Found in the Field: RV-10 Issues

February 2017 - While doing a panel upgrade and condition inspection I found these issues with the empennage on an RV-10. Upon flying the RV-10 to my place I noticed it did not want to flare as nicely as other RV-10s. I could not get the nose up and ended up in a somewhat three-point landing. Upon checking the elevator travel, I found that it only had 25 degrees of up travel versus the required 30 degrees. That's a loss of 20 percent of travel! 

Furthermore, two bolts that attach the forward part of the horizontal stabilizer to the fuselage were missing.

On top of that, the vertical stabilizer was improperly attached with three AN3 bolts.

Improperly attached vertical stabilizer. 

The plans call for one AN4 bolt with a castellated nut and cotter key due to movement in this area.

And one of the AN3 bolts was in a 1/4-inch hole!