October 3, 2020
Took a break from the Rudder to get the ELT and GTR20 Remote Comm mounted to the rear avionics tray. Also, worked on the center console where I mounted the rear passenger headset jack and USB charger, plus the pilot/co-pilot jacks. Finished up the day prepping for tomorrows work on the avionics wiring.
October 2, 2020
Productive day with no major screw-ups requiring rework. Whew. Finished prepping all the parts; cleco, drill, debur, dimple, countersink. Lots of steps to get to the point of riveting. By late afternoon I pounded some rivets. Should have the rudder finished up in one more work day.
October 1, 2020
Missing parts for the Vertical Stabilizer, missing parts for the Horizontal Stabilizer. So I started with the Rudder. Went smoothly until I realized that I was missing R-1007 brackets. After searching I figured out they are in a back ordered bag. So I made my own after taking measurements from a completed RV-10. Ugh, slow down already…
September 30, 2020
Everything is now consolidated, I had rivets in probably 100 different bags, now just one bag per size. Same for the other hardware. Also all the parts are labeled so when the plans call out for a specific part number I won’t be searching for which bag and kit to look. That should make the build go much smoother. Plus…
September 29, 2020
Whew, so many bags of nuts, bolts, pieces, and parts. A disappointing part of the process is there are many bags with the same parts. So much of today was consolidating the same parts. Quick build fuselage and wings are 100% counted and thankfully no new missing parts.
September 28, 2020
So today I planned to start the empennage but on the first page I found a missing part. In one of the bags there was supposed to be the three different VS brackets. Unfortunately I had two VS-1010-P parts. Ugh. A call to Van’s put me on the list for the replacement part, which should have already been delivered to…
September 23, 2020
Only one missing bag of parts and five back-ordered items. Unfortunately one of the back-orders is the nose gear, which on other models in the past has been a 4 month back-order. Ugh.
September 21, 2020
Lots of unwrapping, counting, and marking off parts to begin the “official” build.
August 19, 2020
In reviewing Ed’s Good Plane Living installation post of the AeroSplat cowl flaps I wanted to go a step further with a design that had fewer pieces and easier assembly. I came up with three custom parts (Van’s P/N F-10108C will be used and F-10108A will be modified to add angle brackets but that won’t require custom parts). Here are…
August 8, 2020
I did not blog daily while working on the panel fabrication and wiring. This post is a photo summary of the time working from May 7, 2020 to August 8, 2020.
August 1, 2020
F**k me. It is so hard. So very hard to let go of SV Strikhedonia. She has been a huge part of my life during the past six years. Taken me on adventures I could never have imagined, kept me up late at night on anchor watch, and grown in me a deep appreciation for Mexico and her people. Along…
July 24, 2020
Best to back up a bit first… With Strikhedonia in Puerto Vallarta and a delivery captain hired it was a waiting game for good weather and delivery crew availability. A month rolls by, no set date. A second month rolls by, still no set date and talk of other deliveries being ahead of Strikhedonia. Huh?!?! So I began the search…