The empennage kit has arrived! Van’s Aircraft (the company that manufactures the RV-10 kit that I am building) uses Old Dominion to deliver the large crate full of supplies. The first stage is called the empennage, or the back portion of the airplane that includes the vertical stabilizer, rudder, horizontal stabilizer, elevators, and tailcone attach pieces. There will be plenty of time to talk about all of the parts and pieces, but the immediate issue here was that there was no fork lift to get the crate off of the truck with. I ended up getting a hammer and pry bar to open up the crate inside of the truck and remove individual parts and pieces one at a time and put them into my garage. I can assure you that was about as fun as it sounds.
Here are the parts and pieces filling up my garage. Anne is out of town this week so at least I have a day or so to get all of this sorted, find homes for it, and clear out her spot in the garage again. In the background you can see my “hangar” taking shape. I built two of the EAA Chapter 1000 work tables to use for construction and I need to compliment them on the design, cost, and ease to create. I made two modifications myself, but otherwise they look great. I made the tabletop surface melamine so it was smooth and a solid white surface to make it easier to see smaller items such as rivets on the tabletop in the future. I also made the lower shelves out of MDF rather than particle board for a smoother and splinter-free (I hope) surface.
I couldn’t help myself today. Unpacking it wasn’t enough. I had to start building too.
Off to the races. You can see the instruction manual below the first piece I was working on. So far it is exceptionally well-detailed and I don’t foresee any major issues with being able to follow along. This piece is the main spar for the vertical stabilizer starting to take shape. I had to cut some reinforcing strips on my band saw, cleco (those little pegs you see there are drill hole-style clamps used to hold parts together prior to riveting) them together and match drill the holes. It’s been a long day, but more to come!
Total time today = 6 hours
Total time empennage = 6 hours
Total time aircraft = 6 hours