I decided I was going to get this work done today no matter what. I honestly feel I’m going to end up coming back here to replace these lines. It just seems to wrong that these lines take so much effort to install. I know quite a few of the guys on the forum use custom made braided lines which I am probably going to do the same if these start leaking.
This is going to be a couple posts just so I can track my time properly across sections, but I got the servos installed for the controls. Luckily it wasn’t too terrible but it is a tight area. I then got the control column measurement tool cut and made so I could adjust everything. I had to adjust a little bit to get the control tubes to meet the length I needed. Luckily I still had plenty of room left on the threads to get this to happen. Even though this isn’t in the controls section, I put the RTV on the scat tube as they requested. I was already seeing chafing around the fuel selector and the screw holes that are right next to it. I pretty much slathered it on in those areas as well as along the top where the center channel cover will go so that there will be some material to save the scat tube for a bit to come. I am going to have to put that on my yearly inspection list so I can make sure that that scat tube is still in good shape.
I didn’t get much done today but I got something. I bolted the control column to the elevator mid push tube assembly and got the safety wire in place. I then measured the control sticks to make sure they were equal distance. I adjusted it a bit as it was 3/32 out from each other comparing the top and bottom measurements. I ordered both of the remaining servos to get that done. I wanted to make sure all of the control surface components were ordered and installed so I could make sure everything played well together. I am still contemplating on whether I’m going to have aileron trim but for how simple it is I might just do it. The last thing I need to do for this section is to put the elevator bell crank in its neutral position and validate that the control column is at the correct location and this section will be done.
Vans gave me an answer that I would need to massage it. Apparently these parts have issues as I’ve seen some on the Facebook RV-10 group all the way back to 2021. So I shaved the amount of material necessary off the rear portion of the control stick base and made sure that the brass bushing was slightly longer on both ends so that the base wouldn’t come into contact with the control column. I got everything bolted together and all I need to do when I get back from my son’s band competition this weekend is to hookup the elevator push rods and do the final adjustments to make sure the controls are in proper order and lock them down and put the tamper wax seal on all of the nuts.
I exercised the system today and got the rod end bearing adjusted as best I could. I’ve never found a good way to accurately measure the middle of a bolt hole on two ends. There must be some tool that allows you to do that or some process but I’ll have to look it up. Either way, I got that all done, everything bolted up (which the flap horns were absolutely the hardest and the worst to reach) and I went ahead and put the access panels over it for now until I need to come back and finish other things up down the road.
I got the bushing blocks cut first. I decided to skip shaping the blocks to minimize the weight of the blocks. They couldn’t weigh more than a pound all four of them together so cutting off all of the optional parts wouldn’t make a huge difference. I cut off the required parts and moved on. Little did I know that the radiusing was also a requirement not just the cut. I ended up having to pull them back out to make that radius but it wasn’t too bad. I also had to shave a small amount of material from the outer skin to get the torque tube to go through like it was supposed to. After all of that I got the tube put in and everything bolted together. I then installed the flap motor but I will have to power it on tomorrow to its shortest and fullest reach to make sure that everything meets the requirements. Once that is done I can bolt up the flap motor to the torque tube and then bolt the flap horns to the torque tube.
Oh, on a side note all of my front seat components came in today! So I now have a complete front seat kit which I can get started on soon.
I got all of the control horns and torque tubes drilled and primed. Next is to get the bushings blocks cut to size and then mounting everything. Then I have to get the flap motor mounted and this section will be done!
I got all of the control columns and sticks initially assembled and drilled but I found an issue with the control column. The control column opening where the sticks are supposed to go are WAY too small. It is almost 1/8″ off in size. I’m going to call Vans tomorrow to see if there’s an issue here as the control stick bushing was below their measurements in the document (between 2 1/4 and 2 5/16 but mine was 2 7/64) and then the control stick opening on the control column was only 2 1/64″. Just way too far off to bend it into shape so we’ll see what they say. I might have to cut down the control stick mounts some to make it fit or they might say it is okay to bend it further open to make it fit, but man that’s just a LOT and the bracket will not be anywhere close to square at that point.
I got everything primed, riveted, and bolted in. Not alot to report here except that it is done LOL
I got the three aileron pushrod assemblies assembled and I removed the rear bell crank housing so that I could insert the mid elevator pushrod into place, but I realized I should probably prime the outside of these tubes as well. Unfortunately I’m almost out of primer so I ordered some spray cans of primer from Aircraft Spruce instead of ordering the gallon buckets since I’m pretty much down to the wire here on things that need to be primed. I’ll use the little bit of regular primer I have left to finish these tomorrow, but the spray cans I can use to finish the rest of the parts, etc. Most of my time was spent getting the bell crank housing off as I had to remove the rear covers for the empennage cover first before I could get some of the bolts out that held it down. Either way, I plan to get the tubes primed tomorrow and then install them all.
Edit: After hockey tonight I decided I could do a little bit more so I prepped the elevator idler arm assembly parts for priming tomorrow as well.
