Tonight I made the first parts for the actual airplane!
The plans have you start on the vertical stabilizer first.
The first step is to trim and debur the rear spar caps, which is now done. I also gathered some additional pieces for the next couple of steps out of inventory.
One step down.. thousands to go. 🙂
Spent some time this weekend doing the airfoil practice project. It consists of 2 basic projects; An angle frame attached to 2 skins that overlap each other, the other is a miniature section of an airfoil. The whole point of doing this was to get familiar with my tools on something that isn’t the real airplane. Better to make mistakes on this, and mistakes I made. Even though I was frustrated, they were all things that I took note of for next time, and the projects didn’t come out all that bad.
A picture of the first project:
I thought this came out pretty good with the exception that the overlapping skin wasn’t aligned perfectly with the inner skin. I think I didn’t clamp things down enough to prevent movement. I’ll know better next time.
Then I moved on to the airfoil kit and made quite a bit of progress. I was able to do some back riveting and got to use my pneumatic squeezer.
Stiffeners clecoed onto the skins   
 Stiffeners back-riveted on. A lot of these are over driven, and should have been replaced. Air setting was too high on my gun.
A view of the plans and the spar, plates, and ribs laid out.
 Top and Bottom skin clecoed on
Skins mostly riveted on.
I still need to set the last couple of rivets at the trailing edge of the ribs. These are in a tight space, and I didn’t have much luck with a couple of the techniques I tried today. I ended up drilling them out. I also attempted to rivet the trailing edge, but didn’t do it right. I should have paused and read the section on double flush riveting again. So I will drill out the rivets on the trailing edge and try those again.
It’s been a long time coming, but I finally got some time today to finish taking inventory. Van’s gives you 30 days to report any discrepancies and fortunately I didn’t find any.
Last weekend we spent some time with friends up north, and then I spent a day and a half getting the flooring completed in our master bedroom. So working on plane things got delayed a bit. It’s amazing the amount of stuff that they package into the crate.
I was then able to organize all of the hardware into a storage bins, hang up my air compressor hose reel, and organize the workbenches the way I want them.
Tomorrow I’m off to Vermont on an annual ski trip. I’m now in a position to start actually working on the plane. I do have the practice airfoil kit that I will spend some time on getting used to my new tools and air compressor setup. I’d rather play around on that for a day or so then to damage real airplane parts. Seems like the month of March will kick off the actual build of my RV-10.
This weekend I set out to complete some standard EAA benches for my workshop.
Saturday, I grabbed my fathers truck and grabbed the lumber needed for 4 benches. I plan to use 2 of them for the majority of my work, and the 2 others will house some tools (bench vise, bench grinder, etc… ), airplane plans, and anything else I need.
I ended up doing 2 benches with locking caster wheels and 2 benches without. I’ll use the benches with casters to be able to move them around easily as the situation dictates. The other two will be staying in one place, for the most part.
Some pics of the assembly process.
  
It started by cleaning out our master bedroom and ripping out the rug and padding. I was also able to pull the baseboards. It’s now all prepped for painting and the eventual hardwood installation. My attention then shifted to all the work I need to do out in the garage.
I was able to install an electric heater to help heat the garage, a couple of additional electrical outlets on their own 20A circuits, hung 6 flourecent shop lights, put together a shelf, and started some inventory.
Up next is to build benches, get the shop air plumbed, and finish the inventory.
Some more pics of a partial unpacking.
  
Today the tail kit arrived at the trucking company. I made arrangements to rent a UHaul and go pick it up from the dock. Logistically that just worked better. It’s rather difficult to get help come in the middle of the day and be here exactly when the truck arrives, so I figured renting a truck made the most sense. That way, I could just arrive at home and wait for people to come to help out. It went pretty smoothly. A two wheeler in front and 2 of us pushing from the back, it slid right down the UHaul ramp and into the garage.
Thankfully there was no damage to the crate at all, and I cracked her open to take a quick peek inside. Everything seems okay.
Inventory and shop prep are next on the agenda.
Now the fun can really begin!
  
Today the initial shipment of tools finally arrived after UPS “missorted” my package and took an extra week to get here
Still waiting on the DRDT-2 dimpler and the back rivet set, which was on back order.
I also received notification from Van’s that my tail kit shipped today. Should arrive in about a week. Then the inventory can begin.
Last weekend I spend both days installing hardwood in a spare bedroom. Would like to finish 2 more, prior to getting the garage ready and starting on the tail.
We’ll see how that goes.
Yesterday, I was able to order the Tail Kit from Van’s a little earlier than expected. So I guess it’s official now… Still waiting to hear about when they think they can ship it and get assigned an official customer number.
It’s getting real now!
Adam's RV10 