Category Archives: Planning

Taking advantage of a TDY

Posted on by

There is an excellent excuse on why no recent posts have appeared.  I’ve been TDY (temporary duty) at Sheppard AFB, located in lovely Wichita Falls, Texas, for about two months.  While this place chalks up to the armpit of the Midwest, I was determined to get out and enjoy myself during the three months that I’m here.  Luckily, another class mate, Justin, in my Aircraft Maintenance Officer training is a private pilot and we quickly found a few great places to airport bum meeting some great folks and getting a few flights under our belts.  John Hooker, located at Wichita Valley Airport (F14), built a very nice RV-10 several years ago and was happy to show me around and give me some tips.  Ironically, a unique feature spurred my memory and after digging through Oshkosh photos from four years ago, I realized I had seen his airplane in person.  When we couldn’t find any good reason not to fly, he offered to take me for a quick hop along the Red River and gave me plenty of stick time.  I’ve been attending the weekly Sunday evening social at F14 whenever my schedule permits.

The most exciting opportunity came with a visit to Houston and an amazing contact from VAF.net.  Gaylon Koeining built, in my opinion, one of the best RV-10s flying.  His choices and methods align very closely to my build and he has had to make a few modifications that I expect to make as well.  After emailing back and forth for a few years, I finally got the chance to visit him in person.  Gaylon was gracious enough to invite me down and show off his beautiful airplane.

My classmate was up for the adventure and we decided to make a weekend out of it by renting a very well running, very poorly equipped, but most importantly very cheap 172 to fly down south.  At just under 100 knots, it was a three hour flight with a fuel stop at College Station.  By the time we landed, we were down to only the nav and position lights working with no taxi, landing, or beacon light operable.  You get what you pay for.

Carl Martin, who owns and flies a RV-6A, was kind enough to host us for the weekend. The community that exists in aviation, especially the RV neighborhood, never ceases to amaze me.  He saw a post of mine about heading south and in two weeks, had a hell of a weekend lined up for us.  He met us at Pearland Rgnl (LVJ) and had a hangar waiting for our crappy 172 that didn’t deserve the shelter.  Dinner was lined up with a coworker from NASA and her husband, a retired USAF Col, who had some great stories.  After a few drinks at their house, we got some rest for a big day on Saturday.

The morning was spent at Gaylon’s hangar home at Polly Ranch (7XS0).  He had the top cowling off and was ready for my endless barrage of questions.  Conversation flowed for several hours with a lot of technical discussion and tips/tricks being shared.  I took a ton of close up pictures to use as reference and really benefited from his experience.  Gaylon is an amazing guy who shared all of his secrets and even gave me ideas on making his ideas better.  I only hope I can pass my experience on one day as he did for me.  My biggest take aways from his build were around the Show Planes cowl, cooling, SDS EFI, and air conditioning setup.  It was also great to see Jonathan’s (Plane Schemer) paint work up close.  Truly show quality that gives me motivation to finish my build.

After lunch, Carl whisked us over to Songbird Ranch (91TS) where we met up with his close friends and formation partners.  One of them has built several RV’s including a very nice 10 and really cool 7.  After a little hangar talk the guys organized a three ship and each one of us climbed in a plane to go have some fun underneath the 3000′ ceiling.  I went with Nick in the 10 while my buddy and Carl got seat time in the RV-7 and RV-4, most of that time being spent in close formation with us or upside down!  Nick was awesome and gave me the stick the whole flight, even trusting me with a crosswind landing on his 30′ wide private strip.  It wasn’t pretty, but I got us down and logged another RV-10 landing in the log book.

With Saturday almost as good as Oshkosh, Justin and I thought Sunday would be a day of rest while waiting for weather to improve to fly our allegedly IFR certified 172 back VFR to CWC.  Little did we know it would turn into a behind the scenes tour at the Collings Foundation with a quick pit stop at the Houston Space Center.  Carl seems to know everyone who flies in Houston thanks to his time at NASA, so we checked out another guy’s RV-4 and v-tailed Bonanza at Ellington Field.  Sitting on the ramp, we saw a ME-262 and while checking it out, got called into the restoration hangars to climb all over the foundation’s F-100, A-4, and F-4, all of which were in flying condition.

With winds at our backs and enough of a ceiling to skud run north, we climbed in the 172, now with only the position and right nav working (shhh don’t tell the FAA), and launched towards Kickapoo.  The tail wind had us screaming over the ground at 130 knots and got us back on base by 1500.  It was an amazing weekend thanks to so many people, especially Carl Martin who played host, tour coordinator, chauffeur, friend, and co-pilot.  What we thought would be just a nice weekend away from Sheppard turned into a trip to remember.  Now, only another month until I can get back to work on my 10 and start taking advantage of the amazing capabilities of general aviation!

Closing the gaps

Posted on by

The final step for the tanks is to seal the rear baffle in place.  This is always a bit tricky as you have to put a bead of proseal and then place the baffle in using it as a squeege and hoping that it seals internally.  If not, it’s a tough fix as you now can’t get inside the tank.  

Using the applicator gun helps here get a nice even bead of proseal in place.  Putting a cleco in every hole, I let it set up overnight as usual and came back the next day to finish riveting.  With the perfect world scenario, the rivet line would be outside of the wetted fuel area.  However, if there might be a leak, I decided to continue my habit of wet riveting.  This would make it easier to seal from the outside.

While the tanks set up, I turned to preparing the wing for close up.  I want to follow other’s advice on finishing everything inside the wing before riveting the bottom skin on.  Wiring is a big part of that so I ran the first bit of conduit.  This is a real pain in the ass.  Yes, I said pain in the ass.  It’s my blog, so I can say it.  And it’s true.  The corrugated conduit from Van’s is a royal pain to pull through.  You basically have to pop each ridge through the hole.  Starting from the middle of the wing, I pulled inboard and outboard to minimize the number of ribs the conduit has to be pulled through.

After a lot of sweating and some worn out hands, conduit is in place.  At the locations where wiring will exit the conduit, I cut a hole after wrapping the conduit in duct tape.  This made it a bit more sturdy and allowed the gromet to stay in place better.  The rubber gromet will prevent any chafing.  I tacked this in with a little silicone to help keep in place for the long term.

I will be terminating all connections at the wing root for a couple of reasons.  First to allow me to do as much wiring and plumbing as possible early on in the build process.  Second, it will allow me to keep the wings off of the fuse down the road as well.  I went ahead and pulled string through the conduit from the wingtip and seperately each exit to the wing root.  I then ran wiring for the heated pitot probe along with tubing for the pitot and angle of attack hook ups.  The wiring for the aileron trim servo and coax for the two Archer antennas in the wingtips were all secured for later connections.

Finally, I installed the newly arrived servo mount for the autopilot roll servo.  The same bracket fits Dynon and TruTrak servos, which covers the spectrum for Dynon or AFS avionics.  I’ll be purchasing the servo down the road.

Decisions, Decisions

Posted on by

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve done a lot of work on making decisions based on a lot of research and discussions. This might be a boring read, but I want to document my decisions for the build process and keep my own thoughts straight.

First the engine. It’s a big decision and complicated. I’ve decided to overhaul a used engine and do most of the work myself with the help of a few experienced professionals. There is a local guy who has built many engines for race planes and has a reputable engine shop that has offered to be a technical resource and allow me to use his facilities and equipment. While this won’t be for a while, our hours long conversation has reassured me of this approach vs. buying a new engine. He also advised me on which variants and the things to look for in a run-out or used core. So I’ll be keeping an eye out for good deals on eBay, Barnstormers, etc. over the coming year or so and hopefully make a purchase when the right opportunity comes along.

Building my own engine will also allow me to customize it with the options efficiently and cost effectively. I have committed to running the full EFII electronic ignition and fuel injection system. I like the ease of operation the system provides and most of all, the efficiency of the system. I will use the dual ECU option to provide redundancy for IFR operation. Combined with the Show Planes cowl, Flightline AC system, and possibly a horizontal induction pan, there will be some modifications required for sure. But this will be the airplane that I want and an efficient, modern platform.

It will also be heavily electrically dependant. I’m starting on the electrical schematic to include one main battery, one 70 amp alternator, one backup 30 amp alternator, and integrated back up batteries for the EFIS systems. Using the VPX Pro system will integrate my electrical loads with a few exceptions and provide a better insight into the health of the system.

More details to come on all of these decisions, but it paves the way for planning purposes and at least lets me get started on some of the systems side of the build.

Research, Research, Research

Posted on by

While physical progress has been somewhat slow, I’ve been doing a ton of research every day for well over a year and the past couple of weeks are no exception.  It is the biggest piece of advice I can give anyone wanting to build a plane; Research.  Everything.  Even stuff you think you know.

Lately, I’ve been looking into electrical system components to prepare for the wing kit coming next month.  Everything from lights, pitot system, trim, auto pilot, fuel, and even avionics goes into these early stages of the build.  I also have learned a lot from reading VAF and other build logs so will be capitalizing on their lessons learned.

I’m updating a lot of the other pages of this website with links and info on my preliminary plans.  Things are changing quickly so this is a plan on paper that can change, but will give me a good target to fly towards.  It also helps you think about total system architecture instead of just the aluminum pieces in front of you.  For example, the tail cone will hold the battery, starter relay, antenna, wires, and lights.  Planning ahead with conduit or wire runs will help avoid a tight fit crawling in the fuse a ways down the road.

Everyone says to do something each day on the plane to keep it progressing.  I haven’t been good on putting my hands on aluminum every day, but I am learning something every day.