RV 10-24

A small group today still made some good progress on the RV-10. Early on it was discovered that the seat support brackets couldn’t be riveted together because the plate nuts installed earlier were in the way. Another look at the plans confirmed that the plates needed to be riveted together first before the plate nuts go on. So Peter, Mary Lou, and Tom went to work drilling out the plate nuts and re-doing things in the right order. That job is still to be finished. Meanwhile, Mark and Lew continued to rivet the floor panels in place. The rivet gun still did not work quite right, so Mike brought over his from his hangar. Work went more quickly after that. Finishing work was also done on the rudder pedals and they were then fitted into the fuselage. They fit very well. Work will continue Thursday evening February 27th at 6:30 and Saturday morning February 29th at 9:00.

In other news, we are sad to report that when Jerry and I (Ernie) made the Cub’s second flight on Sunday morning the engine lost oil pressure soon after takeoff. We landed immediately and spent the next several days trying to diagnose the problem. The final conclusion reached today is that the only sure solution is to remove the engine and tear it down to see what is wrong. Since warmer weather is forecast to return early next week, we are going to begin disconnecting and removing the engine on Monday afternoon at 1:00. 

In better news, major parts from the donated Lycoming O-235 engine returned from Oklahoma and are in very good condition. Only a few small parts failed inspection. Since all the major parts are now known to be good, the next step will be to prepare the cylinders to be sent out for inspection and servicing.