Continuing on in section 28, with the fwd fuselage bulkhead subassembly clecoed in place, I finished test fitting the landing gear mounts to determine if any additional trimming of the exit hole in the bottom skin was required. I ended up enlarging the hole slightly with a needle file to ensure a perfect fit to the landing gear mount with zero rubbing.
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| Landing gear mount fits well after small adjustments to the skin exit hole |
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| Minimal filing was required around the exit hole, but some was necessary due to the hole being slightly too small in places |
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| Same trimming was done to the hole for the left landing gear mount |
At this time I also decided to dimple the called-out holes in fwd cabin floor panels so that they would be ready for priming. I also countersunk the holes in the bottom flange of the center section side plates to accommodate the skin dimples.
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| Floor panel holes dimpled and panels are ready for priming |
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| Side plate bottom flange holes countersunk, with special attention for the holes near the edges to ensure they weren't over countersunk |
Next I followed the tips outlined on the
rv10.org wiki for this section and countersunk various holes in the forward fuselage.
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| Countersinking holes in the center section side plates for future skin dimples |
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| All (and only) #40 holes were countersunk |
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| Countersinking holes in the bottom flange of the fwd center section bulkhead. For the 7 holes at either end, I used a scrap piece with an additional pilot hole to eliminate any chattering since those holes will be double flush riveted and do get slightly larger after countersinking |
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| All #40 holes in the fwd center section bulkhead bottom flange successfully countersunk to accommodate skin dimples |
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| I also countersunk a few holes in the fwd center section bulkhead side channels (as called out in section 29). These need to be flush riveted for the landing gear mounts to fit properly |
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| 5 holes countersunk in each side channel for double flush riveting later |
Next up I had to enlarge various holes in the forward fuselage including...
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| the brake line exit holes in the bottom skin... |
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| ... these holes were easily enlarged using the step drill bit |
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| the middle U-shaped hole in each systems bracket (using a sanding drum in the Dremel) to accommodate a larger fuel return line to support SDS EFI that I will be installing |
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| and similarly, the middle hole at the aft end of each tunnel side web, again for an SDS EFI fuel return line |
Finally I dimpled all holes in the forward bottom skin.
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| Dimpling skin holes with the DRDT-2 |
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| Forward bottom kin ready for priming |
Time Taken: 10.2 hours
Dates: March 28 2025 - April 27 2025
Fwd Fuse Ribs, Bhds & Bottom Skin Total Time: 27.9 hours
RV-10 Build Total Time: 1000.1 hours
Priming Total Time: 126.0 hours (not included in build time totals)
