Kit Aircraft Modifications

I have been wondering what it might be like to put in a set of Precise Flight Speed brakes in my RV-10. I live in Southwestern Ontario Canada and it gets pretty cool here during the winter months. These speed brakes would let me create instant and controllable drag to get the airplane down quickly without having to shock cool the engine.

There seems to be lots of room in the bays between the wing ribs to install the two units and I imagine that it would be a fairly simple install when building either the standard or quick-build version of the wings. There would be a tremendous COOL factor as well.

I have often thought that it would also be of benefit when you are on the ground in high wind conditions. You could deploy them while taxiing to help control the aircraft better.

From what I have read there are a myriad of situations that would benefit from the use of speed brakes. Many pilots incorporate them into their checklists to ensure that they are used in a regular fashion. Most owners who install the Precise Flight system in their aircraft cannot understand why they didn’t do it sooner. Some even said that they should have put them in before other major upgrades, such is their utility.

There is a great AOPA article called “Lowdown on GO Down” that is very informative on this system as well as spoilers. I found a price on the Lancair website that show the speed brakes listed for US$ 3500.00. This is a pretty penny if you are building on a budget but so is the cost of a couple of “quicker than you anticipated” descents where you do some damage to your engine.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Dave