Category: General

Finally feeling energized and ready to make lots of progress.  I’m finally caught up with all my videos and have also primed just about everything that needs to be primed at this point.  Only items I haven’t touched yet is the pushrod and end-caps for the empennage, but will try to take care of that when I prime the left hand outer leading edge parts.

I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll be able to start riveting the right side outer leading edge.  I’m also trying to decide if I’ll begin the installation of the leading edge light kit or wait until later.  I decided to use the Duckworks leading light kit and will install some Baja Designs lights (but not going to buy those until I’m ready to assemble).  Honestly I’ll probably cut the hole in the skin and mount everything before I mount the leading edge to the spar.

For future planning, I’m also trying to figure out what conduits I’m going to run in my wings, as well as routing for the Pitot and AOA air lines.  Already purchased a Gretz Pitot mount kit and will probably get some 1/4″ Nylon tubing for the air lines vs the aluminum tubing that comes in the kit.

My trip to Sun n Fun last month was great.  Spent time talking to more vendors as well as learning more about electronic ignitions and EFII systems.  I’m leaning towards a full EFII system, either the System32 by flyefii.com or the announced but not available system from sdsefi.com (EM-6?).   Also spend a little time hanging around the HomeBuild Camping area and ran into Brian and Brandy and got to chat with them about their airplane.  Also met their adorable daughter!

Sun n Fun got me thinking more seriously about my avionics and why I would go with one system over another.  Everyone has their own opinion and plenty of heated discussion on why you would go one way vs another.  I absolutely don’t plan to purchase anything yet, but still leaning towards the Garmin ecosystem at the moment.

On the flying front I hate to admin it but just got my monthly e-mail from MyFlightBook reminding me that I have 0 Flight hours for April.  🙁   That just sucks.  Honestly I was even at VKX last week to attend our IMC club when it was canceled at the last min.  Went to grab a 172 since the weather was beautiful, but alas all the planes were reserved or down for maintenance.  Maybe I’ll just head over to the airport one day after work and get some time in.

Also really need to make a decision on my IFR ticket.  My written exam expires this fall so I really should just get it done.  Time to start putting the call out for Safety pilots so I can get the last 20 hours of simulated time.  Also need to verify but think I already met my XC requirement but may need to do another one just to be sure.  I’m know I will also need some more CFII time to bring me up to snuff for the practical.  In general I just need to start flying.  Such is life!

Hopefully I’ll have more regular updates going forward.

2018 has been a very busy year for me so far and that has not allowed me as much time to work on my RV-10.  Not a complete excuse, but I really have had a lot going on.

As I mentioned in previous posts, the weather in the DC area has not allowed me many opportunities to prime parts, and when we did have some wonderful weather days, I have either been unavailable or out of the area.  Looking back I think I had 2 different priming sessions so far, and a little bit of video / posting backlog.

I’m hoping to post a few updates in the next few days as I took some time off to go to Sun N Fun for the remainder of the week.  I’m hoping that allows me some opportunity to talk to a number of vendors, meet up with some friends, and try to meet a few fellow builders.

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As a member of the EAA 186 Chapter out of Manassas VA, I had the opportunity to volunteer while Aluminum Overcast was in town.  I spend the better part of 2 days providing ground support for the B-17 as it was doing paid tours.  Mostly crowd management and making sure people didn’t wander off the ramp.

Sunday afternoon I was told that there was a seat available for me on the B-17 as it was being re-positioned from Manassas VA, to Hickory NC on Monday 10/2.  Easy decision, and I informed work and my family I was going to be on the road.

Some of the photos from the weekend (including my daughters helping cleaning oil off the horizontal stabilizer.

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This past weekend was the EAA SportAir Composite class in Manassas VA.  I had posted that I was planning on attending and was excited to become more familiar with the techniques of how to work with Fiberglass (and other composites).  My instructor had a ton of experience was as truly a veteran builder.  Granted he was not really the biggest fan of the Vans line of aircraft, however we all are entitled to our own opinions.  With that said, he presented a lot of information about composites, general construction techniques, and a breakdown of the generally accepted building materials.

After this intro, we got into the hands on portion of the class and started our first few projects.  Starting with the basics, we made a sandwich layup of fiberglass and last-a-foam board that was then vacuum bagged.  This was pretty straightforward, you just need the right materials / tools (vacuum pump, fittings, breather fabric, etc).  Then it was onto some hot-wire to make an airfoil.

While all pretty cool, these were not very “RV Specific” projects.  Yes, there is an RV Composite specific class, but I did not have the ability or time to fly out to Oshkosh to take it.  Maybe in a year or so?

The discussion of humidity and temperature control in your build space when working with composites is very valuable.  As was the discussion on the different epoxy systems.  I know that everyone is a huge fan of “West systems” and we even used it in the class.  Based on the properties, mixing methods, and recommendation of the instructor, I think I’ll be using Aeropoxy for my project.  Also why you use Flox, Micro balloons, or a structural epoxy vs laminating epoxy was priceless.

I think the best project for me was making a fairing for the wheel leg.  This involved using clay to create a contour for the fiberglass.  While not specifically what I was expecting, this was very close to how I was planning to make my modification to the VS fairing.  We’ll see how successful I am.

Anyway, as a primer to fiberglass and techniques on how to work with it, I think this was an excellent class.  I’m absolutely planning on taking the RV composites class as well as the avionics class in the future.