DATE: 11-22-2024 TIME: 1:21 – 5:31 ~ 4:00
I continued the assembly of the RV-10 tailcone on page 10-18 at step 2, riveting the F-1011 bulkhead F10-11A stiffener, the F-1011C horizontal stabilizer attachment bars and the F-1011E rudder cable angle. This was a lot of AN470D4 rivets so rather than wearing myself out with the rivet squeezer I switched to using the 3x red box rivet gun and bucking bar.
You will notice, or at least I hope you do, that I frequently check and double check the manual to try and avoid making unnecessary mistakes.
Next up was riveting the nutplates to the F-1073 left and right side skins for the rear cover plates F-824B per the instructions in step 1 of page 10-19.
Following on with the manual, step by step, the next job was to rivet the F-1010A horizontal stabilizer attachment angle and the F-1010C left and right bulkhead doublers to the F-1010 bulkhead as described in step 2 of page 10-19.
Step 3 on page 10-19 is the riveting of the F-1008L and F-1008R frames and the F-1085 rudder cable bracket and installing the two bushings into the bracket.
Step 5 and 6 on page 10-19 are similar to 3 & 4 in that you are riveting together the F-1007 left and right frames and inserting the rudder cable bushings into the frame.
The F-1006 bulkhead is somewhat different in that it is in four sections and because it is used in connecting the aft fuselage / tailcone to the forward fuselage section most of the riveting is left until the two fuselage sections are assembled together. The one exception seems to be step 7 on page 10-19 where the F-1006A, C and D are riveted together while the B section is just cleco attached to A and C.
Page 10-20 Step 1 is to reassmble the tailcone frames, skins and stiffeners per the instrucations back on pages 10-7 through 9. Part of this process is to have the assembly upside down more than 38 inches off the floor. I started that way and then decided to flip it right side up and complete the process that way as I figured it would be easier. Having said that, you do have to be careful the flanges on the frames don’t get bent out of shape so I went back to the upside down version per the manual.
