Alex's Vans RV-10 Build Log

I continued with priming preparations for the rest of the tail cone parts, namely the stiffeners, longerons and skins. Ready to EkoEtch the stiffeners and longerons Stiffeners and longerons drying after EkoEtch prep Stiffeners and longerons all set to be primed Priming of stiffeners and longerons complete A couple of days later I prepped and primed the bottom and side skins. I also took time to prime the areas where top/side skins would be overlapping the side/bottom skins. I'll be priming the top skins at a later time. EkoEtching the skins one at a time Bottom and side skins ready to be primed EkoPriming the skins later in the afternoon with temps around 70F Bottom and side skins primed and drying Primer used:   longerons/stiffeners ~200g + 20g distilled water                          skins                        ~250g + 25g distilled water Time Taken: ...

Having primed all the small parts, bulkheads and frames of the tail cone, I was now able to start riveting some of these pieces together. All riveting was accomplished with the pneumatic squeezer. Bell crank. I used a bolt from the pitch servo bracket install kit to hold a washer in place between the bellcrank halves as I riveted. The washer will be needed there later when I install the servo. Bell crank shop heads Battery / bellcrank mount. For now I only riveted the nutplates on, as I may need to modify the battery channel setup once I decide on my battery configuration Battery / bellcrank mount with all nutplates attached F-1012 bulkhead. I decided to also rivet the Rudder Stop Stiffeners to the Rudder Stop Brace at this time as it is easier to do this now with the pneumatic squeezer. The bulkhead should slide right into place when I assemble the tail cone F-1012 bulkhead from below F-1012 bulkhead from behind F-1011 bulkhead. Don't forget to attach the nutplates to the Rudder C...

I took a few days off for vacation so didn't get much time to work on the plane for about a week, but now back in the garage I started work on prepping the tail cone parts for priming. There are a lot of parts that need to be primed, so I decided to split them into batches small parts, bulkheads and frames stiffeners and longerons bottom/side skins top skins Starting with all the small parts, bulkheads and frames, I followed the usual procedure of first wiping them with acetone to get rid of obvious fingerprints and markings, followed by EkoEtch to remove the alclad coating. Small tail cone parts ready to be treated with EkoEtch Bulkheads and frames treated with EkoEtch outdoors as it was easier to rinse them with a hose Tail cone small parts, bulkheads and frames left to dry after EkoEtch With the EkoEtch prep complete, I sprayed all the parts with EkoPrime, but switched to a Smoke Gray color rather than the Charcoal Gray color I had so far been using for the control surfaces. Smo...

Continuing on with the final steps before priming, I countersunk the #40 holes in the longerons, leaving out the holes that will be used to attach the empennage fairing later. The vice worked well here to hold the longeron securely while I used the pneumatic drill. Countersinking 160 holes in the two tail cone longerons With only the skins left to dimple, I decided to continue with tail cone modifications picking up where I left off with the Rudder Cable Fairings. After receiving an MS20668-4 eye fitting from Amazon, I was able to make some small adjustments to the fit of the fairings and re-marked the hole locations. Rudder cable fairings remarked after checking for cable end pass-through With everything marked, I cut the spacers on the band saw, and drilled the fairing holes with a 3/32" bit. I also match drilled the common holes in the fairings with the same bit. Match drilling the rudder cable fairings Next I trimmed the fairings to size, cut an angle on the open ends of the f...