Baggage Door - EAA Tech Counselor Visit #3

One step closer to finishing the baggage door! Tonight I fabricated and installed a stiffening plate across the baggage door frame where I had cut it to fit the latch. I'm pleased to say it added the exact stiffness I was hoping it would, and now the only thing left to do is find and install a mini strut to hold the door open and prevent it from opening too far.

The stiffening plate connecting the two halves of the baggage door

As for the strut, I believe I've found the correct part for that from McMaster-Carr, P/N 9417K6, a "Miniature Gas Spring" with travel from 5.55" - 9.05" and 20lb force (edit- see later post here, recommend 5lb force instead), combined with P/N 9417K92, the accompanying mount bracket (edit- this bracket is too big and bulky, just make your own out of aluminum angle). The parts are on their way, and I'm hoping they work out nicely. After that is installed, we're just a few blind rivets away from calling the baggage door 100% complete!

In other news, our EAA Tech Counselor came by tonight for a visit to see the project. This is technically his third time here in the shop, but the first time was before we even set our first rivet on the empennage kit, just to look over our shop and tools, and to make sure we were on the right track. The second visit was after we had completed the elevators but hadn't yet started on the tailcone. Unfortunately, during those previous visits we never completed any official EAA paperwork to document the inspections (other than logging it ourselves). No big deal but in hindsight it would have been nice to have done it just to cross t's and dot i's. This time, though, we got our yellow slip:

EAA Tech Counselor Notes

He did an extremely thorough job inspecting the wings and fuselage, and I'm happy to say that overall he had some very positive feedback for us. He even noted "excellent workmanship overall" in the comments.... wahoo! Talk about how to brighten someone's day. It felt incredibly rewarding to have an expert in E-AB aircraft (and an RV-6 builder/owner himself) look over our work and give it the thumbs-up. The only thing he noticed was on the aileron torque tubes, the nuts holding the tubes to the bearings didn't have enough thread showing. The FAA rule is that there must be at least 2 threads showing beyond the nut, and on our wings that didn't work out to be the case:

The aileron torque tubes with AN365 locknut and washer, and only ~1 thread sticking out the top

I was already aware of the "2-thread" rule, but admittedly I guess I thought it was more of a guideline and not a hard-fast rule. Also, I thought I had the hardware installed per the plans, so "it must be right." Plus, the way the whole tube is in there, there's no way it's coming out even if the nut were to fall of entirely somehow. So at first it seemed like kind of a trivial finding, but since it's an FAA rule and will surely be looked at by the DAR when they come to inspect the plane for airworthiness, this could end up costing us a fair amount of time (likely several weeks) if they ding us for it and make us fix it, then we'd have to perform the fix and reschedule a time for another inspection. Way better to remedy this now!

So how did this happen in the first place? Well, we got out the plans for the wing and turned to Section 23 (aileron actuation) and reviewed the hardware callouts. Guess what? We goofed. They call for an AN364 (which is a low-profile version of the more common AN365) locknut to be installed in this location... oops!

The hardware callouts in the plans, Section 23-7, Figure 1

Simple oversight on my part in the callouts. Definitely a good catch, and lesson learned! I'll have to dig up the correct hardware (couldn't find any AN364 nuts in my hardware bins) and swap them into place, should be a very straightforward fix.

Other than that one finding, everything else went very well during the inspection! We then spent a long time discussing all kinds of things from avionics to flight characteristics, and all the different aircraft he's seen over the years. I can't possibly stress how thankful I am that a program like EAA's Tech Counselor program exists, and even more so for the individual counselors who volunteer their time to help others like us get through their build in a correct and safe manner. Thanks Tom! :-)

The Garage Got A Facelift!

Unfortunately, you probably can't even tell much is different in the photo above. But rest assured, what you're looking at is the product of 2+ weeks of cleanup, reorganization, and construction of several entirely new items-- including two 30" x 96" workbenches, two 4' x 6' shelving racks, and a lumber storage cart. Things were getting out of hand around here with respect to old projects, tools, parts, wiring, scrap wood, dust, etc etc. Quite simply put, it was time for some fall cleaning.

One of the two new workbenches

Built this lumber storage cart from a slightly simplified version of plans found in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZtIEFa3Ofk

Anyway... although taking time away from building to take care of these things was a bit disappointing, it was a much-needed effort that I'm sure will pay off bigtime as we move forward!

Hopefully the next post will be on the subject of "direct" airplane construction! And hopefully soon!

We have a hangar!

Well it's been quite a little while since the last update, a lot has been going on but unfortunately very little "direct" work on the plane. I was on travel most of last week, and now this week has been filled with lots of other extracurricular events-- most of which centered around aviation though, which makes it ok, right? :-) I've also decided to do a deep-clean of the workshop before winter hits, which is likely going to continue for at least the next week or so. One bit of great news, we got our hangar lease signed tonight... woohoo!!

Our new RV-10 home at KCID!

Since we probably won't be moving the plane to the hangar until (at least) next spring, you might think this is a bit early to sign a lease and everything. Well unfortunately the way it works around here is you have to be on a waiting list (which we've been on for the better part of a year), and then when your name comes up you've gotta bite on the particular hangar that has become available or else you go back to the bottom of the list. Our name got pulled last week for this hangar while I was away, and this is one of very few "ideal" hangars that we had been hoping to get... it's one of the larger-size ones they have to offer in the price range we had, and it's insulated with electricity. So we said hey, why not, let's do it now!

Over the next few months we may move the wings out here, set up a work table or two, and hopefully install a natural gas heater (still waiting to hear back from management about that). If we can't do that we'll just use a space heater which would be fine too. Sarah is also furiously at work deciding where the sectional couch, area rug and mini-fridge will go ;-)

Other than that, we've just been cleaning and organizing in the shop, and receiving a number of packages in the mail including fuel system components, wiring, stick grips, and a bunch of other stuff. It's always fun seeing the UPS man and wondering what gifts he's bearing this time!

The next step with the plane itself will be to paint the fuselage interior, which I hope to get started on by early next week if all goes well with the garage deep-clean. Will post then with progress!

Baggage Door

Happy Labor Day! Well, this turned out to be an "interesting" 3-day holiday weekend for us. We went to Des Moines to attend our friends' wedding, but unfortunately we got our dates mixed up (100% my fault) and thought the wedding was on Saturday instead of Sunday. It turned out that there was also a different wedding taking place at the same time and location on Saturday, which we of course ended up at, all dressed up and ready for a fun night. It slowly dawned on us that we were in the wrong place when we didn't recognize anyone in attendance, including the bride and the groom once they appeared. Sometimes an epic fail makes for a great story!

Mike and Sarah at the wrong wedding... Thanks to the groomsman who took this photo!

So by the time we stayed another night in Des Moines to attend the correct wedding, we really didn't get much time to build over this long weekend. That's ok though! We did get some time to continue with the baggage door and take some more pictures of the custom latch assembly though:

Cutout is 1" x 3-3/8", starting 1/2" forward of the aft edge of the door and vertically centered on the existing hole punched for the key lock. The cutout will go through two rivet holes in the door leaving two small notches in the cutout, but they will be covered by the latch when it's installed.

A 1/8" thick steel plate 3" x 5" was fabricated to strengthen this area of the door. The cutout at the bottom is made to clear the baggage door frame.

The latch installed into the hole and screwed into place

The baggage door with latch installed

The inside baggage door cover with modified  cutout, measuring 3-1/4" x 1-1/2". A new #30 hole was drilled to mate with the frame, which must be cut to allow clearance for the latch.

The door riveted together and installed in the plane

The latch holding on to the F-1031 Upper Baggage Door Seal (the bolt is temporarily wrapped in electrical tape until I get a rubber stopper for it)

Closeup of the latch and frame cutout

The open baggage door, inside cover isn't riveted on yet

A video of the door in operation

It works great!! I still need to figure out two more things with the door before it's done: (1) The frame needs stiffening in the area where I cut it so that it won't have a tendency to bow. It's not bad as-is but I want it to be a little better. I should be able to rivet a piece of 0.032" aluminum between the two halves and that should easily take care of it though. (2) Before riveting on the inside cover, I want to source and install a small strut to facilitate the opening and closing of the door, as well as limit its travel. In addition, I'll need to finish up the F-1031 channel and install provisions for a microswitch and striker plate. Again, shouldn't be too big of a deal.

That's pretty much it for now! I'll be on travel the rest of this week, so there probably won't be much more progress until this coming weekend... until next time!

Baggage Door

As stated in an earlier post, I held off on completing the baggage door section while I searched for a latch mechanism that I could install and have a little bit more advanced open/close function than the standard lock-arm provides. Well, good news! I have found and settled on a latch: The Southco model C2-33-21.

Southco C2-33-21

This latch works by pushing in where the key lock is, and then the rest of the lever "pops" out. There's actually a video I found of its operation here on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2d2S5Rcqgg. One downside is that the key for this will be different than the one for the door locks and ignition, but I think that should be ok. To close, the arm has an adjustable bolt that will catch on the back side of the F-1031 Upper Baggage Door Seal and hold the door shut tight. I'll probably have to install some kind of striker plate for that (maybe even with a microswitch) so that it's not just holding on to the aluminum. Shouldn't be too hard.

Well, I got the latch in the mail yesterday and so it's time to get to work on it. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the process yet (I will soon, I promise) but it's going really well so far! I was able to hang the door and get everything aligned and the hinges drilled. I'm really happy with the alignment of the door. It was a process that took a little longer than I imagined it would, and it was really quite tedious to get it to sit just perfectly centered and square in the opening, but Sarah and I prevailed. I feel like part of our success was due only to luck, but I'm not going to complain about that. Once the door was hung, I then made the rectangular cutout for the latch in the door skin and also cut a steel reinforcement plate to go behind the outer skin and provide extra support. The latch fits in place and catches on the F-1031 perfectly! I really like the geometry of it, and once I get everything finalized I'll take a bunch of pics and provide measurements, etc.

In the procurement department, big things are happening too! We ordered our stick grips from Tosten; our fuel filters, check valves and Walbro pump are on the way; ordered some 2 AWG welding cable, ring terminals, and hydraulic crimping tool from Temco; got some Amphenol 31-326-RFX BNC connectors and Harbour RG400 cable; and finally bought the necessary 5052-O tubing and a number of AN fittings from Aircraft Spruce to be able to start fabricating the fuel and brake lines. I've been talking with the folks at DJM about a console throttle quadrant for the RV-10, and I've also been talking with Paul Grimstad about the Control Approach rudder pedal system. He's working on a new design and it's taking a bit longer than I think he originally anticipated, but the good news is he is "back in business" making pedals so however long it takes it will be worth the wait! He's been great about getting back to my many pestering emails and providing updates, photos, etc. I'm confident this will NOT be a P-200 mag situation ;-)

I've also been pondering what to delete/add to my finish kit order. I've looked through a number of build blogs about this and have settled on doing pretty much the same thing Ed Kranz/Justin Twilbeck did for their finish kits as far as deleting wheels/tires/axles to upgrade to the Matco/Desser products, and a few other tidbits. Justin's delete list can be found here. I'm also going to be deleting the windows because I'll be using the Cee Bailey ones. I really hope that upgrade is worth it, I haven't bought them yet but since I've already deleted the fuse windows I'm kinda stuck with that decision now. I'm sure it will be fine.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. Hopefully for my next installment I'll get some photos up of the baggage door!