Alex's Vans RV-10 Build Log

After a short break from building the RV-10 (for a long awaited family vacation), I picked up where I left off, and riveted the flap ribs and hinge bracket assemblies to the spars.  Except for the outer ribs at each end of the spars, all other ribs and assemblies were easily riveted using the pneumatic squeezer and longeron yoke. I also set all rivets with the manufactured head on the thinner material. I had to temporarily uncleco some ribs to gain access to rivet others, but by working along the spar setting each rib in turn, there were no issues getting the squeezer and yoke square to the rivet. Rivets holding flap ribs to the spar Shop heads formed on the spar to avoid rib flanges from deforming while riveting  For the outer ribs, the nose and trailing ribs share rivets, and getting the squeezer in there would have meant pushing one of the ribs (the trailing rib was easier to push) out of the way. However, doing this I could see the flange of the rib being pulled away from the spar,

Prior to final assembly of the flaps and ailerons, I went through the usual steps to prime the flap and aileron skins, and other additional control surface parts that were yet to be primed. This was all straightforward, and I just had to make sure to prime any mating surfaces as well as not prime the trailing edges. Flap skins cleaned, etched and trailing edge taped off, ready to be primed Flap skins and nose skins primed and ready for assembly Aileron skins etched... ...along with aileron stiffeners Aileron skins also ready for final assembly after priming ...along with the aileron skin stiffeners Primer used:   ~146g + 14g distilled water (flap skins)                                ~91g +   9g distilled water (aileron skins and stiffeners) Time Taken:       8.2  hours Dates:                    August 31 2024 - September 12 2024 RV-10 Build Total Time:      765 .8  hours Priming Total Time:                 99.9  hours  (not included in build time totals)

In between priming sessions, I continued on flap tasks where priming was not required, the main one being countersinking the trailing edge wedge holes. I decided to use a drill press here as I had done previously (rather than handholding the drill) as I felt I had better control and more consistent countersinks. Pieces clamped to the drill press table while drilling Countersinks came out nicely at the correct depth for a dimpled #40 hole Four trailing edge wedge pieces countersunk and ready for installation Next I riveted together the nose rib pieces and hinge brackets These were all easily done with the pneumatic squeezer.. Inboard nose ribs riveted to doublers, along with a nutplate where specified Hinge bracket parts riveted together with good separation between the rivet shop heads Double flush riveting went well with the pneumatic squeezer, with hardware temporarily installed to maintain hinge hole alignment on the bracket pieces After riveting the nose rib and hinge parts togethe

The next step in flap assembly is riveting parts together. There are a lot of identical parts to the flaps and prior to cleaning and priming them I tagged them with their relative positions from inboard to outboard end of each left and right flap and that worked well. Flap parts tagged and cleaned with acetone Next I went through the usual process of applying EkoEtch to remove the alclad layet, followed by spraying EkoPrime primer. I did this over multiple shorter sessions Nose ribs and hinge brackets drying after being prepared with EkoEtch Nose ribs and hinge brackets curing for a couple of days after priming Trailing ribs and spars after tagging and wiping with acetone Trailing ribs and spars  drying after EkoEtch preparation Trailing ribs and spars curing after applying primer Primer used:   ~184g + 18g distilled water Time Taken:      8.1  hours Dates:                    July 15 2024 - July 21 2024 RV-10 Build Total Time:      765 .8  hours Priming Total Time:                91.7

After finishing deburring the remaining rib and nose skin edges, I was ready to continue fitting and drilling the flaps as documented in the plans. Flap skeletons formed after clecoing ribs and hinge brackets to flap spars Skins were clecoed to the skeletons in the following order Bottom skin Nose skins bottom side Top  skin Nose skins top side I trimmed the flanges of the nose ribs as needed to remove any faceting that remained visible through the nose skins, and also filed the edges of the nose skins where they met in the center of the flaps as there was a slight overlap there. Bottom skin and nose skins clecoed to the skeleton. The nose skins overlap the bottom skin along the spar flange Flap flipped over to allow the top skin to be clecoed in place before completing clecoing of the nose skins Trailing edge wedges being attached. I used wood blocks to hold up the trailing edge of the flap so that it would be more level. The leading edge of the flap was held higher by the hinge subas