Attaching Tailcone to Fuselage

Marek enjoys taking pictures and is actually a pretty good photographer. 

In this post, we are attaching the tailcone to the fuselage. 

Thank you to Mike Gibbons and Daniel Rowe for their help riveting around the sides and the bottom of the airframe.

Quickbuild Fuselage Pickup

While loading the fuselage into our trailer at Vans Aircraft none other than Richard Vangrunsen himself happened to walk by.  After striking up a conversation about our RV-10 build, he showed us his personal RV-10 and allowed the kids to sit in it for a picture. 

Thanks to my family and Daniel Rowe and Tom Wellner for showing up to help unload the fuselage into the hangar. 

Next step is to begin attaching the tailcone and working on the mechanics, fuel lines, brake lines, controls.  Fun!

Completed Empennage and Wings

Here are a couple of shots of the completed empennage and wings.  The remaining part of the fuselage is on the boat after being assembled in the Philippines by Vans Aircraft. 

We are on track to finish by Summer 2014.

Bottom Skins of Wings

With this section, the wings are completed! 

I have been saying that the wings are PRETTY MUCH completed for about a year now, so it feels pretty good to finally say that they actually ARE completed. 

I have mixed feelings about whether I would do the wings slow build again - since Vans does have a quickbuild option for them.  On one hand, I learned a lot about how the parts fit together and how the fuel tanks are assembled, but on the other hand it was a ton of drilling, deburring, and riveting. 

I did order the quickbuild fuselage since it is just a hunk of metal without any moving parts.  This arrives in a few weeks and then we are going to hit the ground hard with a final push to finish this project by the summer time. 

Checkride

After approximately two years of ground school and flight training, the written exam, the oral exam, and the in-flight practical exam, I obtained my private pilot certificate on July 12, 2012.  It was a spectacular feeling of accomplishment.   

Here I am readying for my first flight as a pilot with my pilot-friend and supporter Mike Gibbons.

Mike and I cruised around the Puget Sound for about an hour, taking in the scenery and enjoying the freedom of flight.

Back to building!