How Do You Build A Plane?

Many have asked what all is involved in building an RV-10. Well, a lot. I put together a video in May '05 celebrating the first flight of a friend's RV-10. It's a little long, but you get the idea of what happens to all those little pieces of aluminum...

Life in early '07

It's been awhile...but life is moving on. Becky has been taking a welding course three days a week, our kitchen is being repainted and we still manage to have time to work on the airplane.
Welding?...you ask...yup! We have enough goodies to set up a home shop (oxy-acetylene, a Lincoln for MIG, a cutting machine, etc.)so Becky thought it would be a good idea to learn the how-to's before tackling any projects at home. Her class involves two hours of lecture and twelve hours of lab. There are twenty-five lab projects to be done by the end of the term that involve all kinds of metals/steel and welding processes using stick electrode and wire on all kinds of machines specified for particular uses. All processes involve four main positions of welding; flat, vertical, horizontal and overhead. This class is a bit loaded for Becky but it is what she wanted for the practical experience. Most of the other students are in it for the hard core certifications for careers they will move into soon.



Our kitchen was remodelled a couple years ago and the enamel paint that we used on the woodwork (cabinets) has since yellowed so we hired our son-in-law, Nate to come in and repaint. Let me just say that the guy is great with a roll of plastic and masking tape! Forget about how well he paints, the way he preps by erecting a fully enclosed plastic room with zippers in the walls is just amazing! Someday when he has kids they will think he's the coolest dad because of the forts he can build. The last photo in this bunch is our kitchen contents in our dining room. What a mess!





Well, as of the 1st weekend of March '07, we've put in a total of 450 hours on building the plane, 90 of which we've put into the wings so far.



We assembled the tanks first, but didn't rivet them yet. That will come later and promises to be a messy job, as each piece is riveted to the next with a gooey fuel resistant sealant in between. This keeps the fuel in the tank where it belongs.



The main spars of the wings are the long golden pieces that the ribs attach to. These spars are works of art and extremely strong - they need to hold the whole plane up in the air!