First step in this section is to fabricate two torque tubes which are used to push and pull on a bellcrank mounted on the spar. This bellcrank converts the horizontal motion into fore and aft motion to move the aileron up and down.

Torque tubes and end caps

Drilling holes for the end caps

End caps riveted on

Both tubes completed and aileron torque tube ends shown too.

I then fabricated the bellcrank to aileron pushrods as well as the start of another set of aileron torque tubes which sit at the root of the wing and partly attach to bearings on the end of the gas tank. Seeing I hadn’t yet leak tested my tanks, I needed to take a break and do that, prior to reattaching them to the wings.

Leak testing the tanks is relatively straightforward. The idea is to seal off all openings, pressurize the tanks just enough (too much pressure can cause damage) and spray soapy water all over the seams and joints to see if there are any leaks. A bicycle pump valve is provided in the kit to go into the fuel drain port. This allows you to use a bicycle pump to inject air into the tank, pressurizing it. The fuel pickup and, in my case, fuel return line needed to be capped off. In order to provide a safety valve, a balloon is placed on the tank vent port and will inflate as you add air into the tank. The balloon acts as a safety valve and will pop prior to allowing too much pressure to be added to the tank.

Adding air to the tank

Spraying all the rivets and surfaces with soapy water

Of course, never doing this before, I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to see if there was indeed a leak. On the first tank I attached the balloon to the vent port with duct tape and a zip-tie. It clearly didn’t work very well and the slow leak exhibited itself by really bubbling up.

Balloon connection had a small leak. 

On the second attempt, I placed some fuel lube inside the neck of the balloon, used some string to ensure a better connection, along with a ziptie. That seemed to do the trick. No leaks and the balloon stayed inflated overnight.

I then was able to reattach the tanks to the wings and am relieved that the tanks didn’t have any detectable leaks in them.

With that behind me, I was able to get back to getting the aileron control system fully hooked up.

Wing root torque tube attached. Getting ready to attach the main pushrod.

Getting ready to attach the pushrod to the bellcrank

In order to properly set the length of the tube there is a jig that is inserted in the bellcrank that sets the neutral position. One must them make sure that the hole on the arm back at the wing root is exactly 2 9/32″ from the edge of the tank to the center of the hole

Setting the tube length based on the neutral position with the W-730 Jig

Exactly 2 and 9/32″ to the hole center.

All hooked up, looking down the wing

I then started getting the actual aileron and flaps placed onto the wing to set their neutral position. It is then that I discovered that I had riveted the end of the gap fairing on the wrong way. In setting up the flap position it says that the nose of the flap should sit against the spar doubler. Well instead, mine was sitting against the gap fairing, which didn’t seem correct… I went back in the plans, and sure enough, I did it wrong. Nothing that drilling out a few rivets and flipping it around can’t solve..

That 1021B-L part is not oriented the correct way. DOH!

After drilling out 4 rivets and flipping it around. Much better, and makes more sense.

The flap is used to set the neutral position of the aileron by clamping the trailing edges together with some aluminum angle. Then with the W-730 Jig back in place to set the pushrod neutral position, the bellcrank to aileron pushrod length is adjusted so that it is perfectly fits when both items are in their neutral position.

Flap and Aileron clamped together

View of left wing with both flap and aileron installed

Bellcrank to aileron pushrod attached to aileron

W-730 Jig back in place with bolt coming through the pushrod in the upper right of the jig meaning everything is perfectly aligned.

A view looking down at the finalized bellcrank assembly. 

Sorry for the lack of updates recently.

Since the last update, I’ve been able to get the Pitot Tube bracket all ready to install.Like a few other RV-10 builders, I’ve decided to put my Pitot further outboard as compared to plans. I’ve placed it in the 2nd to last wing bay. This will keep it out of the way of the tie-down ring/rope and any possibility of getting it caught up.

Mounting the Pitot  involved adding a piece of aluminum angle to the outboard rib such that the bracket would sit flush with the rib flange and allow the bottom wing skin to sit flush to the rib. I also used the bracket to draw the outline of the cut needed on the bottom skin. A unibit was used to cut the initial holes and then files were used to shape and debur the cut.

Making sure the bracket sits flush to the rib flange

Aluminum Angle support riveted to the rib

Using the bracket to drill the bottom skin.

All Filed clean

Testing the Pitot Mount fit through the bottom skin cut

Pitot Mast in rough place with the bottom wing skin on.

All the holes are now match drilled.

I then moved on to continue the bottom skin section of the plans.

I will finish this section up until the point of actually riveting the bottom skins in place. I plan to do that at a much later date. While things like auto-pilot servos and wiring can be done after the fact, it’ll be much better to allow access for these tasks later on.

The first part after dealing with the pitot tube, was to match drill and rivet on the gap fairings for the aileron and flaps. Below they are shown cleco’ed in place. I’ve already riveted them, but apparently didn’t take any pictures of them finished.

I’ve also got the J-channel stiffeners all in place and match drilled to the bottom skins. The bottom skins are also match drilled to the ribs and spars. All that is left for this section is to debur everything and dimple all the holes.

Next up was to knock off fuel tank related items so I could get to a spot where I could proseal the fuel senders and the fuel return ports onto the tank.

First I had to bend the sender rod as shown in the plans. 

Then I needed to test out the sender to make sure it can go stop-to-stop without hitting anything inside the tank. Mostly the fuel vent line is what typically gets in the way. I measured the resistance at the stops on the bench to know what values I should see. I then used a string down through the drain opening to help me pull the float up and down in the tank. I had to bend the float towards the front of the tank to get it to not hit the vent line. After a couple of iterations, I declared success.

I then started on the fuel return port. The EFII instructions only require that you place the fuel return at least 3 inches away from the feed line to prevent bubbles from fuel being returned to the tank from being picked up and sent back into the feed line. After reviewing some posts on VAF, and seeing multiple other people put their fuel return lines in a spot that would interfere with attaching the tank and the wing to the main spar, I decided the best spot was just forward of the vent line port. Several others ended up with similar placement. Once the spot was decided, I had to drill a 0.5″ hole for the center AN fitting and surrounding holes for the screws which help prevent rotation of the bung.

I’ll let this sit for a while to cure, then it’ll be time to leak test the tank.

I was also able to enlarge the holes in the wing ribs to 3/4″ to accept conduit for my wire runs. I also added a second 7/16″ hole to run a second static line to my Pitot tube for its AOA function.

Garmin GAP26 Heated Pitot Tube and Mount

Static lines and conduit routed 

Right wing, just conduit here

Even with Quick Build wings, the instructions tell you to go over everything step-by-step to make sure everything was completed. This was the discrepancy list I came up with after my review:

Of course some of the complete sections that have yet to be done, are expected. The following shows the sections that a Quick builder has to complete. (All the shaded sections)

I started knocking off some of the list above by tapping the tie-down blocks, and installing the nutplates on the inboard edges of the wings, also removing the fuel tanks and riveting on the bearings to the attachment bracket. I seem to be jumping around a bit based on what makes sense next.

I’m currently thinking strongly about utilizing both Electronic Ignitions and Electronic Fuel injection systems in the plane. The electronic fuel injection requires fuel to circulate back to the tanks, requiring me to add a fuel return fitting to my already completed tanks. I ordered these “bungs” from EFII which make adding a port like this relatively straight forward. If I don’t end up going that way, these will be easy to cap off.

While waiting for these and some proseal to come in, I started working on section 19; The Stall warning system.

The Stiffener acts as a template

It’s really tough to drill and cut through a perfectly good skin.

4 corner holes with cutout outline

Access Panel cut complete

Stiffener with nutplates installed.

Holes drilled and rough cut of the slot for the stall warning vane

Slot complete

My Quick build wings were ready to ship about mid-way though January. I decided to use Partain Trading Company for shipping. These guys specialize in hauling these Quick Build kits. The Kit goes into the truck and doesn’t leave the truck until it gets to its destination. Because of this, there is no need to crate the wings, and the $400 crating charge vanishes. I believe that possible damage to things is greatly minimized, probably as close to zero chance as you can get. There’s no on and off multiple trucks and forklifts as it makes its way across the country via normal freight. Also the drivers are very willing to help out with getting the kit to its final destination, my garage! The only downsides are they make trips every couple of weeks, so my wings weren’t picked up at Van’s until the end of January. So there’s a little delay in getting the kit, but seemed well worth it to me. The communications with the trucking company (actually the driver) was excellent. There were some additional delays due to the crane breaking and some bad weather (we got about 14″ of snow on my original scheduled delivery day). The driver kept in touch on a daily basis to let me know what was going on, and today (Saturday morning) my wings were delivered, despite getting an additional 1-2″ of snow overnight, snow continuing throughout the delivery, and the roads weren’t all that great out for a tractor trailer lightly loaded.

I was able to inventory everything today and should be ready  to get going on looking over the wings more carefully against the plans tomorrow after my 2nd tech councilor meeting in the morning. Some pics of my delivery today!

Aileron

Flap

Aileron and Flap Placed on one wing

My Quickbuild Fuselage is due to be shipped in the May timeframe, so I have a few months to get the wings finished up.

In other news: Last night my wife and I found out that we are having a baby boy in July. I’m sure I won’t have nearly the same amount of free time after that point. That is the leading reason for deciding to go the quick build route on both wings and fuselage. I’ll need all the acceleration I can get if I want to finish this thing anytime in the not so distant future!