Wings have arrived!

So the wings finally arrived.  Vans missed their lead time and projection a little bit and it took a few extra days for ABF to decide to deliver my kit so this added up to about 3 extra weeks I was not expecting for lead time.

ABF canceled delivery three days in a row and ended up delivering my kit at about 7PM on a day where they claimed the delivery would take place between 9-5. 

When the truck finally arrived, I found that the spar box was in great shape but the other crate was busted open, missing part of the lid, bottom panel pulled loose, two metal bands missing, and the skids on the bottom broken off.

Thanks ABF!  You are now officially 0 for 3 kits (RV7 kits included) that you managed to deliver to be without severely damaging the crate!

 At first I figured there was no way that the contents would be intact and or not damaged.  Much to my surprise it appears that everything is still in there!  I have to do a complete inventory to be sure but it is looking good so far.

 Those beautiful spars are like airplane porn!

After pulling everything out and getting a look at it, all the parts seem to be undamaged.  The skins are OK  and while I still need to do a complete inventory to make sure nothing fell out, it looks like I got lucky!

Still waiting on wings!

So I really got behind the kit lead time curve on this one....

Van's lead times seem to be higher than what I am used to and they missed their estimate a bit.  Also the freight company is taking their sweet time getting the kit to me.

Hopefully I will get my wing kit tomorrow.

Still awaiting wings.....

Wing kit was suppose to be crated last week and I had hoped to be shipped by week end.  Still has not shipped as of today.  Best advice is order early as you can.  The lead times seem to be long right now!

Waiting on wings

I did not die.....

Just waiting on the wing kit to arrive.

I made the final payment today and crating is scheduled for the 6/17/19.

I have a couple more things I can do to the tail kit but I am dragging my feet.  Vacation next week so no progress will happen till after.

Later gator!


Oh,

I did forget to post these pics of me drilling the elevator horns:

 Temp installed the left elevator.  Sanded down the drill bushing and put it in the center bearing.

 Used it to drill the left elevator horn.

 Switched sides and drilled the right elevator horn.

 Then I upsized the hole to almost 1/4" and then final reamed the hole to exactly 1/4" on both sides.

 Deburred the holes.

Deburred the other side.

Sick again!

Sick again with some sort of creeping crud!  Had to miss work today and that is a big deal for me as I never hardly ever do that.  Hopefully I can shake this stuff soon and get back to work!

Been sick....Got new tool!

Been sick as a dog for over a week!  Very little getting done on the plane....

So I built an entire RV7 with a cheap, slow and noisy Harbor Freight pneumatic drill motor.  I decided I had had enough of that and bought this Nova 4000 rpm motor!   This thing feels like a very quality tool.  It is very lightweight, compact, and feels great in your hand.  Half the price of its nearest competitor.

While the new drill motor is only 1/4” capacity, it is much more compact vs the old motor.  The Nova has a feathering trigger/throttle which is awesome!  The old one is basically on/off.

The old motor weighs 2 lbs 8.6 oz.

The Nova is almost a pound lighter at 1lb 9.8 oz.

I tested the speed of the old motor and it came in at 1475 rpm.  The Nova turns 4058 rpm!  The higher rpm is better for small holes in aluminum.  The high speed helps minimize the pressure required and gives you a rounder hole.  The high speed is an advantage on drilling thick stock like the million holes in the longerons.

The old motor is very loud,  the Nova is almost as quite as my battery powered drill!  

I did a test with a dB meter 1’ away from the motors.  The old motor averaged 100dB while the Nova averaged only 78dB!  

Sick

Been sick and not able to work on the plane. 

Delays

Well I was on a roll then life got in the way.

No progress in almost two weeks.....

We have had business trips, college evaluation trips and our chapter hosted the B-17 tour from Thursday till Sunday last week and it totally took all my free time this past weekend.

Hopefully I can get the elevators primed Wednesday night so I can start assembly this weekend.

Got my elevator trim cable mounts and some pro-seal and more clecos in the mail last week....

Just a waiting game

Empennage kit is set to deliver Monday.  While waiting I took the time to make another tool.  Made a nice backer board for my backrivet plate.  This is way nicer than what I used to hold it during my RV7 build.

Routed out for the plate and then rounded the edges to prevent skin damage.

Also got a small order from Van’s today.

All of the RV-10 and options plans on a USB stick!  How awesome would that have been back in the RV7 build days!  Uploaded them to Google Drive so I can access them anywhere.



Picked these up as well so that I can go ahead and install them in the tail-cone while it is wide open.

Tick tock....waiting

ABF called and said the kit will be here Monday.  Until then, we wait!

I have a new builder/serial number!

So I have a new RV-10 builder/serial number for my build.  It is #41942.

Anne-Marie at Van's confirms my kit is in the crating department being packed.  It won't be long now!