Kit Aircraft Modifications

Most people in the aviation community who have met me, either in person or on-line know that I am an alternative engine nut. From day one of my RV-10 project, I have been looking for an engine that would replace the prehistoric IO-540 that Van’s designed the airframe around.

As with most builders I ran into numerous roadblocks when it came to evaluating different engine options. One of the largest problems with the alternative engine market in general is the lack of a suitable firewall forward package. There aren’t many builders that want to put on the engineering hat as well.

Being the closet engineer that I am led me to start putting together a FWF package together for one of the engine / PSRU combinations that I thought would be perfect for the RV-10. The engine mount was the first piece in the puzzle.

I figured that it would be easier to start from scratch when building a new engine mount than to hack the existing one apart to modify it. It being already welded and heat relieved. I was able to get an example of an RV-10 engine mount lent to me by a fellow builder. From this we took measurements that gave us the dimensions of the mount points as well as the design of the structure that the nose gear is mounted to.

I took this information to a local aerospace MIL-Spec welding and fabrication shop. We made a fabrication jig and 2 initial units. This sub-mount is the perfect staring point for the builder who wants to install an alternative engine without having to hack apart the mount they get from Van’s. In fact you would be able to delete the mount from the Van’s Finish Kit to reduce costs.

The new sub-mount is made from the same material as the original and has been properly welded and heat treated. I think that there is are a number of individuals out there building RV-10s that are looking into alternative engines who might be interested in this product it should save them some time.

As happens in the pursuit of alternative engines for aircraft, I ran into too many roadblocks at least on the engine that I was pursuing at the time. I am currently waiting on a very new engine technology to mature in hopes that I will be able to utilize it in a totally new aircraft engine design. It will be designed to exactly fit into the space utilized by current engines and will attach to the existing mount so I have no need for these initial units.

I have 2 of the initial units available and more can be made with some notice. Here are a few pictures of them. You can contact me at davehertner@kitaircraftmods.com if you are interested in acquiring one of these for your project.

Dave

Hi there everyone,

I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to read my blog. I have been very happy with the numbers who have come to visit.

I will get a little bit of administration out of the way right off of the bat. I initially started this blog under the URL www.kitairplanemods.com. This proved somewhat awkward for me in that I kept telling eveyone that it was www.kitaircraftmods.com when it wasn’t. I have cleared this up by switching over to the current www.kitaircraftmods.com completely and I am much happier for it.

As well, I would love it it you would place a link to my blog on your home page or e-mail it to a friend. This will give you a daily pipeline to the modifications that other builders are incorporating into their aircraft.

I have already started to receive comments on some of the posts. Thank you for your kind words. Please feel free to make a comment on what you have read. As long as the comments are kept clean and constructive, I will post them for all to see. If you want the comment kept private then make sure that you stat that in the comment.

Dave