF member postings. Having the plans on the iPad at the workshop location also makes it much easier to do a search for a specific part number (using Acrobat search function) or key word when I was trying to look ahead to understand a particular instruction (e.g. leave rivets out for now, etc.) or when I wanted to look back at earlier operations once I reached a place calling out previously performed or omitted work. Now that I am flying, the search function of Acrobat helps me find the right section when I want to service or check a part of the plans.

Also, Van's only sends you the paper plans for each specific kit shipped to you. So if you have only purchased the Empennage kit and want to figure out how something in that part of the kit fits with the rest of the plane, you will need the electronic plans to look ahead to the rest of the build.

In other words, the electronic instructions are well worth the small price that Van's charges.

Cheers,


Fantastic, exactly the type of context that will be invaluable going forward. Glad we ordered them.
 
Welcome Matt and Sarah to the greatest hobby on Earth! Welcome to the site and looking forward to seeing progress in the future.

You’re going to love that plane!!!!!

v/r,
dr

Thanks Doug, we have a c-182 now that we love so can only imagine the joys the RV-10 will bring us.
 
Not far from me

I’m building an RV-8 I have hangared at Boyceville, WI. I don’t know much of the -10, but you’re free to stop by if you would like. Tim Olson in Menomonie, WI built a -10 and might be a good resource for you. He is on this forum but I don’t have his username at the moment. I’m guessing Google can get you in touch with him.

And welcome to a great hobby. At time it will seem like an insurmountable task, but you will get there.

Best regards,
Sam
 
You sound like me.... South of cities, just bought a 14 emp kit. Looking for tools, who did you go with? Was this the matt I met last week at Airlake? Building a hangar?
 
You sound like me.... South of cities, just bought a 14 emp kit. Looking for tools, who did you go with? Was this the matt I met last week at Airlake? Building a hangar?


Must be a different Matt you met. I hangar out of Fleming and bought the tool kit through Cleveland.
How far along are you on the 14 emp.?
 
Welcome! It's a longer drive but if your ever in Iowa I'd be happy to show you around my project.


Thanks for the offer and we may take you up on that..:) We own a 182 so could certainly fly down too. How does the fuselage compare to the empanage in build difficulty?

How close are you to an airport down there or are you building at one?
 
Hello, we wanted to introduce ourselves as we anticipate spending countless hours on here over the next number of years. My wife and I live 15 minutes south of the Mpls/St Paul area and have placed an order for the tools to build an RV-10. We plan on placing our order for the empanage kit in January. Should give us time to finish some house projects, clean out the garage and work on the practice kits that will be arriving shortly.

If there is anyone local who is working on or completed a 10 we would love to meet and ask questions.

Thanks

-Matt and Sarah

There are TONS of RV builders in the Twin Cities. You should be in contact with Doug Weiler at the Twin Cities RV Builder's Group .

Among the 10 builders in the group is the famous Tim Olson.

And Ed Kranz and his wife (they live down in Dakota County), base their RV-10 at KSGS, which is where I am (1674 Beechcraft Lane) although I'm not building a 10.
 
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How does the fuselage compare to the empanage in build difficulty?

How close are you to an airport down there or are you building at one?

The fuse is definitely more complicated than the empennage. There are some plans gotchas (well documented in blogs) that if missed would make a few things harder. Getting access to some of the rivets means getting creative. Just stuff like that.

By the time you get to where I'm at, you are so good at learning new techniques and researching that you can get past just about anything the build throws at you. The biggest obstacle I see is staying motivated and keeping the project moving. Family can really help on that front.

I'm maybe 10 minutes from the Marion airport, 20 minutes from KCID. Building at home.
 
There are TONS of RV builders in the Twin Cities. You should be in contact with Doug Weiler at the Twin Cities RV Builder's Group .

Among the 10 builders in the group is the famous Tim Olson.

And Ed Kranz and his wife (they live down in Dakota County), base their RV-10 at KSGS, which is where I am (1674 Beechcraft Lane) although I'm not building a 10.


Thanks Bob, Appreciate that info and will reach out to those folks and maybe see you around Fleming sometime. My wife just informed me that she was one of your original Twitter followers back in the early Twitter days:)
 
Hello, we wanted to introduce ourselves as we anticipate spending countless hours on here over the next number of years. My wife and I live 15 minutes south of the Mpls/St Paul area and have placed an order for the tools to build an RV-10. We plan on placing our order for the empanage kit in January. Should give us time to finish some house projects, clean out the garage and work on the practice kits that will be arriving shortly.

If there is anyone local who is working on or completed a 10 we would love to meet and ask questions.

Thanks

-Matt and Sarah

Hi Matt and Sarah,

I'm based out of KMIC but building out in Colorado. Hoping to be back in Minnesota with my completed plane by April/May. Keep in touch as I'd be happy to have you come up to my hanger to see what you are in for and help answer any questions.
 
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