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 ...

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...

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...