Ted's RV-10 Construction Blog: November 2006

Installed the control cables for the cabin heat today. I made brackets that mounted on the longeron under the fresh air vents. Picture of the pilots side cable and bracket.
I very cleverly installed the fresh air vents before I installed the cabin heat brackets. It made it a little interesting drilling and riviting to the longeron.
The cabin heat air boxes.

# posted by Ted : 6:00 PM 0 comments

Air scoop, alternate air door.

Completed air scoop tunnel. Just needs a little sanding to be absolutely purrfect.
Installed the alternate air door in the bottom of the air box. This is it closed....
and open

# posted by Ted : 4:02 PM 0 comments

The completed airbox mounted on the injection servo. Note the depression on the side. On my first effort, this depression was too far to the rear and the mixture arm was hitting it at about half through it's stroke.. I had to completely dissassemble the airbox (drill out about 40 rivits) and reglass the cutout. Then I got to do the installation all over again.
Another view of the airbox. Notice the offset from the center at the servo mount. If you mount the airbox using the supplied top plate (the one that bolts to the servo) it does not appear to be possible to offset the airbox enough to clear the mixture arm. I had to make another top plate with the inlet hole offset from the center in order to get clearance. It's done, and it looks good ! But it took a LOT longer than it should.
Once the airbox is done, then you get to build a tunnel from the scoop inlet to the airbox inlet. This is done by putting a foam block between the two inlets and carving a hole through the center. Then you lay up some epoxy resin and cloth and hold the whole mess in place with a balloon. NOTE: Don't inflate the balloon with your air hose cause you will almost certainly not like what happens. Much safer to get close and personal with the balloon and put your lips on it.
If you do it right, you will have roughly the same amount of balloon sticking out of both ends. The aluminum piece is to hold the bottom of the mold in place cause it blew out the first time I inflated the balloon.

# posted by Ted : 4:22 PM 0 comments

Mounted the fuel injection servo. Note the bracket for the control cables.
The component parts of the air box.
The completed air box assembly. Photo to come.

# posted by Ted : 9:29 PM 0 comments

Finally finished the baffling. The biggest challenge was sealing around the prop governer. Turned out OK in the end. The engine mounts had large gaps around them which I sealed with high temperature Sealant.

# posted by Ted : 9:07 PM 0 comments

Wings and tail feathers are in the paint shop. I'm going to paint it yellow with green trim similiar to my last RV-6. See http://www3.telus.net/elfrench/cfxcs.html I'm not sure what I'll do for a stripe or whatever down the side. Since it does not have a canopy like the -6 I need to do something different to break up the lines a bit.

# posted by Ted : 12:10 PM 0 comments

Baffles are at the point where I have to start trimming to the top cowl. Switched to prepping the wings for paint. Prepped the wings, flaps, ailerons, and fuel tank for painting.
Installed the VOR Antenna in the vert stab. The only way I could figure out to do it will require the removal of the top rib in the vert stab. However, there are no parts to wear out and the wiring is well anchored and should not be a problem. Does that sound like "famous last words..."

# posted by Ted : 5:02 PM 0 comments

Had to make a few mods to the left front baffle to make it work. The front bracket that attaches to the engine was completely not right. I had to make another. The back flange where the two front baffles connect together was a good 1/6 to 3/16 inch above the surface. I made a spacer to fill the gap. The baffles are a PITA and I still have a way to go.
Bracket attachments left front baffle.
This was the bracket I was supplied. You can see that it is way off for this engine.
Spacer.

# posted by Ted : 5:26 PM 0 comments

Started the engine baffles. The one behind the number 5 cylinder was very difficult to fit. Mounting bolts weren't where the bracket was, and the contour along the top of the baffle to engine had to be changed quite a bit. However, it worked in the end. Took a good part of the day to do.

This is how I am running the wiring through the firewall. It is all sealed with high temperature sealant and firesleave.