Tail cone is almost done...for now

This week Amy is out of town on her grand trip to Paris with her kids so I got to spend a bit more time in the shop working on the tail cone.  I made some pretty good progress.

Tail cone cleco'd together and ready to rivet the side skins/stringers.

Oh yea, I ordered a gallon of primer from Aircraft Spruce early this month.  After lots of delays it finally showed up this week and this is what I saw when I opened the box.  Azko is very smelly stuff so you can see there was a small amount starting to leak out of the sealed plastic bag.

And this is what it looked like when I pulled the bag out of the box.  

And finally when I removed the plastic bag....what a waste.  Aircraft Spruce is sending me another batch and they filed a claim with UPS but this was a mess to deal with.

Here you can see the backplate that I am using to do the back riveting.  I have to tilt the tail cone precisely for each rivet on the rounded edge.  You can also see the 2x2 fixed in my vice that I used to brace the edge of the tail cone once I got it at the correct angle.

Speaking of correct angles for back riveting....this is how I knew my angle was correct.  I put this small round spacer next to the rivet I was getting ready to smash...then I tilted the structure until the round spacer lined up with the rivet, tied it off, and pounded away.  Came out very nice!  Gotta love gravity.

Tail riveted and bolted together.

Aft looking forward with the top skins removed

Everybody has to have one so here is another view from inside looking aft.

These are the clips I fabricated to hold the static lines as the pass over the bulkhead.

I plan on having a ventilation source for the back seats.  This is the drawing I used to cut the holes in each side of the tailcone.

And here it is after cutting the hole.  

Finally riveting again

I probably shouldn't have said "finally" in the title because I have a lot of riveting ahead of me but I find that the riveting part is the most fun simply because its the final step of assembly for any part of the project.  This week I finished up the priming and have started riveting parts together...fun.

A couple of the rear bulkheads in the tailcone.  You can see the tie down mount riveted to the bulkhead on the right.

Bulkhead frames riveted together

Riveting the J stringers to the bottom and sides.  I'm using a "back-riveting" technique and there is a 12x24" hunk of steel (from my table saw and not visible in this picture)  that I am using as the backing bar.  

More tail-cone work

I've been doing a lot of work on the tail-cone lately.  not much for pictures but I did remember to take some when I was doing a little priming.  The area I created for priming in the basement is really working out quite well.

The down draft table with lots of tail-cone parts.

And more primed parts...and there are still lots more to be primed.

J channel stiffeners before priming.

After priming....

Longerons and the bottom of the tail-cone skin.  I decided to prime this skin because water does get into the tail cone and will pool there if the plane is left outside.

Finally I got the right propeller

This week I finally got the correct propeller from Whirlwind.  I was very nervous that something else would go wrong since its been such an uphill battle with the front office at Whirlwind.  Not much has gone right in dealing with Whirlwind but I did finally get my propeller and it is beautiful.  Whirlwind was kind enough to paint my spinner as consolation gift for all of the errors that I have had to deal with over the past six months.  Starting with missed shipping dates (or incorrectly relayed to me), shipping the wrong prop, giving me a temporary prop to use while mine is being shipped, more missed shipping dates, and finally silence when I expressed my concern.  I had planned to buy a Whirlwind prop for the RV-10 but now I'm not so sure.  If I do it will be purchased WELL in advance of when I need it so they have lots of time to get me the correct prop.

Anyway, the new prop is installed and tested.  It works very well and maybe its just wishful thinking but if feels smoother than the demo prop I have been flying the past few months.  I flew it for about 40 minutes yesterday and was very happy with it.  No leaks of grease and no blade flex at all.

On the RV-10 I have made some progress this week as well.  I've finally finished up the elevators and trim tabs.  Next I'm off to the tail cone.  I contemplated waiting on the tail-cone because of the size of it but in the end I think I will just hang the completed tail-cone from the ceiling in the hangar when its done.  Maybe I can arrange it to look like an airplane crashed into the side of the hangar.  :-)

Leading edges of the right elevator completed.

Trim tab control cable mount riveted to the bottom of the access plate.

Access Plate sitting in the final install location

Elevator counterbalance inboard weight bolted in.

Outboard counterbalance weight bolted in.  If you look closely you will see some red liquid on the bolt threads...I used Loctite to make sure these nuts can't back out.  Just added insurance since these nuts are not accessible without drilling out the rivets and removing the fairings.

Finished Elevators with trim tabs attached.

The only thing I missed in this picture was the safety wire on the trim tab hinge pins.  That is now installed as well.

First step in working on the tail cone is to make this piece and tap the hole 3/8" threads.  This is where the tail tie down bolt will screw in.

Back to work on the 10....again

So, over the course of building the 9A and now the 10 I found that there are times when motivation needs a boost.  Last time I worked on the 10 I came up to a point where there was some difficult (or so I thought) work ahead and I just didn't want to do it.  As a result I focused all of my energy on the 9A.  I did some fun new things on the 9A and I'm glad I did but as the cooler weather approaches I figure its time to get back to work on the 10.  Last week I spent the entire week cleaning up and organizing the garage so I could get back to work on the 10.  This weekend I finally got a chance to make progress building and I'm happy to report that I overcame some difficult steps and am feeling good about building again.

So, this week I managed to glue in some foam spacers for the elevator and trim tabs.  I also riveted the trailing edges on the elevators.  I did it the same way I did with the rudder (using a long flat stainless steel bar) and both trailing edges came out great!  The plans have you use ProSeal to glue the trailing edge wedge in place and then recently Van's updated those instructions to say you can use double sided tape.  Well after gluing the foam wedges in there was no way I was going to be able to get those wedges inserted with double back sticky tape on both sides.  So...I improvised.  I put my rivets in, taped them in so they wouldn't fall out, flipped the elevator over and then taped the elevator down to the stainless steel bar so it wouldn't move when I started riveting.  Then I drove the rivets and it turned out great!  See the pictures below...

Kinda hard to see all the work from last week but this is a highly organized shop compared to what it was!

Gluing in the wedges requires a little weight on the top skin.  Nice balancing act on this elevator and the one in the background...huh?

Trim tabs with the foam inserts glued in...waiting for cure.

This is the "acorn in a hole" as Van's calls it.  Its the back side of the trailing edge of the elevator with the double flush rivets.

I took this picture so you could see how nice and strait the trailing edges end up.  I'm very happy with how they turned out.

Yet another modification to the slider

One of the aspects of my airplane that I have always been unhappy with was how poorly the canopy slid fore and aft.  The canopy itself fits very nicely but has enough flex and play that it moves side to side and the wheels tend to rub on the sides making a scraping sound.  The wheels don't turn easily and they tend to "rattle" as the wheels jiggle on the bolts that hold them in place when the engine is at idle.

So, I decided to do another little modification to the canopy.  I put new wheels on....but this time the wheels have real bearings in them!  I also used wheels with tapered edges on them.  The idea here is that at some point I can put a track in that holds the wheels fixed in the middle of the track so they don't rub at all.

After doing the bearing mod I found that the canopy slides much more easily.  Once I get the whole machining process down I may actually work on a new slide that has the grooves necessary to track the wheels.

Just as a reference if anybody wants to duplicate this mod here are the parts I used.

1. Wheels - I used the wheels from my CNC kit manufacturer.  (https://www.smw3d.com/openbuilds-extreme-solid-wheel-kit/).  I did have to put them on my lathe and turn the diameter down to the correct size and I didn't use any of the bearings included in the kit.  I did get the idea for using bearings from this kit though.

2. Bearings - I ordered these bearings with the idea I would put two per wheel in similar to the way my CNC machine works.  However I found that if I put in two bearings the bolts would stick out too far and rub on the inside of the track.  So I mixed up a bit of epoxy and glued a single bearing at just the right depth to hide the head of the 1/4" bolt holding the wheel on.

3. Spacers.  I used a lathe to turn the spacers you see in the picture below but I could just as easily have purchased a piece of aluminum tubing with 1/4" ID and 1/2" OD to do the same thing.

Anyway that's it and I am really happy with how the whole thing turned out.

Here you can see the new wheels with the bearings.  I have the SuperTracks slider mod on the airplane which is why I have two sets of wheels on each side.  This is looking from the outside of the cockpit back at the canopy slid all the way back.

A little better veiw of the mount. You can see the taper in the wheels with this picture.

While I had this all apart I decided to modify the inlet to the SuperTracks rails to be a little less "sharp".  I found that I jabbed my shoulder with the original design and this just seems to work much better...and it looks better.

Outside view of the SuperTrack rail mod.

Eclipse 2017

WOW!

That one word about sums up my entire 3 day adventure surrounding the eclipse 2017 in Madras Oregon.  Let me start this post by saying that of all of the airplane trips I have made so far this was easily the most enjoyable.  There were no showers, the porta-potties were poorly stocked and didn't work even after you stood in line for 30 minutes to use one, the taxi line to get out went on for about 5 hours, and it was in the 80's or higher....but it was still on top of the list.

So, what made it so special?  Well obviously the totality event was the crowning moment.  I wont do it justice trying to explain it but it was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen.  I was not expecting to be as impressed as I was having seen the one back in 1979.  Never the less I was astounded by the event.  I surely hope somebody with a good camera captured what I saw but so far none of the pictures I see online come close to that memory...including the pictures below.

The atmosphere at the event was "different" than anything thus far.  Oshkosh is fun, no doubt, but its commercial in every aspect.  Its about making money and the atmosphere follows suit.  There are tons of "rules" about what you can and can not do.  You get packed in with 600,000 of your closest friends and you get to rub elbows with them, all of them, every time you leave the confines of home built parking.  Still its fun and I will keep going for a bit longer... but this trip to Madras for the eclipse was a whole new adventure.  Lots of open space at the airport, lots of festive people, and a great group of people in general.  Keep in mind that I am talking about the airport camping, not the huge camp ground they called "Solar City".

There is so much more I could say about this trip and maybe I will come back and update as things come to mind because I want to remember this!

Anyway, it was a wonderful weekend with good friends and a very special event.  I wish more of my friends could have been there to share with us.  I am seriously planning to be at the eclipse in 2024 with as many friends as I can convince to come.  Oh, and both of you (my readers) are invited.  ;-)

Oh, one more thing...I took a couple of video's with my cell phone and my go pro...here they are.

https://youtu.be/7FJrp4TMCnM The actual eclipse surroundings.

Our camp which was about 150' from the runway. 

Pano of the camp area on Saturday evening.  See the long shadow?

The beginnings of a great sunset

Can't miss out on a chance to take a picture of N1605A in a beautiful setting.

Ok, this picture needs a story.  So we were on a quest for some Mexican food in Madras on Sunday but since Madras is a pretty quiet town the recommended Mexican place was closed.  So Jeff talked us into this place....  Yes, thats somebody's house with a few blue tents strung up above the "kitchen" as the mother whipped us up some Carne Asada burrito's!  Best Mexican food I've had in a very long time! 

Half the the burrito ....dang that was good!

Oh, just as a special gift...try this pork dish out....mmmmmmmm

Ok, back to the sunsets....spectacular thanks to the fires in California.

Yea, another shot of N1605A...just can't resist!

These next few pictures are hard to see but it was one of the most fun nights I've had.  Jeff and his daughter brought a bunch of glow sticks and we had a blast with them!

Jeff and his necklace.

Ok, back to the sunsets...did I mention how spectacular they were?

Yea, cell phones looking through eclipse glasses are not the best way to photograph the eclipse.

Look how sharp the shadows are getting...this was taken at about 80% coverage on the eclipse.

Another picture of how sharp the shadows were.

Pano of the campground at the airport as the eclipse was about to go totality.

One more poorly created Pano of the exit line for aircraft leaving Madras...it was a mad house!