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RV-10 - Notes for Quickbuilders

AlpineYoda

Well Known Member
Patron
I ordered a set of QB wings and fuselage for my RV-10. As many know, there are no instructions for quickbuilders which are separate from the standard instructions. Every builder is strongly recommended to work through the entire set of plans and verify that every part, rivet, and bolt is set correctly. However, even with very sharp eyes, it is possible (likely?) that a novice builder may miss something or wonder what they need to watch for. I cannot say that the list below is comprehensive as this is based solely on my experience. If other people have things to add to this list of things for quickbuilders to do, please feel free to add!

When I started work on my wings and fuselage, I found the challenge of figuring out where to start a little daunting. I hope that this is a useful guide to the RV-10 quickbuilders that follow me.

Wings
- Page 16-3 and 20-6: All nutplates at inboard edges need to be installed before working on the flap fairings
- Page 20-2: No provision was made for a second 1/4 inch aluminum line if you are using an Pitot / AOA probe like the Garmin 26, and you will need to come up with a solution early - I used cushion clamps, zip tied to the bulkheads, to hold the second aluminum line and all the pitot heat and control wires.
- The QuickBuilder then starts the real work with stall vane installation, wing wires and tubes, and the final skin panel.

Fuselage
- Drill out all the pop rivets from the floor panels, side panels, and the upper forward fuselage section. These are weak rivets used for shipment. I found that a #36 drill bit worked really well on dimpled-set temp rivets. The drill bit snaps the head right off, and then a #40 bit pushes or grinds out the shop head portion of the rivet. The 6 aft floor panels should all be removed. The two in the floor in the back seat are really hard to get out. I found that the best idea is to shove something along the aft edge to bend that 1/2 inch flange forward a little, grab it with needlenose pliers, and yank it out. Some of the side panels will come out if you remove all the screws, making these floors a little easier to get out. Removing the side panels also allows you to inspect factory-done work that would otherwise not be visible.
- Once you get the baggage panels out, remove the long metal bar that runs between the holes for the steps. That was used to stiffen the fuselage in shipment.
- According to Van's builder support, the front two floor panels do NOT need to be removed. However, another builder told me that he took his out with a lot of bending of the metal and a lot of effort to add insulation / sound proofing under the floor. Van's support says that it is okay to just drill the temp rivets out and then rivet it back in place (per page 29-20). The landing gear mount is virtually impossible to remove, due to other things in the way, and that really stops the floor from coming out easily. It can be done if you want to insulate / sound proof or run wires for some future camera or something, but Van's say that you do not NEED to remove these panels (according to a phone call I made on 7/15/2020). You might want to get a strong shop vac under the floor wherever you can, as removing the temp rivets does leave some debris in the spaces under the floor.
- Page 27-2: If going with a Lycoming engine, the three holes in the recess need to be widened to 5/8 inch with a Unibit
- Page 27-2: Check the Proseal in all the corners of the recess in the firewall. Mine was pretty lousy from the factory. I added some 3M Fire Barrier 2000+ to fill it in.
- Page 27-6: SB437-4 snap bushings were missing from my installed F-1039D rudder pedal brace
- Page 28-10: Part VA-188 is pop riveted in place with temp rivets. This needs to be removed, nutplates attached per your flow meter type, and reattached. If you cannot decide on which meter you want now, a little creativity can be used to rivet both types of nutplates. For mine, I cut the second rivet hole off the overlapping nutplate, and then added JB Weld epoxy to the nutplate to give it some extra hold in place with just the single rivet. I think I know which flow transducer I will be using, so the single rivet nutplate is for the "other one", decreasing the odds that this single rivet ever matters to me.
- Page 28-12: My bottom forward skin was missing 16 rivets along the front edge where the 3-3.5 rivets make a triangle
- Page 28-16: Both sets of F-1057 L/R Mid-Seat Rail Supports were NOT assembled or installed, but were included loose and wrapped in blue vinyl. While they are not installed on this page, they are assembled for future installation here.
- Page 29-8: After you drill out the temp rivets near the baggage door, the baggage door shim parts need to be match drilled, dimpled, and cleco'd in place
- Page 29-20: The holes in the F 1050 L and R floors for the CS4-4 rivets were drilled and dimpled. However the holes for LP4-3 rivets were not match drilled in the front edge, inside edge, and upturned rear edge
- Page 30-4: AN3-20A bolts are required to attach the rear steps. These bolts were NOT included in the kit and are NOT listed in the inventory. Need to buy!
- Sections 31 and 31Q - what's the difference? Q does NOT mean QuickBuild. It means "Quadrant". If you are planning to use the Van's throttle quadrant, go with section 31Q. If you like three push-pull knobs for engine controls, go with section 31.
- Page 31Q-5 / 31-5 step 3 - instructions are to drill through the pilot hole into the firewall recess. Check if your part F1044B is already drilled. Mine was already drilled at the factory - no need to punch another hole in the firewall. Check the part bent to a 45 degree angle for a hole already in it.
- Page 31Q-5: My QB kit came with part F-1083 installed in the upper fuselage. This part is for a three-knob power control set up. There was no part F1083Q included in the kit, which is the part for a quadrant. If you are planning to install the quadrant style power control, then you need to drill the 6 rivets out and remove F-1083. Part F-1083Q is supplied with your finish kit. This is per an email received from Van's on 7/20/20.
- Page 31Q-6: The horizontal bar at the bottom edge of the instrument panel (F1003B) is not complete. Drill the holes (two each side) through the skin #40, dimple the skin #40, countersink the flanges on part F1003B to match.
Section 32 and following - I believe that this is where the QB ends. From this section and onward, do everything you see.
However, when you reach the "Baggage Compartment" section 33, do NOT trust the annotations that say "standard build" or "quick build". Check everything. My quickbuild was missing a number of nutplates, holes drilled, dimples, and holes match drilled that were in the "standard build" only parts. The factory QuickBuilders missed a LOT of small steps. Check every single step, every single hole.
- Page 35-2: Illustrates the point made in the paragraph above. For QB, the directions say to just start riveting. Not so fast. The 470 4-4 rivet holes on the inboard, outboard, and aft edges of both floor pans were not matchdrilled to #30 and the 7 holes on the leading edge into the F1004 bulkhead for LP4-3s weren't drilled at all yet.
- Page FF1-2: Two of the 426AD4-x rivets in the firewall need to be drilled out to attach the oil cooler box. The rivets are in the upper right corner of the oil cooler box attach points, looking toward the firewall from the outside front of the plane.
 
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Thanks for the addition - I forgot to mention that the rivet hole they say to leave open and drill wider for the pitot probe was riveted normally, per your list.

I didn't re-do that work because I went with a different pitot mast that required a different hole.

But, I can confirm that the hole specifically mentioned in the plans to be left open was, indeed, riveted closed.
 
This is immensely helpful (both the original post and the responses). I have QB fuse and wings waiting for me to finish the empennage so I'll refer to this as well as going through each section.
 
QB Baggage Floor Angles

I'm working through sections 25 to 31 determining what was and wasn't complete on my QB fuselage. One of the things I found was that the F-1023-L and R Baggage Floor Angles had not been riveted to the skin. Has anyone run into this and if so how did you rivet the forward 2-3 rivets? Did you use pulled rivets? What kind?

Thanks
 
Here’s an odd duck: my QB wings came with fuel tanks installed. But inspection revealed that every single fuel tank attach bolt was one size too long. The give-away was the 5 washers under every bolt head (!).
Moral: inspect everything.
 
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I'm working through sections 25 to 31 determining what was and wasn't complete on my QB fuselage. One of the things I found was that the F-1023-L and R Baggage Floor Angles had not been riveted to the skin. Has anyone run into this and if so how did you rivet the forward 2-3 rivets? Did you use pulled rivets? What kind?

Thanks

I used the long elevator bucking bar that was included in the Cleaveland RV-10 kit. Wasn't a problem to get those rivets in.
 
I used the long elevator bucking bar that was included in the Cleaveland RV-10 kit. Wasn't a problem to get those rivets in.

Great idea. I guess my first hint should have been step 1 on that page that says to modify the elevator bar.

Thank you,

John
 
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