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The journey begins...

S

sumitku

Active Member
Greetings! An -10 emp kit will be leaving Aurora tomorrow and headed in my direction in Victoria, BC. The emotions range widely from thrilled to hmmm just what have I gotten myself into...

Tools have arrived today and the plan is to set up the garage and build benches this weekend.

Thanks to all the builders for all the posts on VAF that have led me to this point and will no doubt provide priceless help throughout.

Donation will be put in this weekend... when I come for air!
 
Welcome

Welcome Sumit.
Best of luck with the build. By the way, those feelings never change. Enjoy the journey.
 
It's just one step at a time, then with time it ends and you have an RV-10. You will love it.
 
Welcome to the RV crowd Sumit. You may have days where you wonder if you will ever have the ability to complete the build but press on. You will be rewarded with one of the finest and most desirable aircraft out there!
DSC00361.jpg
 
Everyone told me to keep at it and you'll reap the rewards. There were highs and lows along the way but sure enough, I got it done (4.5 yrs with a QB) and the rewards are many! It's a fantastic airplane and a pleasure to fly. It's also a life journey that I will always cherish. You're beginning the journey!
 
Larry, Ron, Eric, Dave C., and Dave H.,

Thank you for the welcome and words of wisdom. To see everyone of you get to the finish line after being in my shoes once provides a lot of confidence. I know when all is said and done that I'll be fully thankful to myself for having made the decision to do something in my lifetime that only a few can be fortunate enough to accomplish.

Now I find myself impatient for the crate to arrive.

Stay tuned and I'll update as progress is made.

Best,

Sumit
 
Congrats!

So i'm likely a couple years from buying my kit. Let me know how it goes and what the big hangups are. ~Bill
 
Welcome to VAF!

Sumit----and Bill.

Welcome aboard the good ship VAF:D

Good to have a couple more 10 builders here.
 
You are going enjoy the buid. The Rv kits are the best of the best. Everytime I fly another airplane I love my Ten even more:D
 
Bill, Mike, Jon, Troy,

Thanks for the encouragement. Excitmemt buIlding.

The crate has cleared customs, the used band saw bought and the garage almost ready to go. Build log website should be up in a few.

After coming to acceptance on the nearly 40% uptick exchange rate, canadian and bc sales taxes on import and brokerage fees dinged me, I'm raring to go.


Cheers,

Sumit
 
Hi again good folks.

10 hours already this last weekend, and just on doing the inventory and setting up the workspace. Prying that crate open was like Christmas 25 years ago all over again!

Started my log in the signature.

Thanks again for all the inspiration. Can't wait to get to step 1 now!

Sumit
 
VS-1014 spar caps were cut last night. Step 1 at last! Who'd of thunk that my biggest problem so far was buying a danged bandsaw blade that actually was the same length as what it says it is on the package... very frustrating! Once the saw was figured out, the cut's themselves were a piece of cake of course.
 
Sumit, If I can ask, what was your kit number? There is another thread going regarding completions, and it got me to wondering. I can note that I bought tail kit 784 a little over seven years ago, and there are now at least 745 -10s flying, so that suggests to me a pretty high completion rate.
 
Looks great so far. I'l be buying the kit on or before Osh 2015, so I'll be reading your posts for inspiration and guidance.

In the mean time, I've made the following to put on the family cars:



Also made a banner to hang in the shop.

 
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Mike,

Great stuff. Thanks! I've learned so much from the others that have come before me, great people who invested time and energy to document their learnings and guidance. I'll be thrilled if my project can help others in a similar way.

Nicely done on the bumper stickers and banner. Have you ordered the plans cd? Reading through those eventually helped me to pull the trigger. I turned the corner in understanding that it's a step by step process and fully doable by the average person and not a superhuman effort.

look forward to seeing you post up your project soon after osh! Let's plan to fly those -10s in to Osh 2017!

Sumit
 
Quick update. I've just finished riveting up the vertical stab rear spar and encountered numerous problems setting the -4 rivets cleanly with my squeezer. Problem turned out to be that the Van's callouts for the ad4-7 rivets are much too long in a number of spots and really, an ad4-6.5 would be the best solution. After discovering how to cut down the ad4-7s a touch, things resolved. Lots more detail in the blog... I drilled out at least 15 rivets before I figured things out :(.

 
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Glad to hear you're getting more comfortable drilling out rivets. It's a skill I've built over the past 5 months :)

One thing I found to be helpful to avoid drilling out rivets - get a rivet buddy. It's a do-able job by yourself but I found that it's quicker and higher quality with a partner. My wife started helping this week on the horizontal stabilizer and we didn't have to drill out a single rivet. I had done the VS and rudder on my own and had to drill out more than I'd care to admit!
 
Eric,

Oh yeah believe me I got some practice. Great when it worked well, but on the one or two where the head snapped in half instead of coming out whole was it ever frustrating.

Yes I'll be asking for more help from now on and also taking time to set up support structures/clamping. It's a self discipline issue to hold back for set up and assistance rather than just pushing on. The piper is always paid.

I see you're close by on the Gorge. And you're a few months ahead of me. Proposal: If I miraculously speed up and finish before you I'll come down and take you for a ride. If you finish first you take me for a ride? :)

Sumit
 
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