Continuing on with the mid fuse ribs, I prepared all parts for priming.
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| Ribs and other parts cleaned with EkoEtch |
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| More ribs and parts ready for priming |
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| After the primer had cured, I clecoed parts together to keep the smaller parts from being misplaced |
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| Bottom skin primed, and areas under the COM antenna doublers alodined |
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| All mid fuse ribs primed and ready for final assembly |
I began final assembly of the mid fuselage by riveting parts to the inboard footwell ribs and outboard seat ribs.
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| Vise helped keep parts secure while bucking rivets |
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| Nutplate is riveted to the seat belt attach bar and rib prior to riveting the seat belt anchor in place |
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Assembling the inboard footwell rib subassembly
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| Nutplates were riveted to the reinforcing angles prior to attaching the angles to the rib subassemblies |
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| Inboard footwell seat rib subassemblies ready to be attached to the spars |
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| Most rivets were bucked, however those near the edges could be squeezed |
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| Prior to riveting the Seat Rib Intercostal to the outboard seat rib, I buffed the screw hole dimple that sits next to the intercostal. Hopefully this will make it easier to insert a skin between the rib and intercostal later in the plans |
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| Seat rib intercostal riveted to seat rib |
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| Seat belt anchor riveting complete |
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| Shop heads all came out well |
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| Outboard seat rib subassembly complete |
Next I riveted the remaining parts to the rear seat ribs and baggage ribs prior to assembling the mid fuse.
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| Riveting seat belt attach lugs to the four rear seat ribs called out in the plans |
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| Rear seat ribs ready to be assembled into the mid fuse structure |
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| I also inserted the 3-D printed conduit bushings into the drilled rear seat rib locations. Bushings for the coax cable are on order with Van's. |
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| Step mounting brackets riveted to the outboard baggage ribs. All rivets here were squeezed. |
Having completed riveting all parts to the ribs, I was now ready to rivet the ribs to the mid fuselage bulkheads completed in the previous section. I first clamped the aft center section bulkhead to the edge my workbench, and followed the plans to rivet the ribs working aft from there.
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| Aft center section bulkhead clamped securely to the edge of the workbench, ready for inboard and outboard rib attachment |
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| Seat ribs clecoed to the aft center section bulkhead |
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| The heat duct tee needs to be attached to the scat tube flanges of the inboard seat ribs prior to clecoing otherwise it cannot be inserted |
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| Seat ribs were first bolted to the bulkhead |
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| Tools used for torquing bolts and setting rivets. I used a single offset rivet set to buck the rivets through the flanges of the ribs into the bulkheads. |
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| Care was taken to ensure the outboard seat rib web was placed to the outside of the center section upright bar. In a later section, a skin will fit between the rib web and upright bar flange. |
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| Outboard seat ribs fully riveted in place |
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| Shop heads came out nicely! |
Next I clecoed the rear spar bulkhead to the seat ribs, and proceeded to rivet the ribs to the bulkhead.
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| The outboard seat ribs are first riveted to the bulkhead using flush rivets that will lie under the bulkhead side channels |
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| The bulkhead side channels were then clecoed in place and riveted to the rear spar. Here I had also clecoed the F-1015A outboard seat ribs in place, but later removed them to make it easier to set most of the side channel rivets |
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| The mid fuselage is starting to take shape. Exciting times! |
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| There's a lot more riveting to be done before I can call this section complete! |
Primer used: ~500g + 45g distilled water
Priming Time Taken: 10.7 hours
Time Taken: 6.8 hours
Dates: February 5 2025 - February 18 2025
Mid Fuse Ribs & Bottom Skins Total Time: 41.5 hours
RV-10 Build Total Time: 944.2 hours
Priming Total Time: 126.0 hours (not included in build time totals)
