My first pre-closure inspection for empennage and wings has been completed. There were few snags found but in general things went well. Now I have to get some snags fixed and filled in the snag sheet. Next will be closure of my parts and move to the next journey – Fuselage build!
Flaps and fuel tanks leak test! DONE.
Past two weeks were full of work on our RV10 build. We also traveled with my wife and kids on our PA28-235 to Victoria and around the area.
I was successfully able to finish my flaps until the point where they are ready for inspection. Also I performed leak test for my fuel tanks, just the very first initial test with water and got very good results – no leaks at all.
Enjoy some pictures and video above 🙂
Fuel tanks and more! Here we go!
If you ever need to work with Pro Seal tank sealant, well… be prepared, be ready as this thing is so stick and makes all your tools and surroundings dirty as hell!
I did survived that 🙂 and my fuel tanks are almost ready! Still need to go through inspection and also still have to test them (no pressure test and pressure test).
On another note we had some local Halloween party for kids as well as some meeting with close friends.
Below is my report in pictures and also some videos about work done, enjoy!
Riveting top skins of the wings + extra
The day has come and I started to work on my wing’s top skins riveting. This is definitely two person job, unless you use back riveting technic. My father was able to help me on this and it was a 10 hours journey.
Moving one step closer to wings riveting
Here we go – new update about my RV10 build. All ribs and other parts are ready for riveting on to main spar. This will be the next step.
In the mean time my younger one went to school (kinder garden) and my older one finally finished her 1000pcs puzzle 🙂
For now some pictures and video of the progress.
Wings spars are now completed!
Here we go – I was able to finish both of my wings spars. Good news! It took a while though because I was a bit busy with other work here plus we all got some sort of sore throat/flu. All this postponed my wing spars assembly by over a week time. Anyway now it is all done and below you may enjoy few pictures and video taken during this build. My next target is: Wing ribs!
Wings! Wings! Wings!
Starting now I will be working on my wings assembly for my RV10 airplane. I already started to work on these and even completed one video about it. So far I can say that the work related to wings assembly is not that much different from the tailcone assembly process. However way more holes in wings thus more drilling/match drilling/etc will be required. Lets see and guess how long will it take me to complete this part of my airplane. My guess is about a year or so..
I decided to post not only pictures of my RV10 build here but also some pictures of the events happening around the time of build. That probably will make a good memories 🙂
Tailcone – Completed!!!
I am glad to admit that my tailcone assembly has finally been completed. It took me 303 hours to get it to the state as it is now and will likely require additional 40-45 hours to finish it up after Canadian inspection is completed
This was long journey with number of issues and questions. Now it is all done and I am happy to move on to the next part: Wings assembly. Before that however I will need to finish my elevator’s trailing edges.
Two videos below are the final videos for the empenage build. It is officially done now!
Tailcone – Getting ready soon!
These past three weeks were very busy. I went to USA, to Aurora, OR to visit Van’s Aircraft factory and pick up my wings for RV10. That was during COVID time, thus I took all required precautions to stay safe.
At the same time we finished construction of our kitchen at the hangar. We finally can seat all together with kids and have lunch while watching TV at our hangar.
Finally I started annual inspection of our Piper PA28-235. This is separate process and I do some videos about it aswell.
My tailcone gets ready. I already finished riveting and assembly of the aft deck. Now its time to rivet top skins and all should be finally done.
Tailcone – Riveting mode ON
Here we go – I just started riveting of my tailcone parts all together. This year summer still not here. It is June 13th outside and still rainy. I can count how many CAVOK days I found in 2020 during April-June using my fingers on my hands. Anyway my Piper is now almost due for its annual. I heard that we may extend that by up to 15% time so I hope I can get my extended till July and slowly move it to September, October or even November cycle during next 1-2 years.
I spent two work days riveting my tailcone parts and riveting skins. While at my hangar I am getting shower installed I have no hot water. Anyway that was not a problem for my kids and wife to come and help me working on the tailcone. Today was a good working day. I riveted about 30% of skins. More to follow 🙂
