Kit Aircraft Modifications

Hi everyone,

Recently, I completed the final inspection on my RV-10 and after fixing up a few snags ( I would have been VERY surprised if he didn’t find any problems) I now have permission to take her flying. We have named the plane Vera May after my grandmother and I have been able to get the registration marks C-GVMH which are her initials. I have a couple of issues to deal with before she takes flight though. I have a nagging radio problem that we have been trying to rectify. The SL-30 has been going into COMM failure after it warms up and it eventually will not change frequencies. It transmits and receives OK on the frequency it is on, it just stops allowing you to flip/flop after a while. No primary radio. No first flight. Simple as that! I have an avionics tech working with me on it.

I am SO happy that this 7 year build is coming to an end. I am looking forward to flying this thing and eventually sharing it with my VERY patient wife and children. So far, I have avoided AIDS (Aircraft Induced Divorce Syndrome) but my wife does want to see some utility out of the huge black money pit that sits in the hangar. You ALL know what I am talking about.

I was out at the airport on Saturday and had an opportunity to run the engine up close to max RPM. A friend of mine named Gary who owns an RV-7 was around and later told me how sweet the LS1 sounded. He said that he couldn’t hear the prop but rather the engine. Said that he looks forward to watching me do a ‘runway inspection’ so he can hear the engine in flight. I look forward to obliging him.

I had purchased a MT prop governor from Van’s a while back thinking that they are all the same. Well, they’re NOT! There are actually 4 variants of the prop governor as I have come to understand. Clockwise and counter-clockwise as well as pressure to go coarse and pressure to go fine. I had purchased a CW unit and I needed a CCW unit. (I think that is right) Anyway, I had a P-860-4 and I needed an P-850-4. I sent it into Hope Propeller in Mississauga Ontario and they converted it over to the opposite direction.

I mounted it on the gearbox and ran the engine up and whadda ya know!! It worked. It took a while to get the oil into the prop hub to move the piston but it eventually worked. Much to my better state of mind.

I am going to have another pilot do the first flight for me. I don’t have enough experience in higher performance aircraft to do the first flight. He has 12,000+ hours and tons of time behind high performance engines. He holds his current ATPL license so he can transition me into the cockpit after the first couple of flights.

Hope everyone had a good holiday and that they got lots of work done on their projects.

Dave