Got a lot done today. The ProSeal had cured for the trailing edges, so I peeled the elevators off of the angle iron and got those riveted together. This time I used a different technique. Instead of using the flush set in the rivet gun, I used the rivet squeezer with an angled flat set that was lent to my by fellow -10 builder Mike B. You can see in the video that I practiced on the Van’s practice kit to get everything dialed in before the real deal. It worked like a dream, and I got much better looking shop heads this time around.
Shortly after I finished the trailing edge, I got my first EAA Tech Councilor visit from Gary Specketer. He has build quite a few planes, one of which is the RV-10, which he flies out of Lino Lakes in the summer, and Georgia in the winter. It was a great visit. I got the reassurance that my riveting skills look good, and he gave me some good advice about steps that are going to be coming up. He also offered to take Colleen and I for a flight in his -10. Colleen hasn’t ridden in one yet, so I’m anxious for her to see how nice they are inside.
After my tech visit and some lunch, I hit the garage again and finished up some more riveting and got the front elevator skins rolled and riveted. I did a little cutting down of the lead counterbalance weights called for in the plans, but I couldn’t find the washers the plans called for, so they are just temporarily bolted in.
All that’s left now is attaching the trim tabs, and that’ll be if for the elevators.
