Static Ports

Static Ports

I decided to deviate from the plans and buy an after market static port kit.  I'm sure the Vans solution works great, however I've heard some of the tubing will leak but then I also heard some aftermarket kits tend to induce calibration errors on the avionics.  For you non-pilots an airplanes static system is utilized for your Airspeed Indicator, Altimeter and Vertical speed indicator... all very important things and especially important for flying in clouds.  Knowing this the RV-10 was designed with two ports for redundancy.

After a good bit of research I went with Cleveland tools Static Port and Plumbing Kit.  It's about twice as much as the $20 Vans solution but I'm sure most of that is tied up in the machined port fittings vs Vans setup of using a cherry rivet.  I had some concern about using pro-seal to attach the port and after talking to Mike at Cleveland and some more research apparently I came across 3M Scotch-weld Epoxy Adhesive 2216. It's expensive so that means it must be good... actually a few guys on the board swear by it so who am I to argue.  In the end it's justifiable considering you don't want these flying off in flight.

Complete Kit with Epoxy

 Prep work is always important when using adhesives, the area has to be cleaned and etched a bit prior to installing.  In this case I had already primed/painted the interior so that had to be sanded down to bare metal.  I worked off of the original static holes and enlarged them with a unibit and finished them up with some deburring.  Then after taping the area used the fitting as a guide and cut the middle portion out.  Sanded the middle part out, pull the tape off and cleaned with acetone.

Not perfect but enough cleared area to work

Then it's a matter of mixing up the epoxy, putting some of the material on the skin and on the fitting.  Pushing the fitting in place and rotating it around to get a clean edge and ensure everything is together.  Clamping is a bit of a pain, I used 6" clamps and duct tape to hold the fitting in and took some time ensuring it was symmetrical as possible.  Used acetone to make sure no material got in any places I didn't want it and left it for a good 24 hours to cure.

Looks much better than a cherry rivet

Good even amount of epoxy

Running the lines is about a 5 min job after thinking about how you want to run it for 25 mins.  I plan on putting in an air conditioner in the plane which means I will have a shelf back there with an evaporator on one side.  With that in mind I decided to route the line on the opposite side of the tail. It's actually a non issue if I decide to move it since I will wait towards the end to tie down the lines and what not.

Wing Cradle

Wing Cradle

With the empennage complete and while waiting for the next set of kits I don't have a whole lot of hands on labor activities that I can do.  I have plenty of paperwork exercises around the planning and a good bit of reading I can do but it was nice out this weekend and I was itching for a project.

Going the quick build route means the wings are going to come 95% assembled.  This is great but I need a place to store them and a convenient way of moving them around.  Luckily someone else thought of this first and even put the plans for public consumption.  One builder whose log I look at periodically has them posted, but in case something happens to the site I'll copy the highlights.

Material wise I spent about $50 total.  If you have some of this stuff laying around you can make it a bit cheaper. This entire thing is made with;

• 4 4" castering wheels
• 2 2x6x10'
• 3 2x4x10'
• 1 2x4x8'
• 1 16" x 8' length of carpet
• 1 box 3" wood screws

Mouser provided a handy chart for the length cuts, as you can see the 2x6's don't get cut.

10'	28"	28"	28"	24"	9"
10'	28"	24"	24"	24"	16"
10'	24"	24"	23.75"	23.75"	16"
8'	23.75"	10.25"	10.25"	10.25"	10.25

After that you just use 3" screws to put everything together per the picture.  There are probably a number of ways you can construct it but if you're making these chances are you're building an airplane so should be easy to figure out.   In my case I partially built the frames first but then on the carpeted end built from the middle out so everything was snug.  Last part of the framing was to close the 2x4 ends in next to the 2x6s and then finish it up with the wheels and carpet.  I didn't do locking wheels, mainly because I picked them up at Harbor Freight for $4 a pop and didn't see a locking option.  All in all it took me maybe 3 hours total to complete.

Wing Cradle

Empennage Completed!

Empennage Completed!

Cutting to the chase after close to 250 hours over the last 6 months I completed the first kit of my RV-10.  Now I use the term completed lightly because there will be other steps later where I return back to this section.  There's a cowling that comes with the finishing kit (I think), I will have to mount antennas, lights and probably various other things as well as rivet the top two sections which will remain cleco'd for now.

Empennage Completed!

Proof I was there!

Fiberglass Work

Prior to the above picture I had continued to do fiberglass work.  It's been a bit of a slow process but wanted to use it as a learning tool, really get my feet wet on various fiber glass techniques.  There's some great resources out there on how to work with fiberglass and I'll include some pictures but I was a bit all over the place so it's not documented very well.  Here are some highlights of some of the techniques I used.

• Basics of cutting cloth and doing layup, both with colored pigment and clear.
• Used Flox (Resin, hardener, microballoons) to contour some edges on the inside of pieces as practice.
• Used Flox to get a flat smooth finish on the outside of pieces
• Made a custom curved wood sanding block to get a consistent curve on the HS leading pieces
• Skimcoating to fill scratches and pinholes.
• Primed fiberglass pieces did some sanding ect for cosmetic purposes.

Now here are a few of the in progress images... some things I did twice, for example after first application of primer to the pieces I decided I didn't like it and learned how to do skim coats.  Turned out much better...

Post fiberglass and major sanding.

Using Epoxy and Micro balloons 

Hard to see but this had a lot of pinholes

Custom inside radius sanding block

 After sanding I ended up with a marbled piece showing the various techniques I used.  This is after I sanded to contour and applied two skim coats to fill any pinholes.  Makes it a bit interesting looking.

• Black - Cloth and epoxy with pigment
• White - Epoxy and microballons (Flox)
• Light gray - really thick Flox, more balloons the lighter it gets
• Dark Gray - Thin Flox used as filler
• Clear - Can't see it but there's resin over the top.

Primed

Sanded primer with 1000 grit and installed

Final fitting

HS piece not primed or screwed in.

Next Steps

The QB Wings and Fuselage are due to be here March/April but that could easily become April/May or May/June... who knows.  To keep the building mentality going there are a number of things I plan on getting done before these major structures arrive.  I won't be clock ours towards the project unless I'm physically touching the plane but some of these are going to take a substantial amount of time.  Here's what I'm looking at done prior to getting the QB parts.

• Read through the Wing and Fuselage plans preparing to my own QA when I get my parts.
• Construct a rolling wing cradle per these plans.
• Update project plan baseline to include things I plan on adding/removing/changing.
• Update Paint scheme with some other ideas I've had... maybe silver and black, maybe all black... maybe pink with baby unicorns.
• Read through AC 43.13.. more of an educational item for me.