Building Fuselage before wings

[woxofswa]

Due to the desire to build in my home shop as long as possible before moving to the airport, I have decided to build the fuselage before the wings. Van's said that it was okay as long as I purchased the wing center section kit which I did. The fuselage kit has arrived and I have begun inventory.

I would like to ask those who also built the fuselage before to the wing kit if there are any special considerations to be aware of. I seem to have read somewhere something about shipping something back to Van's to have match drilled to the wing spar, but I can't find the thread.

Any comments or suggestions appreciated.

 

[rleffler]

I would like to ask those who also built the fuselage before to the wing kit if there are any special considerations to be aware of. I seem to have read somewhere something about shipping something back to Van's to have match drilled to the wing spar, but I can't find the thread.

Any comments or suggestions appreciated.

I'm currently building my wings and am not 100% sure, but I believe you had to do that in the early days before the production of the spars became more uniform. I don't believe this is a required anymore. However, the safe bet would be to give Van's a call on Monday.

 

[noelf]

On the RV-6A, once the wings were finished, you needed to carefully measure the distance between the front spar and the rear spar. This distance is basically the length dimension of a wing rib...

Once you have measured this distance, and verified the thickness of both the wing main spar and rear spar, you can position the center section bulkhead and rear spar bulkhead to exactly fit the wing spars.

This was in the days prior to pre-punched items. The -10 may not need this kind attention to ensure matched wing to airframe attachment.

 

[Jeff R]

My concern - if you haven't built an RV before - would be that you might have some issues building per the plans and instructions. The fuselage instructions assume you know certain things which they don't bother to tell you about. Maybe you could build the empannage first to gain some experience, then skip the wing. I hung my wings from the ceiling in my shop, and am glad I followed the recommended building sequence.

 

[johngoodman]

Myron,
I can't give you an exact answer because I have QB wings and Fuselage. However, I have not come across any reason that one needs to be done before the other. My QB Fuselage was delivered one year after the wings, and I asked about the "matching issue." Vans told me not to worry about it. About the only thing I've noticed with the plans is that Van assumes you know to de-burr, or similar things like that.
John

 

[TSwezey]

Our fuselage was almost complete before the wings were finished. We never put our wings on until the fuselage was on gear. Should be any problems.

 

[woxofswa]

Thanks,

BTW, I should have been more clear. I have completed the tail feathers and cone.
I am space constrained and want to do as much in my home shop as possible before the eventual move to a hanger.
The only issue that I can assess so far is that the wing box fuse bulkhead parts are normally shipped with the wing kit and therefore you have to have the wing kit to have those parts since they are the first steps in the fuselage kit.

At Van's direction, I just ordered that subkit (w-1006 center section, $1317.89) of the wing kit with my fuse kit. They told me at the time that it was becoming more common for builders to do it that way. Hopefully the issues of getting the fuse box spar match drilled to the wing spar don't apply to the RV-10. From a quick perusal of the plans, I don't see anything from one kit that must precede the other, but I will call Van's in the morning to be sure.

What I would like to do is have the whole sausage done from spinner to tail on its own legs and with the engine on and warm and panel installed and warm in my shop. I will probably then order a quick build wing kit and head for a hanger.

 

[TSwezey]

Thanks,

BTW, I should have been more clear. I have completed the tail feathers and cone.
I am space constrained and want to do as much in my home shop as possible before the eventual move to a hanger.
The only issue that I can assess so far is that the wing box fuse bulkhead parts are normally shipped with the wing kit and therefore you have to have the wing kit to have those parts since they are the first steps in the fuselage kit.

At Van's direction, I just ordered that subkit (w-1006 center section, $1317.89) of the wing kit with my fuse kit. They told me at the time that it was becoming more common for builders to do it that way. Hopefully the issues of getting the fuse box spar match drilled to the wing spar don't apply to the RV-10. From a quick perusal of the plans, I don't see anything from one kit that must precede the other, but I will call Van's in the morning to be sure.

What I would like to do is have the whole sausage done from spinner to tail on its own legs and with the engine on and warm and panel installed and warm in my shop. I will probably then order a quick build wing kit and head for a hanger.

They don't apply.

 

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Building wings last

Because of poor planning on my part, I ended up wings and Fuselage kits being in my shop....larger garage....at the same time. I worked both of the kits at the same time and other than getting little crowded, had no problems. Once I got the wings to the almost complete stage, only bottom skin and control linkages left, I moved them off site to be stored. I then finished the fuselage, mostly, in the garage. At that point I moved to the hanger, finished the wings and pressed forward. That was about a year before I finished......