Monthly Archives: March 2017

Step installation was straightforward. I started by thinking about whether I needed a drill guide (yes) and how to make one, then realized the easiest way by far would be to 3D print it. The design took 20 minutes and one print iteration. I made up guides for #30 and #12 drills. I also made up a 1/4″ guide but didn’t use it, when I decided to use the AN-3 bolt per the plans rather than the larger AN-4 bolt. The drill guides worked a treat.

Download the STL file here: Download

Step “wobbling” has been a common problem in RV-10’s. To combat this I installed a doubler plate to provide extra support for the step support block, and I used TCW Tech’s step bushings as well as carefully reaming the final hole in the step and support.

The only thing left now is to prime the steps.

I installed the front floor pans and gear mounts, and have now finally completed the infamous and tediously long  Section 29 of the RV-10 manual. It was a relief to have both gear mounts bolt in without any drama, there have been some horror stories about this step in the plans. The tapered shims I made up for the gear mounts worked a treat and I all bolts were snug in their holes with no need to ream anything.

The empennage has been shoved in a back corner for the past year. I wanted to work out a few things prior to attaching the tailcone to the fuselage, so I swapped the empennage and spray booth around. There isn’t much priming left to do, so the spray booth (which is on wheels) can stay in the corner for the time being, before I retire it completely. This move has opened up the workshop a bit.

Next item is to install the steps.

Over the past few weeks, with some periods of non-work, I’ve de-burred, dimpled, primed and riveted on the fuselage side skins. With the exception of a few rivets I need to make up a special bucking bar for, the fuselage side skin riveting is now complete. Almost all of the riveting was a two-person operation, and “Rosie” did her usual terrific job on the rivet gun. I got well and truly tired of lying inside the fuselage twisting into all sorts of odd shapes in order to buck rivets.

I almost made a big mistake. I was all set to start riveting the right rear fuse skin, when at the last minute I noticed some holes that were not dimpled. This after having checked all the dimpling on at least three separate occasions before priming. I don’t know how I missed them, and I was lucky to notice the problem because there is no way I could have dimpled them in-place cleanly. It was a simple matter to take the skin off, dimple the offending holes, and cleco it back on.

I used a new, full sized, spray gun to prime the skins, which made me wonder why I didn’t get one sooner. Hard to believe I primed the wing skins with a mini-gun.

Side note – my son made me a replacement stainless steel shaft for the rudder pedals, after we found one of the four supplied with the kit was faulty. The new shaft fitted perfectly, so now I have rudder pedals ready to install.