Wing Main Spar 13-4-4, 13-4-5, 13-4-11 to 13-5-1

Finishing up work on the main spars, I primed the tie down brackets and left them to cure for a couple of days.

Brackets primed and curing

I also added a few additional (temporary) supports to my wing cradle so that I could move the spars over and free up workbench space. I'm happy with how the cradle has turned out. When it comes time to attach the skins, I'll remove the temporary supports and finish attaching the support straps.

Spars resting on wing cradle. Temporary supports are held in place with clamps for easy removal.

I first riveted the nutplates to the tie down brackets with the squeezer.

Tie down brackets ready to be riveted to the spars

Carefully lifting a spar onto is side and clamping it down, I completed riveting the wing attach (squeezed) and fuel tank attach (bucked) nutplates. For the fuel tank attach nutplate rivets closest to the step bars, I switched to using a 3/4" mushroom set as the 1" set was a little too large to fit.

Using clamps and supports to ensure the spar is securely held for riveting

Fuel tank attach nutplates riveted, and wing attach nutplates on opposite side

Wing attach nutplates rivets squeezed

All nutplates have been riveted to spars

I then attached the tie-down brackets to the spars by bucking the 10 rivets into each tie down bracket.

Left spar tie down bracket

Left spar tie down shop heads

Right spar tie down bracket

Right spar tie down shop heads

After riveting the tie downs in place, it was a simple matter to bolt and torque the aileron bellcrank brackets into the nutplates (using a deep 3/8" socket to clear the bracket height). I did, however, replace the bottom aileron bellcrank bracket on the right wing with the Garmin roll servo mount bracket for the roll servo that will go in there later.

Left wing aileron bellcrank brackets bolted and torqued, with two additional bolts going through the spar fork

Right wing aileron bellcrank brackets bolted and torqued, with Garmin roll servo mount attached instead of Van's bottom aileron bellcrank bracket

Primer used:  ~10g + 1g distilled water

Time Taken:     3.1 hours

Dates:                August 21 - August 26, September 9 2023

Wing Main Spar Total Time:     37.5 hours

RV-10 Build Total Time:          468.8 hours

Priming Total Time:                     47.8 hours (not included in build time totals)