Jeff Morgan and I are going to trade time back and forth on each other's projects. This won't always be the most efficient use of our time, but by working together, we guarantee some sort of forward progress on both airplanes. And it means when there are two person jobs to do, we don't have to work too hard to make it happen -- we'll have each other to get through those bumpy periods.

We got together at his place last week and dimpled parts. It wasn't that demanding, and he probably could have done it alone, but it represented forward progress. I also got a chance to comment on his work. He had some things I thought he should get Tom Berge or Tim Mahoney to look at, but overall, his work appears to be very good quality. Better than mine. I'm not sure how much of that is based on the builder and how much represents improvements in the kits.

Saturday afternoon, Jeff came to my garage. In preparation for his arrival, I cleaned the garage. I didn't have enough time to clean it to my standards, but it was a lot better when I got done. Kat came out and helped, which was definitely appreciated.

We took care of the light surface corrosion on my wing skins. We then looked at the list Tom Berge gave me last summer. One of the items was, "right wing ribs need rivets." So I looked and swore a little. Jeff and I talked it over, and we took care of it. I was pretty pleased with that.

So my plan at this point is to make a complete list of everything I need to do to finish the wings. This will take some time as I try to figure out where I left off, etc.

Here's hoping for continued forward progress.

Thank you, Tom!

One of Tom's suggestions was to purchase new dimple dies from Cleaveland. He felt that the Cleaveland dies were superior to the ones I had been using. He also told me to get the undersized female die for those places that are a little too tight. I'll be using that one!

While shopping the Cleaveland online web store, I also found they had a digital level. I've been looking for one, but haven't found one to date. Well, finding that Cleaveland carried them induced me to search the web. I was surprised, but in a quick (15 minute) web search, Cleaveland's price was also the best for what appear to be a decent digital level. The beauty of digital is accuracy -- accurate to 2 tenths of a degree, which is far more accurate than I'd expect to get with a bubble level.

My new toys arrived today. Christmas in May!

In brief... A helicopter owner and his pilot rescued two lost 11-year-olds in the mountains in California last week. This was a night operation involving night-vision goggles. Now the local Sheriff is unhappy about it, calling the two rescuers all sorts of nasty names.

Sounds like a bitter grapes argument to me. The various law enforcement authorities are just stung because the amateur team found the kids first. Bunch of over-controlling jerks.

After that, I fiddled with the rivet gun. It hadn't been working. Per suggestions from some folks on the RV-List at Matronics, I filled it with oil a few days ago. Last night, I ran a bunch of air through it. It still wasn't working right, then suddenly it started firing properly again. Woo hoo!

Jeff arrived, and we drove a few rivets. But after looking at the rest of the wing ribs, then at the plans, we decided that Van's suggestion of using blind rivets looked like a really good idea. And Jeff has a much nicer rivet puller than I do, so we're going to do that next time.

Jeff and I instead back-riveted the inner flap ribs to the bottom flap skin.

Before Jeff returns, I'm going to make sure that I've got the left tie down bracket in place. I don't know why I did the right one years ago, but never did the left one. We'll then be free to rivet the remaining ribs to the front and rear spars then actually rivet wing top skins! I'm psyched.

I might try to get the aileron bellcranks in place first, though. In case I want access from the top of the wing.

The ribs have been riveted to the reinforcing brackets and are ready to rivet to the main and rear spar, if only I can find my bucking bars.

I think I'm supposed to pop rivet the ribs to the main spar, as you can't get to both sides of it. That just seems weird, too.

I feel like I'm spreading the gospel of Van.

But I'm pleased that a friend is going to get involved in this wonderous activity of building an RV. I think we'll end up trading work back and forth on each other's projects, which will help keep me energized and moving forward.

We also need to prevent unauthorized use of our aircraft. Over at General Aviation News, they have published Phil Boyer's Letter, which talks about security. All FBO operators and owners of aircraft should read this letter and related works, then make sure you're taking the proper steps to avoid folks doing naughty things with your airplanes.

Imagine if you can, two similar newspaper articles. The first is a report of some kid breaking into the airport and easily stealing an airplane. In the second, the same kid could break into the airport but is foiled in his attempts to steal an aircraft and is then arrested by local authorities. You and I can't do much to prevent someone gaining access to the airport -- after all, an airport isn't any good if you can't enter. And the cheap locks we use on our hangars wouldn't even slow a thief down. But we can definitely make sure the airplane isn't flyable, and that's what we should be doing.

What I don't understand is why folks insist on flying into the airspace anyway.

This past weekend, a couple in a Cessna flew into the no-fly zone, inducing a paranoia-fueled evacuation of the capital building. The couple was escorted to a local airport by a pair of F-16s, questioned, then released.

I'm sorry, but if you do something that results in the work of our government being suspended like this, then you should get more than a talking to! These incursions aren't accidental, I don't believe.

However, I haven't checked a map of the area. It's possible these folks were over what appears to be countryside. But if you can see the Washington Monument, maybe you've gotten just a little too close.

Come on, people! If we don't police ourselves, the feds are going to come up with more onerous rules. We do NOT want that.

Here is a close up of the posts I made. I ripped a few sheets of plywood, then sandwiched the strips. I glued and screwed these puppies together, then trimmed to length. This took a lot more time than I was expecting, and I'm not completely satisfied with my efforts. I've learned how easy it is to slowly put a curve into what should be a straight cut when using the table saw. Technique problems. Good thing the airplane doesn't require me to build with wood.

This is the right wing on the first two posts.

These are two 8-foot workbenches mounted to the wall about 2 feet apart. In between them is a lower shelf with my miter saw attached. This leaves the deck of the miter saw exactly the same as the surface of the workbench, making it very easy to cut long boards with no supplemental support. I'm very pleased with this.

Last night, Kat and I did some more stuff.

This is my fuselage jig for the airplane. I bought this jig about 6 years ago for $75. For the last 2 years, it's been forced to live outside, so you can see it's become quite weathered. Last night was the first time I've seen the entire thing all set up. To the left side of this photo is where the firewall of the airplane would go, against the taller vertical pieces at the end. The airplane is constructed on this jig upside down, which I'm sure is going to confuse me to no end.

Finally, I decided I just needed to drill some holes.

This is the firewall. It comes from Van's semi-assembled. The stainless steel firewall itself is pre-drilled with all expected holes (except any I need to add for heat ducts, control cables, and the like). There are various weldments and angle aluminum clecoed to the back, which you can't see. These pieces come from Van's with only enough holes drilled through to hold them in place -- the rest of the drilling is up to you. This is pretty standard with many of the RV-6A parts. Last night, I drilled out most of the remaining holes. Van's clecoes are on the bottom -- you can barely see a few of them in this photo. The clecoes poking out the top of the firewall represent the ones I added, about 1 every other hole.

For the first time in 3 years, I was able to work on my airplane!

There are two storage units like this, made from 2x4s and particle board shelves. This is the second one. The first is 10 feet long, 10 feet high, and 3 feet deep. The second one is 12 feet long but only 2 feet deep. I wanted the one closer to the front of the garage to be a little narrower to prevent interference with any cars that might use the garage in the distant future.

Kat's next job: start organizing the shelves and helping with the drywall on the other side. My job -- get the rest of the stuff away from the other walls so I can tape and paint. Then I can make a long (30-foot) workbench along the wall plus maybe some more portable workbenches. THEN I can finally get back to the airplane!

Warren's hangar is the yellow one in the extreme northeast corner of the airport.

The first item was an air nailer. It costs me $125 plus shipping and was listed as a refurb. This was about 3 years ago, so my memory on some details is a little fuzzy. The item took (as I recall) over 3 weeks to arrive, as the person who placed the auction didn't respond for an excessively long period after the auction completed. Once it arrived, it did work, mostly. But the thing is, I've replaced it because it would jam every 3 or 4 nails. It was easy to unjam, but when you're building an entire garage, you don't want that kind of headache. You just want the nails to fire.

The next item on the list was a set of saddle bags for my motorcycle. Someone was offering a very nice deal on a nice set of saddlebags. It was one of those ebay stores sorts of places, and he appeared to have a dozen or so sets. Well, it turns out he didn't actually HAVE them. I got an email 3 or 4 days after the auction had closed (and I'd paid him) and he told me it would be a "couple weeks" before he got them in. Of course, he rounded down, and it would have been exactly 3 weeks from the close of the auction to when he shipped -- product he didn't have. Who knows whether he'd ever would have shipped. He did offer to refund my money and did so promptly, then gave me a bad review in retaliation for my review. People shouldn't offer for sale stuff they don't have!

Next, I bought a turkey fryer. Again, I got a good price, about half what it would cost new, and it's virtually new. The guy packed it badly, and the packaging fell apart before it even left Mailboxes Etc. I'd hoped for it to arrive in time for an upcoming campout, but instead it took over two weeks to arrive. I got it, and it was everything I expected, but the delay was annoying.

Finally, the latest incident... I bought a set of scaffolding. Just a small painter's scaffolding, about $125 including shipping. I paid for the scaffolding on January 3rd, and on January 5th, Fed Ex lost the package. Calls to Fed Ex are nearly worthless. Email to the seller as of last week sounded great, but then he stopped replying. I just phoned them instead, and we'll see.

The seller called me back and said "we'll send you another one, but it'll take about a week in transit and it probably won't go out until Friday." Which means I'll lose this weekend and there's a good chance I'll lose next weekend.

So, that's 4 bad items. The one good one? 5 years ago, I bought 2 books via ebay from someone I sorta already knew. She shipped promptly.

Location

Initial Introductions

The person who gave me the tour gave me his name. But, well, I'm going deaf. I had to look up the name on their web site -- it was Gus.

Gus was very nice and exceptionally informative.

Packaging and Shipping

Production

Bending is performed by another operator at another machine. Ken didn't bring me very close to that machine -- we'd have had to cross the actual production area, which might have gotten us in the way of the people getting work done and would probably have given Van's insurance company a fit.

Gus indicated some production work is outsourced and specifically mentioned bending of ribs over the forms.

The Hangar

The RV-10 prototype. I think my comment was "Oooh...."

Gus let me climb in. I started in back, actually, as I didn't actually believe him when he said there was room for a full-sized adult back there.

Gus wasn't lying.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm 6-2 and weigh 250 pounds. Yeah, I need more exercise. I'm not a small guy. Getting in and out of the aircraft with the gull doors was a different experience, but getting in and out of any aircraft is always interesting.

Once I was in, the back seat was spacious! Two of me would fit back there easily. (I don't want to think about the center of gravity shifts that might cause, however.) Clearly there is plenty of room in back for a couple of adults.

The front seats were just as comfortable.

I want one.

Comparisons for the RV-10

As we were talking, a Cirrus flew past on climbout. We compared the RV-10 to the Cirrus.

Gus was actually quite kind. An IFR RV-10 is going to cost around $110k to build, depending of course on options. A new Cirrus is $250k. They provide similar cruise speed performance and appear to be suited to the same type of flying.

Gus pointed out that part of the price difference are the toys in that Cirrus. You get some NICE electronics in that package. Plus the ballistic chute. An RV-10 equipped with a radio stack to compete with the Cirrus is going to cost more than $110k.

But of course, Gus didn't sway me. I want an RV-10. Just have to finish this RV-6A I'm building, then come up with a lot of money.

Other Tips

Paint

Gus basically told me to go ahead and do whatever I wanted with paint. "We had someone come in with a fabulous paint job, and it only added 15 pounds over the unpainted aircraft."

Other Weight Savings

Final Comments

I want an RV-10! Did I mention that yet?

But mostly, I just want to finish this garage so I can get back to my -6A. The RV-10 would let me take my entire family, but the -6A is still going to be a beautiful plane to fly.

Monday morning, a third inspector arrived. The garage looked like this:

and

and

The new inspector checked on the work orders from the first inspector, looked at a few more things, and signed off on the framing! He would have also signed off final if the garage door opener had been adjusted just a little better. Not bad.

Monday night, Kat and I went to Home Depot with the trailer:

Using this handy device:

I was able to do this with two sheets of the 10-foot drywall:

I went to bed tired, but happy.