Santa came a couple days early

Vans sent you a crate full of money? Awesome?

But on a serious note, which kit?
 
What, the Mooney isn't fast enough? :eek:
Uses too much gas? o_O
You have a lifelong urge to buck a gazillion rivets before you're outta here? :cool:
That last annual that turned up a requirement for a $3.00 part that actually cost $300.00 was a "bridge too far"? :mad:

Inquiring minds want to know.
 
The Mooney will do nicely for the next 5 to 10 years. Just long enough to get this finished. Hopefully. ;)
 
Salty said:
RV-10
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I met a couple just a couple of weeks ago at Thomaston GA (KOPN) in their RV10 that was completed except for the paint job. They are based out of Falcon Field in Peachtree City GA (KFFC). Really nice plane, and the panel was state of the art. Said it took him two years to build it.

They had already flown it to places like AZ. Basically all over the country.
 
GRG55 said:
I've heard the Van's kits come with excellent instructions.
The OP's picture proves that point...it shows precisely the two places where to apply $ to generate lift.
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:rofl::lol::rofl:
I nominate this for comment of the year.

Salty, I'm jealous. I love the idea of building an airplane. I'm going to do it someday, but not until I get these kids out of the house. I really enjoy watching Jason Ellis's -10 build, but I hope you build faster than him lol. Definitely keep us up to date.
 
At first I thought you bought something at IKEA!

Congrats and enjoy the build!
 
Jim K said:
...Salty, I'm jealous. I love the idea of building an airplane. I'm going to do it someday, but not until I get these kids out of the house. I really enjoy watching Jason Ellis's -10 build, but I hope you build faster than him lol. Definitely keep us up to date.
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^^^ This.

@Salty Pictures! Or it didn't happen. :D

Salty said:
The Mooney will do nicely for the next 5 to 10 years. Just long enough to get this finished. Hopefully. ;)
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Yup, that flat pack didn't look like a "quick build" kit. :cool:
 
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Half Fast said:
I’m not so sure about the wisdom of doing it piecemeal with one subkit at a time....

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i lipsanc tgat song at the 6th grade talent show. No wonder I didn’t lose my V card till college! Lol. I didn’t care- I love Johnny
 
Jim K said:
:rofl::lol::rofl:
I really enjoy watching Jason Ellis's -10 build, but I hope you build faster than him lol
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I started 6 months after Jason and my 10 has been flying almost 2 years. It’s the time and effort in hours, not the time in years. Put an hour or two in each night and just build away!
 
OkieAviator said:
I started 6 months after Jason and my 10 has been flying almost 2 years. It’s the time and effort in hours, not the time in years. Put an hour or two in each night and just build away!
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This is huge. If you step into the shop every night and perform one task, you'll fall into the "While I'm here" trap and will get several productive things done. It is those evenings when you don't go into the shop that begin to string together and lead to long projects.
 
We're lucky enough to have the hangar to build in right beside the house, so we have plenty of room and it's convenient. We've been prepping our space working an hour or two every morning before I go to work. We've gotten into a nice rhythm. Right from the start I made this the wife's plane, so she'd be excited about it. I've been really impressed with her motivation so far. We just need to keep it up for a few more years. lol
 
Did the kit come with final size holes? They announced the switch in July.
 
Racerx said:
Did the kit come with final size holes? They announced the switch in July.
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I’m a little fuzzy on this, but I believe so. I checked the vertical stabilizer skin and a #40 bit fits in the holes, so I think that means they are final size holes.
 
Haven't built yet. But been doing my research. Got a couple projects around the house I want to get done before I tackle that. Just read that they were making the switch and hopeful it would be done by the end of the year. Oughta save you and the wife some time.
 
WOW congrats on the build start @Salty . I still have the Vans practice project sitting in my garage, since this covid started i have been thinking of starting back on this project every 3 weeks then calm myself down knowing that when Covid is over, i will be spending a crap ton of time in airport lounges....

well may be a builder assisted program ... who knows
 
Quick build or regular?
 
There is no quick build tail, so regular so far.
 
We've just been learning the skills on the practice kits and waiting for all the necessary tools to come in. No progress on the real kit yet. We're still missing some important parts that were back ordered, and Van's shipping department was sent home due to COVID concerns, so while we can make some progress, we aren't going to get very far until Van's gets back on their feet again.
 
Salty said:
We've just been learning the skills on the practice kits and waiting for all the necessary tools to come in. No progress on the real kit yet. We're still missing some important parts that were back ordered, and Van's shipping department was sent home due to COVID concerns, so while we can make some progress, we aren't going to get very far until Van's gets back on their feet again.
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You're in for a great and very rewarding experience! If you haven't done solid riveting before, the practice kits are invaluable. I thoroughly destroyed the tool box kit, then cut the remaining aluminum into strips and practiced on them some more. Then I bought the little airfoil kit, and it turned out decent and gave me the necessary confidence.

Start on the underside of the HS first, because no one (besides you and your wife during construction) will never notice dings there!
 
Another tip while you wait -- keep your eye out for any odd-shaped piece of steel that can be used as a bucking bar. There will undoubtedly be times when you need to shave a bar down to get into a tight spot, so having some scrap spares laying around is always good. Also - wrap the bucking bars in duct tape or something where you'll hold it - nothing worse than being armpit-deep in a wing skin with sweat dripping in your eyes and feel the bucking bar slip out of your hand on it's way to leaving a nice little pimple on the leading edge. DOH!
 
Salty said:
Yeah, we've been learning a lot of what not to do so far. ;)
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I didn't muck up too many parts, but I did make the Call of Shame to Van's a couple of times to order some replacements! Goes with the territory.

Best part was putting the "Pilot and Builder: me" decal on the canopy skirt once she was built and flying.
 
Ok, so we've had a slow start, but we're gaining momentum now. Feeling pretty good about our skills, which means we're about to massively screw something up. ;)

Today was a milestone though, we completed our first component. The Vertical Stabilizer is finished.

2021-03-15 13.52.22.jpg 2021-03-15 13.52.37.jpg

We have the rudder nearly ready to assemble and a good start on the Horizontal Stabilizer as well. We were stuck waiting on some tools / supplies to do corrosion protection before we could rivet, so now we have a lot of prepping and painting to do and then riveting stuff together.

Oh, here's our build log, though it's about a week behind.

https://eaabuilderslog.org?s=N87VG
 
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