RV-10 N313KC Jeff Rich

[ppilotmike]

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...

[rleffler]

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......

[jpowell13]

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

[Berchmans]

Time spent building is not deducted from you total time on earth.

[Freightdawg]

Originally Posted by jpowell13

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.

Thanks for all the replies.

[Freightdawg]

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:





Happy riveting!

[J Twilbeck]

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

[Dave12]

That makes a nice picture frame.

[aturner]

+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.

[Freightdawg]

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.