Added 1/4/2013
With the inventory complete, it was time to start the build!
As you will see in the photos, this build is getting some major
help...I've hired a team of highly skilled monkeys to do a
majority of the real work, while I "stupervise". They're a
good crew, and generally pretty tame as long as you keep them
fed. They thrive on snacks and desserts, but require high
doses of music, movies, and television, so we've outfitted the
shop with a TV, Media Player, PC for various uses, and speakers
and Sennheiser RS120 headphones. Yes, there are far nicer
headphones out there, but when you're buying for 4, and building
an RV, you've got to keep it as cheap as you can. I find
that with a little entertainment, we all can go far longer in
the shop each day.
Dec. 30, we just got the J-Stiffners cut and drilled...a short
night, but for New Year's Eve, what better way to party than to
spend it sober in the garage, right?!?! So we drilled and
countersunk away. For those new to the wings, it helps to
know about these J-Stiffners....you aren't ever going to use
them on the spar, the spar is just a drill guide...a highly
expensive drill guide. The reason you can't match drill both
sides completely, and have to skip some holes, is because the
hole pattern isn't consistent around the wing access
panels. Other than that, you're just drilling them with a
lot of holes, and later you'll install the stiffners mid-wing.
I found myself looking at my RV-10 build pictures a
lot, just to have a faster memory of the process. I can't
believe I've been flying the RV-10 now for almost 7 years, and
it was almost 9 years ago that I was building the wings!
Time sure fun's while you're having flights!
Regarding Section 11 page 5, I'm looking at these W-823-1 parts
that we have in the kit and contemplating a little. I *think*
those were steel parts on the RV-10, and I may just replace
those with some 1/8" aluminum angle pieces that I fabricate
myself. For some reason, flimsy bent sheet metal bothers
me on an aerobatic capable control area. I may call Van's
about it, but they must have had their reasons for not going
with steel. Re-making them in angle would be easy, except
the W-823-AP might be a little more challenging. We didn't
have those brackets in the -10.