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Do I Have Enough Room?

jacoby

Well Known Member
I'm looking into building an RV-10 and I have two spaces available: the main workshop is a 21.5'x18.5' room in my basement with an adjacent 19'x12' room I can use for overflow/storage. And the second is the garage at 21'x32' (3-car).

I'd like to use the workshop as much as possible since it's heated and keeps the cars in the garage. I'm having a hard time figuring out if this is large enough though. I know I can't assemble the whole fuselage in there since that ends up at 24' OAL but is it big enough to do all the major sub-assemblies and join up the fuselage to the tailcone and hang the engine (minus the empennage)? I would think the wings would need to be fitted in the garage, driveway, or at the airport. I don't think there would be enough room even with the fuselage pushed against the wall in the workshop?

If needed I could open up the wall in the basement to make for one big L-shaped room but that would take some engineering as it's a load-bearing wall so I'd like to avoid that if possible. The rough on the door is 38" so I could push the tailcone into that a bit if needed as well.

I would hang completed sub-assemblies in the garage most likely.
 
I think...

I think that should be adequate.

The fuselage is about 18' long from firewall to aft end of tailbone.

It is roughly 4' 10" wide from the outside tips of the spar carry through.

Add another 2' if the rudder is on.

Add about 1' for the engine mount.

Sitting on the gear, it is about 9' wide from wheel pant support to wheel pant support.

If the engine is mounted, add about 3' 6" fro the firewall to the tip of the prop flange.

All measurements are rounded up but that should give you an idea.

21' x 18' should be fine for fuselage fabrication, at least.

I can get more measurements if you need them...
 
I think that should be adequate.

The fuselage is about 18' long from firewall to aft end of tailbone.

It is roughly 4' 10" wide from the outside tips of the spar carry through.

Add another 2' if the rudder is on.

Add about 1' for the engine mount.

Sitting on the gear, it is about 9' wide from wheel pant support to wheel pant support.

If the engine is mounted, add about 3' 6" fro the firewall to the tip of the prop flange.

All measurements are rounded up but that should give you an idea.

21' x 18' should be fine for fuselage fabrication, at least.

I can get more measurements if you need them...

Thank you!

How long are the wings from spar to outermost rib? And then the tip? And chord w/wo ailerons/flaps?

I want to be sure I can walk around both ends of the wings.

The french doors going outside are 6' wide so I'll have to roll the fuselage out on something other than the gear but that's no biggie.
 
and...

Wings are 12' 6" from tip rib to end of spar.

Wings have a 47" chord.

Add about 14" for aileron/flap chord.

Add 18" for wingtip.

Horizontal stab is a little less than 12' wide.
 
I am building my 10 in a smaller 3 car garage. I was able to fit the fuse with tail cone and engine mount in one bay. On gear, I need to remove the axel extensions to move the plane through the single garage door. Wheel to wheel it is just shy of 8 foot wide. With the engine on it will not fit in a single bay, it sticks out the door. So I have it spanning the 3 bays. I have support columns between each of the garage bays, so it tricky angling the plane out the middle door because of the column interference. This is done with the prop and spinner off.

I have the plane, 3 large work tables and shelves in the garage and it works out fine. The extra space you have in the basement is a great bonus.
 
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I am building my 10 in a smaller 3 car garage. I was able to fit the fuse with tail cone and engine mount in one bay. On gear, I need to remove the axel extensions to move the plane through the single garage door. Wheel to wheel it is just shy of 8 foot wide. With the engine on it will not fit in a single bay, it sticks out the door. So I have it spanning the 3 bays. I have support columns between each of the garage bays, so it tricky angling the plane out the middle door because of the column interference. This is done with the prop and spinner off.

I have the plane, 3 large work tables and shelves in the garage and it works out fine. The extra space you have in the basement is a great bonus.

Glad to hear it. Do you have standard height doors? I have a double width and a single door, both are standard height. No columns to deal with thankfully.

What are your door heights? The RV-10 is pretty tall at the cabin when on her gear.

They're standard height. Seems like the 10 sits about 6-7' high on the gear? I'll be close.


Awesome, thank you!
 
Bill, what is the height at the cabin?

77"-78" on the gear, with wheels/tires (and engine) installed.

If height (or door width) is a problem, you can build a lot of airplane in a basement shop, then move the fuselage to the garage for landing gear and engine stuff.

That's what I had to do.
 
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