May 11, 2024 - RV-10 Progress

After Rich's sudden and tragic passing in late February, Nhu-An and I decided to keep working on the RV-10 and commit to finishing it.  It's what Rich would have wanted.

In this unique shot, Nhu-An, one of her brothers, and Rich's brother Don are all working on the RV-10, specifically wiring up the battery cables.
   
All the avionics are out of the boxes and on the wing.  It's the first time I've seen them all together.
   
Nhu-An in the plane working on the panel wiring.
   
The Skypark as flooded as I've ever seen it.  Didn't stop us from working on the RV-10.
   
We had some spare time while waiting on some wiring stuff so we started working on the main gear wheel pants.
   
The front and rear wheel pants are match-drilled and clecoed together.
   
We finished wiring everything including the battery.  It was time to turn on the Master switch.  We did and, of course, nothing happened!  After troubleshooting, and reading the instruction manual, we realized we needed to configure the VPX box.  It took us awhile to figure out how to do that -- we finally got a laptop that would work with the VPX and were finally able to run the configuration program.  Soon we had power and verified that such things as the Garmin G5, fuel pump and pitot heat worked.
   
Postive test on the radio!
   
We have power to the Garmin 750 navigation unit!
   
We have navigation lights!  You can see the green starboard light by Nhu-An and at bottom the red port light.
   
Initially the kit-supplied old fashioned landing lights drew too many amps and caused us problems with the VPX.  We decided to ditch them.  Nhu-An ordered LED lights from FlyLED which use much less power and put out more light.  We received them and soon had them installed (below).
   
We have a taxi light!  The taxi light is on the left wingtip, and the landing light is on the right wingtip.  The landing light works too.
   
This is the first time we've had all the avionics, and switches, installed in the panel.
   
Master on, and the G5, both G3 displays, and the radio all light up.
   
The main switches light up with a blue halo.  The switch labels light up as well.  It took us awhile but we finally got them to light up.
   
All the main switches are lit up.  They are controlled by a dimmer as well.
   
This picture highlights the overhead console.  All the dimmer switches are up there, as well as the lighting switches for the Nav lights, Strobe lights, Landing and Taxi lghts.  You wouldn't believe how much time was spent getting all this installed and working.   We ended up trying three types of switches before settling on one that would fit in the limited space and work with the VPX.  Notice also the overhead lighting.
   
Looking aft downthe tunnel.  We plan to do a little spray-painting back here.  It will be gray, to match all of the other panels that were painted gray earlier.  The interior kit Nhu-An bought will cover a lot of it up.
   
It was time to finish priming the fiberglass parts.
   
Here I am spraying white primer on the plane.
   
 
   
All done.
   
 
   
Nhu-An prepping the wingtips for priming.
   
I was up on the ladder retrieving some parts and thought this would be a good shot of the plane.
   
For the next step on the wheel pants, we needed to jack up the airplane.  Rich had these really nice jacks, that will go under the tie-down brackets.  But then we discovered the tie-down bracket holes had not been tapped yet.  So Nhu-An is doing that in this picture.   Nhu-An bought a pair of Bogert Aviation Jack Pads that screw into the tie-down bracket holes.
   
The airplane is jacked!  Look at the tires; they are an inch off the ground.  You have to look closely, but we have the tail supported by an adjustable stand.  The nose is also weighted down to simulate the engine.   I'm always nervous about jacking an airplane, but the Bogert jack pads and substantial wing jacks made it easy and safe.  The plane is solid as a rock.  We used the Smart Tool (digital level) to make sure the plane was level, both logitudinally and lateraly.
   
 
   
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