Damazio family's RV-10 project

Baggage area complete

We went back to section 33 to wrap it up - starting with attaching the big experimental label. I got the one from Spruce for now, but it's a bit too reflective for my taste, so I may later replace it with actual paint:

Applying the experimental decal

Experimental decal applied to the upper baggage bulkhead corrugation

It was then time to work on the right baggage cover - we had delayed this because it required routing all the wires and tubes to the O₂ cylinder. I marked the general layout of the cylinder on the cover, and opened a hole with the fly cutter:

O₂ cylinder regulator outline marked on the right baggage cover

I also added holes to the top of the cover for the distributor and fill station tubes to come down through, and the baggage light wiring to go up (and later installed grommets and edge grommet to protect from chafing):

Right baggage cover with holes and some grommets

I confirmed the hole was in a good position for the cylinder:

O₂ cylinder regulator next to the right baggage cover hole

and then continued to riveting the right baggage cover and routing the tubes through it:

Right baggage cover, fully riveted in place and with O₂ distributor tubes routed through it

With this, the only part of this section left is the final assembly of the baggage bulkhead corrugation.

Time lapse:

Total baggage area rivets: 771

Total baggage area time: 66.9h

Overhead console and ELT mounting

We fully assembled the aft overhead console insert, and installed the seat belt holder, O₂ distributors, and lights into it:

Bottom side of the aft overhead console insert with all equipment installed in it

We started over with the forward insert, and this time we went the easier route without vacuum bagging, just the carbon fiber adhesive. We installed Clickbond sealed nutplates to minimize the change of any wire or tube chafing against the nutplates or screws, then attached the equipment to it:

Bottom side of the forward overhead console insert with carbon fiber adhesive applied, and Clickbond nutplates installed

Top side of the forward overhead console insert with Clickbond sealed nutplates in place

Forward overhead console insert with lights, GoPro mount and headset holder installed

Top side of forward overhead insert console, with wiring and O2 tubing

I then test fit it, trimmed the tubes going inside the overhead console to make the connection at the right place, secured wiring and attached the overhead inserts.

Test-fitting the aft overhead console insert in place

Tight squeeze of wires and tubes for the O2 distributors inside the overhead console

O2 tube T connections inside the overhead console

Tightening (screwdriver on the left) the one O2 distributor connector that didn't extend far enough to be attached before the insert was in place

Overhead inserts installed in place

We then started routing the O2 tubes that come out of the overhead console into the tailcone, looping them back (along with the static line) into the baggage area:

TODO

Next we'll finish routing it and connecting the O2 cylinder.

I also attached the ELT to the aft deck, by holding the trim cables away from it with standoffs, and installing nutplates on the bottom side of the elevator trim bracket (which has the minor downside that removing the elevator trim assembly required removing the ELT mount):

ELT mount with attachment screws in place

Trim cables going around the ELT and into the horizontal stabilizer

Trim cable routing around the ELT, with standoffs holding them to ensure clearance

ELT installed and connected in place

ELT antenna cable routing, held by an Adel clamp attached to the J stiffener through a clip

It was then time to test the ELT (at least the self-test functionality, which doesn't involve an anechoic chamber and etc) - the single beep, plus the siren sound picked up on a portal radio receiver, tell me that it's working:

Finally, I installed nutplates on the trim bracket to secure the ELT to:

Pitch trim assembly with nutplates for the ELT attachment

The final installation of the ELT will happen much later, when the HS is final-attached, since installing the ELT requires the pitch trim being in place, and the pitch trim assembly can only be attached after the HS is installed.

Time lapse:

Total avionics rivets: 193

Total avionics time: 473.5h

Main oil system installed

I attached the oil pressure hose to the engine:

Original oil pressure hose, crossing the whole firewall

only to realize that there's no point in running a hose all the way to the other side, only to also run the sensor wire all the way there - so I removed that, and instead got a shorter hose to attach the sensor close by with the Show Planes clamp:

New oil pressure hose, connected to the sensor nearby

We tried to install the breather tube, it then realized the ANL fuse holders should have been maybe an inch higher up on the firewall to not interfere with it, plus the rubber tube clamp would've ended up right against the engine mount, so we instead got a longer (MIL-6000D) hose and trimmed/re-beaded the tube so they connect just above the top Adel clamp.

Breather tube installed in place

Breather hose connected to breather tube, immediately above an engine mount bar

Trimmed and beaded breather tube, along with the hose that will connect to it

Breather hose and tube installed in place

The main downside of this is that it counts on the Adel clamps not allowing that tube to rotate (which was previous assured by the top bend of the tube being connected to the hose), but I guess that's easy enough to inspect, plus the bottom of the tube is not low enough that it could turn backwards (which would create negative pressure and suck a ton of oil out in flight).

I also added a whistle hole, as described in various VAF posts and a Cessna AD:

Whistle hole, to relieve oil pressure if the breather gets iced up

With most of the near-firewall work done, I test-fit the oil cooler (without fully securing bolts or fittings), and realized that the hose lengths I have won't work too well:

Test fitting the oil cooler and hoses, iwth the hoses being too long

Too-long oil hose hitting the heat control cables

I replaced the hose to the outboard fitting with a shorter one, and we reclocked the engine fitting for the inboard one to give it clearance.

The bottom outboard bolt hole on the cooler was also impossible to use with a long bolt - it's just too close to the engine mount - so I trimmed that off as well:

Oil cooler, with two flanges trimmed to clear the engine mount

I also realized that the AN3-40A bolts that came with the oil cooler installation kit may be a tad too long for the bottom holes, as they were hitting the firewall - so they'll be replaced with -37As (for some reason there's no -39A or -38A? but 37A was the right length with one less washer):

Oil cooler bolts hitting the firewall (before even being fully tightened)

With that, we installed the cooler in place, and sealed the sides and corners with Permatex 27038:

Oil cooler installed and sealed in place

Last, we secured the hoses to the engine, engine mount and oil cooler:

Oil cooler with hoses connecting it to the engine

With this, the prescribed part of section FF5 is complete! Later we'll install the oil drain kit.

Time lapse:

Total oil system time: 5.7h

Panel vents and overhead air connected

I tried to install tubes and clamps connecting the forward air vents to the panel vents. When I did this, it became apparent that there's some contact between the vent extension tube (where the tube is secured) and the subpanel structure, since I couldn't get the tube in. . When we installed the panel it required a little bit of force to get it to align with all the screw holes vertically, and we couldn't figure out why - now it makes sense, when I originally assembled the panel I did not have the back part of the vent in place.

Interference between the panel substrate and the air vent

We trimmed that tip with the Dremel (awkward positions involved), primed the tip again, and finally installed the vent and connected it to the air intake (and at this point, we secured the tube to the vent extension before screwing the vent in place, which made it a lot easier):

Trimming the panel substrate to clear the vent extension

Trimmed panel substrate

SCEET tube secured between the left vent extension and the air intake

SCEET tube secured between the right vent extension and the air intake

We also attached Clickbond standoffs to the tailcone to the hold the overhead air ducts, and installed those:

Clickbond standoffs attached to top tailcone skin for securing overhead ventilation ducts

Overhead ventilation ducts secured in the tailcone

With this, section 50 is complete!

Time lapse:

Total cabin heat and ventilation rivets: 34

Total cabin heat and ventilation time: 22.4h

Coil packs, control cables and MAP tubing progress

I permanently attached the coil pack mount to the engine mount:

Coil pack mount secured in place

To secure the heat control cables to the firewall, I got a custom two-0.19in-hole TTP-S fitting. Installing it and then installing the dual Adel clamps with the engine and everything else already in place was...not easy, but we managed it:

TTP-S firewall fitting for the heat control cables

Installing the TTP-S in place on the firewall recess

We also installed the cabin heat control cables (I insisted on not using servos for this 'cause I want to be sure that the valve can stay closed in case of an engine fire, and servos would melt away pretty quickly):

Heat control cable routing on the firewall

Upon closer inspection, however, it became clear that that was the wrong way to clamp the wire - it was even breaking the washer in half - so we instead switched to a 222-4 B nut, which seems much better:

Heat control cables attached to valves with regular washer/nut, showing the broken washer

Heat control cables attached to valves with B nuts

I installed some of the MAP sensor tubing, though the tube coming from the throttle body can only be trimmed to the right length once the bottom engine bracket gets here (and I'm still designing it):