Building times for tail

tomtana59911 · #1 12-31-2005, 08:10 AM

I was looking around the net for 10 info and cam across this guy that had finished his tail in 175 hrs!Is that possable,I am a repeat offender and consider myself a pretty good builder(I built the airframe and hung the engine in my slow build 9 in one year with very little help).
So far I have about 175 hrs and have about 1/2 of t5he elevators to go and the tail cone I am figuring about 300 hrs by the time I finish.I have all the fancy tools to,any input please guys

Tom

MichRV10 · #2 12-31-2005, 05:26 PM

I built my tail in about the same time give or take a couple of hours.
I just finished preping the fiberglass canopy and will be riveting it on tomorrow. total time as of today is 322 hours total.

Rick S. · #3 01-01-2006, 02:56 PM

I am a little over 700 hours and bolting the fwd and mid fuse together. My tail took right around 225 without going out and looking at the log. To each his own I say. Some people log their time a bit more "rounded" I'm sure. If I didn't deburr, prep, prime etc. I could have easily finished in 175 hours and I have fancy tools too....I did account for time doing inventory and plans study, Not shopping for tools or parts but anything directly related to working on the airframe. The only hours that really count are the ones you log in the air after you finish.

Rick S.

w1curtis · #4 01-01-2006, 07:45 PM

I'm a first time builder and I finished the tail in 329 hours. That includes chemical etch and prime. I think the huge variance in time is due to two things; experience and prime or no-prime.

That 179 hours was by an experienced builder that did no priming. The ~300 hours is probably a good average however.

You can see the individual section time breakdown's here:http://wcurtis.nerv10.com/
http://nerv10.com/

osxuser · #5 01-01-2006, 09:15 PM

I don't think build time should be something that frustrates you. I plan on taking exactly as much time as I need to get my tail as nice as I want it. I've been trained in this stuff in A&P school, and I've been working as an A&P for 4 years now, but I still expect it to take me as long as any other first-time builder because it will be a completely new experience for me to actually build right off plans. I might be a bit faster when I get down in to the systems, but the time it takes to statisfy your particular your level of craftsmenship shouldn't be discouraging.

weeav8ter · #6 01-03-2006, 07:29 PM

I assume you mean completing the empennage kit when you said tail? I am a total newbie to kit building and I'm certainly not an ace mechanic by any stretch of the imagination and I added up my empennage section and came up with 275 hours. I also had a few reworks along the way in the beginning. I'm building at George Orndorff's and he did the corrosion proofing of the parts for me, so I didn't have that time in my total. He also helped me with a few of my errors.

Don?t have quite so many now.

For what ever it's worth.

Wayne Edgerton #40336

ScottSchmidt · #7 01-04-2006, 10:22 AM

To build the tail kit it took us 340 man hours (2 of us) or 170 hours in the shop.

As you can see, the elevators took the longest to complete.

Just keep riveting

Here is a shot of me and my wife when we finished the first peice on the RV-10 over 2 years ago. Pretty soon you will stop counting the hours and then you will be flying. I am really looking forward to that flying part.