Sep 26, 2021     Completed the tail cone - (22.1 hours) Category: Empennage

Finally finished riveting skins and completed section 10. There are a couple items different from the plans, namely I have a composite tail cone cover from ShowPlanes that I have not installed because it needs the cabin cover to be installed first.

  Sep 12, 2021     Tailcone 10.20.2 - (4.8 hours)       Category: Empennage

Cleco'd the tail together with the skins and started riveting. Did most of the bottom skin backriveting and started preparing the additional mounts that will go in the tail, which need to be included with the bottom and bulkhead riveting. Additional mounts are the pitch servo, yaw servo, oxygen system tank, ELT and the ADHRS. The tail end is sure a tight location for me to rivet. I ended up using an extension on my rivet gun to reach the corer AN4-4 rivets for the corner braces.

  Sep 07, 2021     Tailcone 10.19.2 - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Commenced riveting

  Sep 05, 2021     Tailcone dimpling competed - (1.7 hours)       Category: Empennage

I finished dimpling the last skin needed for building the RV-10. I still have more to do internally to the aircraft, but it's nice milestone to finish the skins. I'll start riveting the tail next and will get it mounted on the fuselage, followed by taking a break from airframe building to assemble my engine and get it tested.

  Aug 31, 2021     Tailcone 10.16.3 - (2.8 hours)       Category: Empennage

Dimple O'Rama....just dimple, dimple, dimple.

  Aug 28, 2021     Tailcone 10.16 - (4.1 hours) Category: Empennage

Lots of deburring and dimpling… I'll be so glad when this part is done.

  Aug 27, 2021     Tailcone 10.16.1 - (2.8 hours)       Category: Empennage

Disassembled the tailcone, trimmed the right skin and then machine countersink longerons, dimples, clean up parts. A little more dimpling to go and then on to riveting.

  Aug 26, 2021     Tailcone through 10.14 - (2.8 hours)       Category: Empennage

I finished drilling the aft deck and making brackets. I installed Cleaveland Tools static ports. They have worked well on my previous build and are much more substantial than the "rivet" per plans. I have largely stuck to Van's plans on the 10, but I also have a bunch of little things that I'm doing different, such as these static ports.

I used JB Weld for installing the static ports; it truly is "welded" in. It doesn't have the flexibility of pro-seal, but it's a fraction of the price and very strong and a great choice for joints that need to be rigid.

  Aug 03, 2021     Tailcone 10-13.5 - (2.1 hours)       Category: Empennage

I am going to be installing a composite tailcone top from ShowPlanes, so I'm spending time to prep the upper skins, however, I did cleco F-1075 into place to provide rigidity and alignment to the tail.

I had to read the instructions multiple times to ensure the positioning of the F-1012D, but am clear on it now and will drill the deck next.

I used my mill again to make both F-1012D and F-1011D brackets. The compound angles on F-1011D went very well on the mill, but would have been difficult to do by hand.

It's starting to look like an airframe!

  Aug 01, 2021     Tailcone 10-11.2 - (2.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Drilled the longerons

  Jul 31, 2021     Tailcone 10-10.1 - (3.3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Worked on internal tail structure.

  Jul 26, 2021     Tailcone 10.7 - (.8 hour)       Category: Empennage

Finished stringers and skins.

  Jul 25, 2021     Tailcone 10-7.4 - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Match drilling skins and stringers…ad nausea

  Jul 22, 2021     Tailcone 10-7.3 - (2.2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished preparing the skins and started match drilling. Also laid out the locations and design for mounting my oxygen tank, ELT, ADAHRS and magnetometer.

  Jul 18, 2021     Tailcone 10-7.3 - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished forming the longerons, preparing the bottom skin and match drilling the bottom J stringers. Started assembling the tailcone skeleton.

  Jul 17, 2021     Elevators and trim tabs completed 9-19 - (4.1 hours)       Category: Empennage

I finished closing out the the trim tabs and installing the piano hinges connecting the tabs to the elevators.

  Jul 16, 2021     Elevators 9-19 Left complete - (2.3 hours) Category: Empennage

Completed the left trim tab and installed it on the left elevator.

  Jul 15, 2021     Trim Tabs 9-17.8 - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Glued in the right tab PVC ribs and riveted through 9-17. Will do the left one next.

  Jul 09, 2021     Tailcone 10-5 - (2.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished cutting and preparing the stringers.

  Jul 08, 2021     Tailcone 10-5.2 - (.6 hour) Category: Empennage

Prepared bulkheads

  Jul 07, 2021     Tailcone 10-4 - (3.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

I made good progress today and enjoyed using my mini-mill for trimming angle aluminum for the view brackets and braces needed in the tail. Lots of drill, debur, and dimple stuff going on.

  Jul 06, 2021     Tailcone 10-2 - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Cut and tapped the tail tie-down point, along with work on the aft bulkhead. I'm happy to say that I'm done with all of the wings and controls and no more "duplicate on the other side" build aspects. It's definitely a milestone as I now focus on singular tasks. I plan to get the tailcone attached to the fuselage, and then take a break from the airframe and go build the engine.

  Jul 06, 2021     Elevators 9-17.7 - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished the trim tabs up through priming after putting the 15 degree bend in the lower edge. This is one of those steps where I do use primer on internal parts; the reason for this being the same as the trailing edge of the elevators; it's an enclosed component without ability to visually inspect internally.

I ran out of adhesive and am still waiting on it to arrive, so I'm moving on to the tail cone and will come back to close out the tabs when the glue arrives. All that remains is the riveting, which is the easy part really.

  Jul 05, 2021     Elevators 9-16 - (4.7 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished the elevators and about completed the trim tabs. The PVC ribs in the elevator trailing edge cured in place nicely. Even though I used a thin smear of adhesive, it still oozed out a bit, but is solidly in place.

  Jul 04, 2021     Elevators 9-15, steps 1, 2 & 8 - (3.9 hours)       Category: Empennage

Completed the trailing edges and closed out the skins, and then milled the lead weights to dimension.

I did paint the trailing edge out; there is an opening that I can reach a nozzle in to for future Corrosion X control, but it's also small, so hard to inspect, except by borescope. I primed it, as I will the trim tabs, as an additional measure.

The trailing edge riveting, much like the rudder, was very easy with the squeezer.

  Jul 03, 2021     Elevators 9-14-6 - (4.1 hours)       Category: Empennage

They're starting to look a lot like elevators now. The worst kind of riveting occurs on these, where you are barely able to hold bucking bar with your fingers (I have XL hands) through the corner of a rib with the skin bent up and blindly holding the bar to what you hope is the rivet head. It takes a little practice, but having tungsten bars is a huge benefit for these tight, blind spots. Other than that, it went pretty smooth and I finished step six by doing the MK-319-BS rivets on the bottom root rib. Next is closing out the trailing edge and the trim tabs.

  Jul 02, 2021     Elevators thru 9-12 - (3.4 hours)       Category: Empennage

Definitely not perfection, but solid. In review, the MK-319 rivets are the easy choice instead of doing solid rivets on the aft spar with the long bucking bar. I did a pretty good job on getting a good shop head on all of the rivets, but in that you are bending the skin upward slightly to reach in with the bucking bar, it's easy to make small marks in the skin next to the rivet on the aft side of the spar, and I made a few of them, but nothing that can't be cured in the paint shop.

  Jun 28, 2021     Elevator 9-11 - (.8 hour) Category: Empennage

Finished riveting on page 9-11.

  Jun 27, 2021     Elevators 9-11-3 - (4.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Only a page in the drawings, but a long one completing the back riveting portion of the build, which is not really hard or complex, but it's a lot “rinse and repeat” work. I'll be glad to finish the elevators, which is the last of the really repetitive work I have left, having already completed the wings and rest of the control surfaces.

  Jun 26, 2021     Elevators through 9-9 - (6.9 hours)       Category: Empennage

Completed all of the drilling, deburring, dimpling and preparation. The next step would be to prime the parts if desired...I don't desire as I will spray biennially with Corrosion X, a much better, long term, solution over priming.

I don't have any Pro-Seal on hand, but Van's calls for this to adhere the PVC blocks inside the trailing edge of the elevators and trim tabs. On previous builds, I had talked with Van's tech support where they let me know that they use the fuel tank sealant simply because they have this on-hand, however, suggested that any flexible, fuel resistant adhesive could do the job. I've generally used 3M Super Weatherstrip Adhesive, but had 3M 1099 Nitrile adhesive and Lexel sealant on hand, so thought I'd make a little experiment. BTW, I have avoided using RTV on aircraft for a couple reasons, one, it tends to soften when exposed to fuel and oil, and two, silicone isn't paintable, so not a good thing to use on airframe parts that would be painted.

The experiment went well, with the Yellow adhesive being the run-away winner. Lexel is definitely not very adhesive, but is good sealant on acrylic material. I used a force gauge to test, the Level just came away with about 2 pounds force. The 3M 1099 is pretty good, but I was able to break it away from aluminum with about 14 pounds force. The 3M Yellow Super Weatherstrip Adhesive 80001 was still holding well at 30 pounds force, which exceeds the amount of force I would imagine would be a normally experienced by a piece of weatherstrip. The bottom line is that I'm using Yellow for adhering my PVC blocks internal to the elevators.

The PortaCool was pricey - but worth every penny!

  Jun 22, 2021     Elevators 9-6 - (.9 hour)       Category: Empennage

Cleco'd skins and counterweight ribs on. Final drilled lots of holes... trimmed the trailing edge and cleco'd skins on.

  Jun 22, 2021     Elevators 9-5 - (2.1 hours) Category: Empennage

Cleco and match drill ribs and doublers, deburr and prep rest of metal parts.

  Jun 19, 2021     Elevators 9-4 - (2.6 hours)       Category: Empennage

Completed through drawing 9-4. Deburring skins and preparing parts is by the far most disliked part of building an airplane for me. But I'm through that now as I've prepped all of the parts for the elevators now.

  Jun 13, 2021     Elevators start 9-2 - (2.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Separated, pealed blue plastic, trimmed, demurred and matched the 16 ribs. Prepared the end ribs as well. This is super repetitive and the part of building I truly do not like.

  Jun 12, 2021     Rudder fairing completion 12-3 - (.5 hour)       Category: Empennage

Mounted the fairings, applied a smooth layer of micro and sanded with 400 grit.

  Jun 07, 2021     Rudder fairing mounting 12-3 - (1.1 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished sanding the lower fairing with 400 grit. Trimmed and initial drilled #40 holes.

  Jun 06, 2021     Rudder Lower Fairing finish coat - (.6 hour)       Category: Empennage

I rough sanded the flox down and then put a thick coat of micro on, which I'll then smooth down and finish with 600 grit.

  Jun 02, 2021     Rudder lower fairing S12-3 - (.5 hour)       Category: Empennage

Using Aveo Engineering wing ZipTips that have recognition lights on the rear of the tips, I don't need to install a rear position light on the rudder. I cut out the light mount and glassed in the opening. I had considered, and attempted, to put some backing inside the cut fairing as I had seen others post online, but then determined it would make for a nicer form to put backing on the outside and lay glass inside, which I did.

The next step will be to fill in the holes and make it flush with flox, followed by finishing it out with some micro.

  May 01, 2021     Rudder - completed - (2.3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Riveted the trailing edge, rolled the leading edge and riveted, and then installed the counter weight. As with most of the sections, the majority of time and effort is spent on the preparation - which can be a bit repetitious and monotonous, but the rest of the assembly is enjoyable to me.

I worked hard to ensure no variations on my trailing edge and the end result is that it's nearly flush with a straight edge. The biggest variation is where installed the trim tab (I back-riveted vice squeezed due to not being able to get a yoke with the angled set around the tab), which was less than 0.020" over 6", so well within the tolerance of 0.100" per 1-2".

It's definitely not perfect. I had a couple rivets I redid, but it's structurally sound and I'm satisfied with it.

  Apr 30, 2021     Rudder - spar 7-10 - (3.8 hours)       Category: Empennage

Got the spar riveted in and completed through drawing 7-10. I used 3M VHB tape to close out the trailing edge. I found it was easy to use, but does require you to thoroughly clean the surface, which I used denatured alcohol for, and then be careful to not let it touch until you're ready to stick it; once the tape sets, it's very solid and I recommend using this over proseal.

  Apr 29, 2021     Rudder riveting - (4.9 hours)       Category: Empennage

Completed back riveting the skins and through 7-7. While I do have a backrivet set, I've found that I get a nicer shop head with a polished 1" flush set; it allows better centering in tight spots, such as against the stringers. And once you get practiced at back riveting, the back rivet shroud is just annoyance anyway.

I also created a 6" tall fixed rudder trim tab from 0.032". It extends 2" beyond the rudder and is positioned to be above any draft from the Horizontal Stabilizer, yet low as possible to provide the tab the longest moment arm (smaller adjustments have a bigger effect). I will bend it to be neutral to the rudder chord line until flying the airplane and adjust left from there [keep in mind that trim tabs move the opposite of what you want the control to do]. I did consider the spring loaded adjust from Aerosport, however once trim is set for flat footed cruise, it's rarely adjusted unless something physically changes in the airplane, which is unlikely and would only result in another ground adjustment of the fixed trim tab. The Aerosport rudder trim kit is nice and would likely be very nice for adjustments during climb and descent as well - however, I have a yaw servo to handle that task and just wanted to have a trim tab do the reference trim setting in cruise.

Other thoughts are that rather than stick a wedge trim tab onto the rudder after completion, I wanted to have a flush riveted tab, which can only be done nicely during construction. And I can always cut it down later if needed.

  Apr 28, 2021     Rudder...done dimpling - (2.7 hours)       Category: Empennage

Primed the rudder horn and stops and the finish all match/final drilling and dimpled skins, spar and ribs. There's a lot of "rinse and repeat" type activities going on here....

Ready to start back riveting the skins.

  Apr 27, 2021     Workin' the Rudder - (4.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Started and got through drawing 7-6, step 2. Rolling through the build today.

  Apr 17, 2021     VS 6-6-10, Completed - (3.4 hours)       Category: Empennage

Completed section 6, the Vertical Stabilizer. No issues and a very simple build. Definitely the easiest component on the airplane to build of all the assemblies. Turned out nice. My small tungsten bucking bar was perfect for reaching up in side, but was able to squeeze a nearly all of the skeleton and structural rivets.

  Apr 16, 2021     VS through 6-6-3 - (4.3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished all preparation, dimpling and rudder bracket mounting. Riveted the skeleton and forward half of skin up to the front spar.

  Apr 15, 2021     Vertical Stabilizer - (7.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Cleaned up, final drilled, dimpled and countersunk all parts through page 4. Ready for riveting together.

  Mar 29, 2021     HS Completed - (3.4 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished section 8, with the horizontal stabilizer complete. I moved it, along with the wings, out to the hangar today.

  Mar 27, 2021     HS...a riveting time - (3.8 hours)       Category: Empennage

I continued riveting the skins to the ribs and spars. It's a lot of rivets. My tungsten bucking bar was a wonderful investment.

  Mar 21, 2021     HS continued riveting - (2.6 hours)       Category: Empennage

I riveted the forward spar, inspires and started on the skin up to KAI 8-13, step 2. The tungsten bucking bar is a wonderful. I find that it's easier to rivet the skins with the HS laying flat on sawhorses, rather than vertical in cradles...YMMV.

  Mar 20, 2021     HS dimpling away - (5.6 hours)       Category: Empennage

I riveted the stringers, forward ribs and inspars and made progress on the left skin. The Numatx riveter is worth its weight in gold.

  Mar 13, 2021     HS Dimpling and stuff - (1.2 hours)       Category: Empennage

I dimpled one of the HS skins and then made a hammer tool for the engine crankcase through-bolts. This is to allow the needed force to insert the bolts while protecting the threads. This little tool, made from 2" cold rolled steel round stock, weighs right at 3 pounds and should work great to provide needed momentum without any damage to the bolts. I milled both ends square and then drilled a 1" deep 29/64" hole and then tapped to 1/2-20. Spins nicely onto the bolts. One of the more interesting parts of building for me is the special tooling and their uses.

  Mar 10, 2021     HS parts preparation - (1.7 hours) Category: Empennage

Finish final drill of skins and then machine countersunk the spars and stringers.

  Mar 08, 2021     HS 8-9 completed - (1.3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Cleco'd and match drilled the spars, stringers and skins.

  Feb 28, 2021     HS Skins and spars - (2.4 hours)       Category: Empennage

I cleco'd the forward ribs and inspars to the forward spar, and then the mid-stringers. I deburred the skins and started cleco'ing them to the stringers, ribs and spars.

  Feb 26, 2021     HS forward spar - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Completed through KAI 8-7. The key to progress is to just keep doing working on it - I try to work a little everyday.

The Numatx squeezer proves over and over that it's one of the most valuable tools in my shop. I prepped the rest of the HS parts, which is an annoying routine of removing blue plastic coating and deburring, which is my least favorite task of building. But, then I set and squeezed the spar doubler section of the forward spar, HS-1002 in just a few minutes with excellent, nearly identical shop heads - one of my favorite parts of building.

  Feb 24, 2021     HS forward spar - (2.4 hours)       Category: Empennage

Debur, match drill, ream and final drill HS-1002 forward spar, doubler, brackets and spar cap stringers. It's amazing how much time can be spent just cleaning up and preparing parts. The actual assembly of the horizontal stabilizer is really just the final step after a great deal of part preparation. I also decided to prime these parts as they will be more difficult to reach with corrosion X and perform internal visual inspections.

I started prep on KAI 8-6

  Feb 23, 2021     HS spars and stringers - (1.4 hours)       Category: Empennage

I trimmed, deburred and started drilling the forward spar along with the HS-1013-1015 stringers. I drilled out the spar web and doubler with the brackets

  Feb 22, 2021     HS stringers - (.8 hour)       Category: Empennage

Stripped and trimmed the HS-1013 through 1015 stringers. I use a small cut-off grinder to separate thin metal parts and do straight line trimming such as this.

  Feb 21, 2021     HS-1008 brackets - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

I cut, and then milled and drilled the HS-1008 left and right brackets on my trusty Little Machine Shop mini-mill (and awesome tool indeed).

For the folks out there that like to send me comments about how "there's too much swarf in your photos", (amazingly enough, I actually have gotten a couple comments to that effect), you make a lot of swarf with a mill... I recommend a shop vac.

The nice part about drilling on a milling machine is that if you clamp both parts to the base plate, you can setup the the drilling dimensions once and have assurance that all of the holes match and are very accurately placed. My method is to measure and mark on the bench, then install in the mill and use a DRO to center and then drill the parts.

  Feb 20, 2021     Horizontal Stabilizer, section 8 - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Worked through 8-2

  Oct 05, 2018     Inventory - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

It took me a while to get around to completing this inventory, but it was very straight forward. All of the parts are staged on shelves and the crate is broken down. There were no parts missing or defective.

I do have a many parts bins and plan to break out all of the small bags into those bins as work progresses. While keeping them in the bags for now is good to keep track, having them in easily accessible parts bins makes building a lot easier.

  Sep 13, 2018     The empennage arrives - (.5 hour) Category: Empennage

The fine folks at ABF shipping delivered my crate in excellent condition and helped me roll it up in to the garage

  Aug 31, 2018     Empennage kit purchase - (.3 hour) Category: Empennage

I ordered my empennage kit. The price includes crating and shipping. I was pleasantly surprised to find Van's provided a discount for previous builders, a.k.a. ""repeat offenders"".