About ten years ago I built an RV-8 which I still own and enjoy. I mostly fly local aerobatics in it, but I do a little cross county as well. When we do take a trip, my wife sits in the back with our dog in her lap...not great, but she is a good sport! Anyway, a few years ago I started kicking around the idea of a larger x-county airplane which would obviously be a lot more comfortable...I was also getting the bug to build again. The RV-10 was an obvious choice. My plan was to start it in a handful of years to coincide with retirement (give me a project to keep me out of trouble). Then along came COVID-19. Long story short: I have a ton of time off right now. So I pushed up the start date and am currently building the empennage. Here’s the problem. Although I have QB wings and fuselage on order, they are still 6 months out. At the rate I’m building I will finish the empennage within the next month or six weeks, giving me 4 or 5 months of dead time. Since I really want to take advantage of my time off from work (it won’t continue indefinitely), I want to keep working.
Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be a great solution. I’ve kicked around the idea of perhaps ordering avionics and starting on the wiring bundles, but that’s not really ideal. First of all, it’s generally a mistake to order anything electronic until as late as possible because that stuff always gets better and cheaper. Second, I’d just be guessing on the length of the wire bundles, etc. But I haven’t given up on the idea yet. But I thought I’d toss the idea out here because perhaps someone has a better idea...it wouldn’t be the first time!
Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be a great solution. I’ve kicked around the idea of perhaps ordering avionics and starting on the wiring bundles, but that’s not really ideal. First of all, it’s generally a mistake to order anything electronic until as late as possible because that stuff always gets better and cheaper. Second, I’d just be guessing on the length of the wire bundles, etc. But I haven’t given up on the idea yet. But I thought I’d toss the idea out here because perhaps someone has a better idea...it wouldn’t be the first time!
