Yep, more doors

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel with this darn doors.  Nothing hard about it but they sure are messy as you will see from the pics below.  These last couple of weeks have been very cold so my time in the garage has been short.  In addition to the tasks I took picture of below I also managed to finish riveting the top skin on the inside.  I forgot to do this when Travis was here so finished up the last 8 rivets.  I also epoxied in the two forward Naca ducts.

If you look at the hand hold (the hole) in the picture above you will notice that the instrument panel (the carbon fiber you see in the opening) blocks about half of the opening.  There is still room to fit your fingers in there but it looked kinda sloppy to me so I drilled the doublers out and fabricated a couple of new ones that move the grip further aft.  In the picture below you can see the new location.  

The hole is not quite as large as it was but its still 3/4" deep and actually has more room for your fingers than the original.  I suppose I could have modified the glare shield and moved it even further aft but I don't think its necessary.

Oh yea, I took the engine to and engine shop in Oregon last week so that they could install the prop governor drive gears that were left out by Avian.  I asked them to run the engine as well if they could.

I did some work on the panel as well.  The lower console is fitted and drilled to the upper panel.  I installed it in the airplane to make sure it all fits nicely.  Next up for this area is to drill the lower console to the tunnel screw locations.

With one side installed and the other off I took this picture to get some sort of idea of the angle and depth that is available in the lower console.  The aluminum square is marked in inch sections and it was 6" long.  It was clear that nothing with much depth would fit down there so I had to re-design the avionics in the panel.  More of that below.

As I mentioned above....we got a little snow this week.  2 full snow days and 2 that were iffy.

Back to the panel redesign.  On VAF there is a thread going on right now where Doug Reeves asked about having his autopilot controller mounted on the glare shield similar to the way commercial airplanes do.  Somebody designed a 3D printed housing that could be used for this purpose but unfortunately the design they used would not work for me.  So, I dusted off the Solidworks program, did a little designing of my own, and printed up this test housing.  It fits very nicely and will exactly as I had hoped it would.  I sent the design drawings off to Geoff at Aerosport to see if he would print the housing for me and possible list it for sale on his site so others with the Aerosport 310 panel might take advantage of the design.

An inside view of the housing.  Notice that the bottom of the housing actually hooks below the glare shield and the tapered part facing forward is there so I can drill a hole and run my wiring down into the avionics bay.

Ok, I saved the door work for last.  In this picture you probably wont see much unless you have built an RV-10 with these doors.  Those two top slots were actually openings where the hinged bolt to the door.  I posted something about this a while ago when I riveted nut plates to the hinges...well this is why.  The door seal needs a flat surface to sit against on the outer edge of this raised door portion.  Those hinges (and the door pin guides in the picture below) leave an air gap if you don't do something to seal them up.  In this picture you can see where I fiberglassed over the opening and then cleaned it up to look like it was stock.

This is the forward side of the door.  In those cavities the door pin guides get installed.

This is the aft side door pin cavities.

More Doors

The past few weeks have been dedicated to working on the door fit and the instrument panel.  I used my CNC to do some test cuts of the inserts for the instrument panel and found that there is a small error in the conversion from the Solidworks export DXF to the import process in Cambam (the GCode tool I use).  Turns out that everything I cut is just a bit over-sized.  So I took on the task of learning the Solidworks CAM solution.  It was a bit of a steep learning curve but I finally managed to get it working.  However....on my first test cut the controller board for my CNC failed.  I think it was in the USB connector but regardless it has become intermittent which is a problem.  Bottom line is I ordered some new parts for the CNC and will be making some upgrades to it soon.

Regarding the doors, I've been working on getting the seals to fit properly.  Once I felt they were about right I worked on the spacing between the doors and the cabin top.  Still lots of work to do but here is what I have so far.

This is the pilot side of the panel.  This is the insert that I cut that allowed me to discover the size difference in the DXF conversion process.  I had to do some significant edge sanding to get this one to fit properly.  I may have to do more since the paint will take up some room.  I'm considering having this anodized instead of painting but need to find a good local shop.

Passenger side door gap after inserting the foam spacer (seal), applying micro liberally on both sides of the foam, and then sanding the micro and foam spacer down to create an even transition.  In this picture the foam has not yet been removed.

Side view of same door as picture above.

In this picture the door on the right side of the photo still has the 1/8" rubber seal in place, the left side has been removed.  To open the door at this stage I had to use a razor knife to cut through the seal all the way around the door.  Then I could get the door open but had to remove the seal from both the door and the cabin top.  Both proved to be harder than I would have liked.

In this picture you can see the seam between the cabin top and the fuselage.  I sanded and then filled the small gap with micro/epoxy filler.

The door gap came out pretty nice by using some 1/8" rubber gasket material.  If I were going to do it again I don't think I would use the same stuff since it was a real bugger to remove.  The sticky side was up against the door and the plain rubber side was against the cabin top.  Turns out that epoxy loves that plain rubber and stuck like crazy.  I had to actually sand the gasket material off of the cabin side.  

Preping for last skin riveting

Much of my time recently has been focused on getting tasks complete that will allow me to rivet the forward top skin to the fuselage.  This skin is the last skin and major riveting job on the airplane!  I think I'm about there.

One task that is not shown below in pictures is some time I spent (on a nice sunny day) sanding and forming both doors for an 1/8" gap around the perimeter.  This gap will be filled with some 1/8" thick high density foam and then a layer of epoxy/micro will be added to both sides to make a nice consistent and even door to cabin top transition (after lots of sanding.)

I installed and torqued the rudder pedals.  I also fabricated and installed the brake lines.  I used PTFE -4 stainless braided hose and I replaced the plastic Tee with an aluminum one.  Because my master cylinders are behind the pedals it was a little harder to find a routing that would not put excessive stress on any part of a hose or impede movement of the rudder pedals.

This is a picture of the back side of the pedals.  You will notice that in the lower ports I used 90 degree fittings and the upper ports I used nipples with the 90 degree fitting on the hose.  No particular reason other than that I had the fittings available and I was hoping this would allow for more room for the hoses to pass each other during the swing.  I don't know that it made a difference but it didn't hurt anything either.

See this pile of hoses?  Seen them before?  Well this is the entire fuel system I fabricated several months ago.  Turns out I used standard rubber lined hose which normally is just fine but if I ever wanted to use fuel with alcohol in it there is a potential for degradation of these hoses.  So, I rebuilt all of my fuel system hoses using PTFE hose.  Not only is it better for the long run but it is also a bit smaller in diameter which turned out to be an advantage.

One of the steps required before I rivet this top skin on was cutting out holes for the vent fans.  Well, I decided to go with the bigger fans on the 10 so these holes are cut to fit a 120 mm fan.

 

The center support strut is now installed so I took this picture so I can contemplate wire routing to the overhead console.

I installed the top skin and the panel frame so that I could test fit the VPX/Fuse location. All is well but I couldn't resist taking a picture while its all installed.

One more picture just because I was happy with the days work.

I thought I would throw this one in there as well.  Here are a few of the parts/templates that I have printed using my 3D printer.  I have been amazed at how useful it has been.  Here are two 3D prints of the GSU25 ADHRS, one GEA24 EMS control unit, and a couple of templates that I used for drilling various holes.  The avionics templates were very handy in determining mounting locations as well as drilling holes for nut plates on the sub-panels.

There were a few days when I didn't want to work in the garage so I started working on the FlyLED lighting system.  I purchased "The Works" kit from Paul while at Oshkosh this year and just now got around to soldering the kit together.  I have to say that while I don't consider myself much of an electrician I REALLY enjoyed putting this kit together.  Getting a nice solder joint is just as satisfying as a nice line of well set rivets.

I had to cut some openings in my wing tips and trim the boards to fit the openings.  Here is the left wingtip with the boards cleco'd in place before I had started doing any soldering of lighting components.

Interior Paint

The past couple of weeks have been packed with both small and large tasks that are in preparation for riveting the forward top skin on.  One of those tasks was painting the interior.  I don't really like painting on the interior because there just isn't a good way to orient the paint gun in a consistent manner.  So, it is what it is.  I am pretty happy with it for the most part but I haven't seen it out in the full light of day either....

A little masking and then some epoxy primer in areas I plan to paint.

Overhead console masked off and paintable areas primed.

Paint complete in the passenger and baggage areas.  Note that the areas not painted are going to be covered with interior panels.

Forward part of the fuselage interior painted.  no paint on the firewall for fire purposes.

Hard to see but this is the overhead area at the door openings.

Firewall work

Much of the past several work sessions has been work on the firewall.  I think I already mentioned it but I want to have as many nutplates and doublers installed as possible while I have access to both sides easily.

I used my CNC to cut out a battery box to mount on the firewall.  The RV-10 has its main battery in the tail but I wanted a second battery as a backup.  I made the battery box a little extra big so I could put insulation/padding around the perimeter to protect the battery from radiated heat.  

Test fitting many of the components with the engine mount on.

A couple of the doublers I am installing.  The top one is for the Air/Oil separator and the one down on the right is for the battery box.

This is a picture with all of the parts I have been working on circled in blue.  The red circles are tasks yet to be performed.  I'm not sure what I am going to do with the red circles...yet.

And the last item I am making mounting provisions for is the Fuel Pressure regulator.  This location should allow for an easy transition from the fuel block mounted on top of the engine case and the return fitting that penetrates the firewall just below the right heater valve.

Take one item off the list and add three more!

The list keeps getting longer!  Every time I tackle one task I find three more that need to be added.  Oh well, its lots of fun.

Door struts installed and doors in up position!  Very cool!

Much of the build time this week was composed of my trying to figure out where everything will fit under the panel. I made good progress and have fitted the following items.  The VPX, Engine bus fuse panel, Accessory bus fuse panel, backup power bus fuse panel, two ADAHRS, GAD 29, SDS ECU case, two voltage regulators, and the GEA24.  I've also located where I plan on putting the backup battery as well as its related parts (solenoid).

I used a little thermal paste and a couple of screws to mount the engine bus supply diodes to a heat sink.  

Close up with the door struts installed.

I got the static system run up to the front of the cabin.

I riveted these supports (black parts) on both side of the cabin.

With Travis's help I riveted the aft top skin on.  This in and of itself was a big project.  I had to not only rivet the skin and the antenna doubler I fabricated but I also had to remove, reinstall and torque the 8 bolts that hold the two longeron halves together.

Finally I turned the fuselage around so I can start working on the firewall stuff.  I learned on the 9A that installing nut plates and doublers is much easier when you can reach both sides of the firewall at one time.

Cabin top is on

The big news as the title says is that the cabin top is riveted in place.  There are a few steps left in the installation manual but I find myself spending more and more time trying to decide what my next step should be.  For example, where do I install the VPX so that its easy to access yet out of the way of other avionics and electronics?  Or maybe I should install X now since this is open... the list is endless.  So, that's how I am tackling it...I'm putting together a list and just working my way down.  I still spend a lot of time "thinking" and trying different approaches to things but honestly this is a very fun part of the project.

On a less exciting topic I got the dreaded "your medical has been denied" letter from the FAA last week.  I'm pretty calm about it now after talking to AOPA PPS lawyers but it still frustrates me to no end that the FAA medical staff can't take a few extra minute to verify some data and save us all lots of time.  But nooooo, they have to do the knee jerk reaction.  Oddly enough every FAA person I have ever met has been kind and a good person but this really smells of somebody who just wants to justify their job or simply doesn't care.  I'm confident this will all be resolved but this is definitely the last time I get a Class 3 medical.  I'm going Basic Med from now on. 

I got the master solenoid installed and wired up to the front of the aircraft.  Because of the second set of seats a little extra weight is required in the tail to try to keep weight and balance in check.  The extra wire there are for the battery monitoring system.

I got to use the CNC again.  This time I was fabricating the vent flow controllers for the aft overhead vents.  

I decided that I wanted an antenna on top of the airplane this time.  Here I am installing a doubler to help spread the load of the antenna when it gets mounted on top.

These two nut plates are here so I can hang the overhead vent flow controller assembly that you saw me cutting in the CNC picture above.

The RV-10 is designed to use a huge battery as you can see from the size of the battery box.  The battery I am using is this blue EarthX battery which has better electrical characteristics but is much smaller and waaaay lighter.

Cabin top is riveted in place.  Next up is to get a little help to rivet that aft top skin.