Alex's Vans RV-10 Build Log

Moving on with initial assembly of the tail cone, I faceted the tabs around the curves of the F-1006 bulkhead, and clecoed it into the front of the tail cone making sure that the tabs went over the skin stiffeners. I also reamed #30 the holes common to the F-1006 bulkhead and bell crank ribs where needed. Forward most tail cone bulkhead attached Next I deburred the edges of the F-1028 baggage bulkhead channel and clecoed it to the F-1006 bulkhead and right bell crank rib. The common #30 holes between the bulkhead and channel did not need to be reamed here because a rivet fit in easily. Baggage bulkhead channel clecoed in I then separated the bellcrank rib angle into it's 4 parts, and labelled the pieces per the instructions. After deburring the edges of all the pieces, I checked all the holes and they were already final sized, so I just went ahead and deburred them. Next I countersunk all the nutplate attachment holes on the F-1037B and F-1037C pieces flush from the outside of the ...

With the right tail cone skin attached, I flipped the tail cone over and placed it on the work bench. Here you really start to see how big this part is, and get a sense of how big the airplane will eventually be. Tail cone placed on work bench ready for work on the left skin Continuing on, I attached the remaining piece of tail cone skin in place. I then faceted the tabs around the curves of the last 2 bulkheads (as I had done with the other bulkheads), and clecoed those in place. Aft bulkhead and skin clecoed in place The remaining side skin stiffeners were inserted next and temporarily held in place with painters tape. The left skin was clecoed to the bulkheads from the top down, and the stiffeners were aligned with the holes at the forward end of the skin for match drilling. Left J-channels inserted into notches and held with painters tape to prevent the falling out Left skin clecoed to the ribs and bottom skin Ready to start match-drilling the left skin to the stiffeners I then mat...

Now it was time to begin initial assembly of the tailcone. I started by raising my adjustable saw horses to their maximum height of 39", and I then pulled out the bottom skin, removed the blue plastic from the inside, and laid it upside-down over the saw horses.  After clecoing the bulkheads in place as directed, I slid the -F stiffeners through the notches and in-between the F-1008 bulkhead tabs and the bottom skin. They fit perfectly! I also clamped one of the longerons along the top (bottom) skin surface to minimize any sagging for the upcoming match drilling. Tail cone assembly started! Next I aligned both F stiffeners so that the marks lined up with the forward holes and proceeded to match drill #40 the skin holes into the stiffeners. To keep the stiffeners lines up correctly, I first drilled every 5th hole, then each hole in the middle of those, and finally the remaining holes from the forward end of the tail cone to the aft. I clecoed each hole as it was drilled, and adjust...

I continued with the tail cone by deburring the edges and lightning holes of the F-1006 bulkhead (the largest bulkhead in the empennage kit that sits behind the baggage area). This bulkhead is split into 4 parts and each is deburred separately. I then clecoed the bulkhead together and reamed #30 the 8 holes common to the top section of the bulkhead.  Bulkheads are getting larger! Next I laid out and marked the 6' and 8' J-channel stiffeners for the sizes specified in the plans, making sure that the lengths were accurate. To mark the cut lines across the stiffeners, I cut a small stiffener piece off one end and used that as a guide to easily draw the lines over the bends. Using a piece of J-channel as an aid to marking lines across the stiffeners While marking the 8' stiffeners, I noticed that one of them had an edge that tapered down in width so that at one end the width (of the straight part that sits against the skin) was about 1/8" less than on other stiffeners. I...