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RV-10 N313KC Jeff Rich

Freightdawg

Well Known Member
I guess it's time to come out of lurker mode and introduce myself.

My--sorry--OUR:eek: empennage kit was delivered today. Everything is already uncrated and inventoried except for the goody bag. That can wait for tomorrow. It's bed time.

Thanks for all who have posted and have made the decision to start so easy and a bit less daunting.

Pictures to follow.

G'night, y'all.

JR
 
Welcome Jeff. I remember when "our" launch down this path began in 2006. Neither of us have any regrets!
 
It's been six years and I'm just about done. The time flies fast. Just keep pounding away. Welcome to the club!

Bob
 
FINALLY! I've been getting a flat spot on my forehead from banging it against the wall trying to get pictures on here. For whatever reason, VAF doesn't like Flickr, but it likes SmugMug. :confused:

Anyway, here's picture of my lovely bride of 20+ years squishing rivets on our toolbox.

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I'm VERY fortunate to have several coworkers who have built or are building RVs. One was kind enough to come over this past weekend to give us a riveting clinic.

I'd originally proposed building a 9A thinking by the time the project is finished we'd be empty nesters, or nearly so, but She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed said we'd needed 4 seats. So, a -10 it is.:eek:

The empennage kit arrived Monday, inventory was finished yesterday, and actual construction began today.

Buckle up! It's going to be a bumpy ride! :D
 
Great choice Jeff. It's an incredibly stable instrument platform as well.

I've accidentally carried a load of ice last winter and flown through yellow stuff (On the weather channel), on the TruTrak autopilot and it comes through shining.....all this while delivering an honest 200 MPH TAS with 4 aboard!


Best,
 
Mother's Day

Yeah, I'm a little behind. But I still wanted to brag on my wife and what she was doing on Mother's Day. We were up to dimpling the skin for the vertical stab, but the table for the dimpler hadn't been built. So, here are a couple of pics of my wife's Mother's Day festivities:
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On a more somber note, the build has hit a snag. Without getting into a debate about to prime or not to prime, I've opted to prime and ordered AKZO from Spruce. It was supposed to arrive on Monday (6/3), but instead I received the following email:

prime-M.jpg
:(

Guess that gives me more time to catch up on VAF?:D
 
A family affair

This is a picture of my daughter doing some of the riveting on the vertical stab rear spar.

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The skin is about half riveted in place. Trying to rehydrate so I can go back out and finish up before supper.
 
Horizontal Stabilizer

We finished the horizontal stab yesterday (11/2). Riveting the skin to the rear spar went very quickly with my wife putting rivets in the holes and me coming along behind her and squeezing--the rivets!:D

This brings up a question: how's my pacing? I have 154 hours into the project. That's time with hands on metal and doesn't include time here researching or making trips to Harbor Freight/Lowes/Home Depot/etc. And that's essentially over 6 months. (Kind of over 5 months since life got in the way in Aug and I only had 1 day with any time on the plane.)

Off to pull parts for the elevators.
HS-M.jpg
 
Nice work.

Don't worry about your "timing". Enjoy the process, share with your family at all times possible, and work to a quality standard that pleases you. At the end, you'll have a great plane to fly and a family to enjoy it with anytime you/they wish. Guaranteed. AMHIK :)
 
Nice job Jeff!

Welcome to the madness. It's great you've got involvement from the family. Be prepared for that to come and go a little as your build progresses. Heck, your OWN motivation will come and go as the project progresses! ;) Just keep pounding those rivets and try not to look at the whole elephant while you're eating...:D
 
I concur with the other replies. Building a RV-10 isn't a race. It took me 6.5 years and 3200 hours. But I also had several interuptions that caused delays. As they say, life happens......
 
Way to go Jeff. Love the shot of your wife running the table saw like she's been building cabinets for years. That almost brings water to the eyes of an old school guy like me. I think you have a keeper. Really nice to see your family getting into the project.

John
 
Way to go Jeff. Love the shot of your wife running the table saw like she's been building cabinets for years. That almost brings water to the eyes of an old school guy like me. I think you have a keeper. Really nice to see your family getting into the project.

John
She's a keeper, all right. She took care of making cradles for the HS while I was assembling the spars.

Ultimately, I want to build a plane that is solidly and safely built. BUT a goal without a deadline is just a dream. I turned 46 about the same time I started on the plane. My goal is first flight by the time I'm 50. Based on Van's (most likely) optimistic 2000-hour build, that's very doable averaging 10 hours /week or 2 hours/day Mon-Fri. The downside there is being gone roughly 1/2 the days of the month, I have to double-up on the days I'm home plus catch-up on the stuff that's piled-up while I was on the road. Based on that math, I figure I'm running about 100 hours behind.

Of course, having a wife that's into the project helps. Before my last trip, I finished counter-sinking one of the HS spars, but I had finished only half of the other when I looked at the clock and realized I had to pack. A couple of days into the trip she sent me a video of her finishing the countersinking. WHAT A WOMAN!

Now I'm just rambling. Probably too much time at the Scotch-Brite wheel today. :D

Thanks for all the replies.
 
Past time for an update

Sunday (4/27) officially brought the elevator assembly to a close. Monday was the start of the tail cone.

The wing kit (slow build) was delivered St. Patrick's day, so it's ready to go as soon as we finish the tail cone.

Here are a couple of pics from today:

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Happy riveting!:D
 
Sweet! Keeping the progress going! The tailcone is a fun part to work on, you complete such a large section in a relatively small amount of time.

Good luck and happy building
 
+1 for Terry's comments. Initially I was in a rush, but I quit keeping track of hours after the empennage, and instead simply focused on getting the details right. I found the slow approach to be much more fun and satisfying.
 
Progress has slowed to almost a crawl. I started class May 22 on a new plane, and that hasn't left much time to play in the garage. But today the weather couldn't have been much nicer, and I didn't have have class, so we made some good progress.

The right side of the tail cone is riveted except for the aft-most bulkhead. The bottom is probably 2/3 complete. It hasn't gone together as fast as I thought it would, but it hasn't been too terribly difficult (except the rivets Vans decided to 'hide' under the J channel of the stiffeners).

Thank you, Justin Twilbeck, for your excellent build blog and the confirmation I was looking for that I could back rivet the tail cone.

And thanks to Dave Buntin for holding my virtual hand when I had my little 'oops.'

I'll close with a picture of my lovely and talented wife doing her part to make sure I can't brag that "I" built it. :D

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Making progress

I guess I'm past due for an update. Today my better half and I finished attaching the outboard leading edge to the right wing. It's now hanging out on a wing stand passed down to me from a friend who's RV-10 is now flying. Hopefully we'll have the left leading edge attached either tomorrow or Tuesday.

The tanks have already been clecoed together and final drilled by my wife and her dad while I've been flying around the country playing Santa's little helper. Can't wait to start playing with the pro-seal.

Keep smashing those rivets.

Jeff

Right%20wing-L.jpg
 
Very nice!

Looks like you're getting close to thinking about ordering the fuse. Are you going slow build or quick build?
 
I've gone back and forth on slow vs. quick build on the fuse. As much as I would like to have a flying RV RIGHT NOW! I think we're going to go the slow build route for three-ish reasons:

1. When it's done, we can say, "WE built this." (minus paint and upholstery)

2. The difference in price between quick and slow is roughly the cost of the prop.

3. Going slow build gives more time to save for the next big expense. I'd like to get to the end of the project owning it outright.
 
Tanks

Hey, DM, thanks!

A little update here. Crapy weather combined with a crappy schedule has led to very little progress on the tanks. But we're knee deep into it now. The first use of Proseal for attaching a couple of things to the inboard ribs was an absolute mess, as you can see in the picture. That didn't give me a warm-fuzzy about the way the rest of the tank build was going to go.

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Yesterday and today were much better. Yesterday, my lovely and talented wife "buttered" the short stiffeners, and I clecoed them into place. Then she laid a bead for the fillet, and I used a popsicle stick to smooth it out. We let them "cure" overnight.

Today we got them all riveted. Working two stiffeners at a time, Laura would put the dab of Proseal in the dimple then add the rivets. Next I'd do the back riveting. While she sealed the shop ends, I'd take acetone to the rivet set and clean it off, then count out rivets for the next pair of stiffeners from the "sterile" rivets.

Once the skin was flipped back up, she'd start again on the dollop and rivet while I cleaned off the skin from the previous pair and cleaned the back rivet plate.

So nice to be married to a great build partner.

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As an aside, I had a layover in PDX recently with enough time to rent a car and get down to Aurora. Pretty cool to get to tour the factory, but disappointed the -10 was out getting a new engine. While I was there I dropped off the order form for the fuselage kit. Should be here mid-May.
 
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