Still thinking about an RV-14

Jim K said:
No, panel design isn't done, that's my next "indoor" project. Garmin has 2D and 3D models of all their stuff, so I'm going to see if I can put it together in Fusion. I'm also planning to print out the fullsize 2D models and tape them to a cardboard panel to see what it looks like. That will also be fun to have when I'm sitting in it and pretending to be flying. That's how they train for jets, right? :biggrin:
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That is, in fact, EXACTLY how it's done! I call this one the "Home Depot sim". :rofl: It's cut-up cockpit posters, plywood, and 2x4s.

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Jim K said:
I agree it's pretty cool. I'm not certain I want to add that level of complexity. I have nightmares of the VPX computer failing and losing everything electrical. Probably irrational. I'm not saying I definitely won't go that route, but I'm leaning against it currently.

I kind of like the pullable breakers, but they're big and expensive.

Fuses retain the pullable feature and are light and cheap, but feel kind of outdated. The difficulty in "resetting" them is a feature, not a bug.

Only if you chip in to pay for it, too :biggrin:
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So I've been all over the map on this. My 10 started off with a Verticval Power VP-200 system which is similar in capability but had its own display screen and dedicated switch panel (for ignition and some other functions). It worked great until the display died while on a trip. The VP-200 had become an orphaned system with no factory support. Luckily another builder had a spare which he FEDEX'd to me in order to get me home, but I digress. The VP-X system is nice but it has limited inputs/outputs which in a modern all-electric airplane can be an issue as you can easily have more devices than a single VP-X can support. I opted to pull the whole VP system out and replace, as an interim solution, with fuses as the quickest and cheapest way to get back in the air. My intent was to rework the whole shooting match when I re-did my panel as I wanted to replace my legacy non-Touch G3X with current Touch hardware. Unfortunately, I'm now 8 years into what was supposed to be just a temp solution to keep the plane flying and I'm no closer to a permanent solution. That said, if I can ever get to the point where I pull the trigger on my panel upgrade, I'm going full old-school circuit breakers. Of course, I could stick to fuses, if I were to mount them more in a more accessible location (a la the RV-12) than what I have now, but in terms of function (pulling & resetting) and aesthetics, I prefer CB's.
 
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nauga said:
Read as much as you can on the VPX. There's been a lot of discussion on the usual RV sites. …
Bob Nuckolls' "AeroElectric Connection" …
Nauga,
fused but not broken
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A lot of the reports I see on the various Vertical Power systems are what leave me as intrigued but not a customer.

I need to order his book/pdf bundle.
 
Outstanding! Your rate of progress is very inspiring!
 
Big milestone: the "Big Join".

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Section 29 done, starting section 30. Looks like an airplane now.

Cut some boards where the seats go and clecoed the panel in so I could see how it fits and if i want to use a center console and throttle quadrant. Still unsure. A lot of stuff i thought i had figured out is kind of up for debate again. It's more mooney-esque than I remember. Panel is close, seating is low and legs stretched out. Stuff i was planning to put on the stick (trim, a/p disco) might make more sense to save the wire and stick on the panel.

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Definitely want some kind of a center armrest to aid in/egress, not sure if I want to give up the thigh room to run it all the way forward. Was sure I wanted a quadrant, but again not sure it's worth the effort/cost. Option three is grab a piper setup and attach it to the panel. Might be worth having the canopy and real seats in before making some of these decisions. Lots to look at and think about at OSH.

My oldest has a friend from TKD that is obsessed with airplanes, so I took them flying and for dinner this afternoon. She was over the moon. She really wanted to see the RV and was ecstatic to help move the tailcone home from the hangar.

Wings are still at the paint shop, but there's progress. Product should be here this week, and I finalized the rotisserie system (made from engine stands, saw horses, and pvc) to be able to paint them in one session. Once they're done, I'm planning to repurpose the engine stands for a fuselage rotisserie.
 
Jim K said:
Definitely want some kind of a center armrest to aid in/egress,
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I’ll have to document my RV-14 dance next time I climb in (fingers crossed for tomorrow) but it doesn’t miss anything from a center console. Something like this: Hand on roll bar, foot on wing walk, second foot comes up with a pull, over the gunwale, hand on gunwale and hand on cross brace, slide down into seat.

The elbow area would be better served with a cup holder caddy than throttle quadrant, in my experience. Each to his own, but that’s mine. If I flew formation often, it might be nice to have my hand on a big lever with no reaching, but the panel is close enough that I don’t get a sore shoulder reaching up to adjust power.

As far as what buttons you put on the stick, I like my overkill set. I’ve been really busy for the past year but I still want to make my panel demonstration video one of these days. (Fingers still crossed for tomorrow. I’ll go charge up the camera just in case it works out.)
 
I have Infinity grips in my 10 and like them but they are overkill. I never use the thumb or pinky switches (the thumb as I no longer have a VP-200 and haven’t found a replacement use and the pinky because I never got in the habit of using it). The other switches I’d wouldn’t change a thing and would still use them intheir current configuration if I were to do it all over again.

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iamtheari said:
Fingers still crossed for tomorrow. I’ll go charge up the camera just in case it works out.
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Maybe I crossed the wrong fingers. Our local weather is the best in the vicinity and I was going to do a round-robin and log a few approaches. This isn’t as bad as it looks on paper and I’ve flown in worse, but I don’t want to over-inflate my north-facing hangar.

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iamtheari said:
Maybe I crossed the wrong fingers. Our local weather is the best in the vicinity and I was going to do a round-robin and log a few approaches. This isn’t as bad as it looks on paper and I’ve flown in worse, but I don’t want to over-inflate my north-facing hangar.

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Pretty much what I flew in yesterday. Except the temperature was closer to 45 degrees and there was a 5 knot Xwind.
 
iamtheari said:
Maybe I crossed the wrong fingers. Our local weather is the best in the vicinity and I was going to do a round-robin and log a few approaches. This isn’t as bad as it looks on paper and I’ve flown in worse, but I don’t want to over-inflate my north-facing hangar.

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Well if you git on up there and fix them broken clouds maybe the snow would quit fallin out.



edit: After re-reading this post, it made me go back and reflect on all the weird things my kids say. And I've come to the conclusion, that I still blame their mother.
 
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Hey, that looks like an airplane!!! :)

Definitely put AP Disconnect, trim, and PTT on the stick. The trim and PTT are used frequently enough that reaching up to the panel for them all the time would suck, and the AP Disconnect belongs somewhere right under your finger where you don't have to reach for it when (not if) it tries to fly you somewhere you don't want to go.
 
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flyingcheesehead said:
Hey, that looks like an airplane!!! :)

Definitely put AP Disconnect, trim, and PTT on the stick. The trim and PTT are used frequently enough that reaching up to the panel for them all the time would suck, and the AP Disconnect belongs somewhere right under your finger where you don't have to reach for it when (not if) it tries to fly you somewhere you don't want to go.
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Yeah, that's what I finally came to as well.

I ordered these from Van's:

grip_1_standard_left.jpg

I got these:

IMG_20260120_191646056.jpg

I eventually figured out that they had attached the wrong photo on the webstore. The 3 button one is NLA through them, and $400 through Spruce. The single button is $140 through Van's and a bit more from Spruce. There's no universe in which I'm spending $800 on stick grips, and the single button ones fit my hands like they were custom made for me, so I thought long and hard about just keeping them. I also suspect returning them to Van's is going to be a PITA and they're going to ding me for a restocking charge.

With my large size, the instrument panel in the -14 is really not a reach at all...more like straightening a finger. I also figured that when I need the trim, I'll probably be on the throttle anyway, and the A/P disco could be a big easy to find red button. That would eliminate several wires from the main harness, and both seats would have equal access to the switches.. I was also considering that if I put a console in, they could be mounted there and there would be no reaching at all.

In the end, I decided that I use the electric trim so much on my Lance that I would miss having it on the stick, and the A/P disconnect really is a safety issue. What I will probably end up doing is getting some exotic wood (cocobolo?...probably) and carving my own. I mean, I'm doing everything else the hard way so why not add one more task?
 
Jim K said:
I eventually figured out that they had attached the wrong photo on the webstore. The 3 button one is NLA through them, and $400 through Spruce. The single button is $140 through Van's and a bit more from Spruce. There's no universe in which I'm spending $800 on stick grips, and the single button ones fit my hands like they were custom made for me, so I thought long and hard about just keeping them. I also suspect returning them to Van's is going to be a PITA and they're going to ding me for a restocking charge.

With my large size, the instrument panel in the -14 is really not a reach at all...more like straightening a finger. I also figured that when I need the trim, I'll probably be on the throttle anyway, and the A/P disco could be a big easy to find red button. That would eliminate several wires from the main harness, and both seats would have equal access to the switches.. I was also considering that if I put a console in, they could be mounted there and there would be no reaching at all.

In the end, I decided that I use the electric trim so much on my Lance that I would miss having it on the stick, and the A/P disconnect really is a safety issue. What I will probably end up doing is getting some exotic wood (cocobolo?...probably) and carving my own. I mean, I'm doing everything else the hard way so why not add one more task?
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Don't you have a 3D printer or something??? o_O
 
Jim K said:
Yeah, that's what I finally came to as well.

I ordered these from Van's:

View attachment 149146

I got these:



I eventually figured out that they had attached the wrong photo on the webstore. The 3 button one is NLA through them, and $400 through Spruce. The single button is $140 through Van's and a bit more from Spruce. There's no universe in which I'm spending $800 on stick grips, and the single button ones fit my hands like they were custom made for me, so I thought long and hard about just keeping them. I also suspect returning them to Van's is going to be a PITA and they're going to ding me for a restocking charge.

With my large size, the instrument panel in the -14 is really not a reach at all...more like straightening a finger. I also figured that when I need the trim, I'll probably be on the throttle anyway, and the A/P disco could be a big easy to find red button. That would eliminate several wires from the main harness, and both seats would have equal access to the switches.. I was also considering that if I put a console in, they could be mounted there and there would be no reaching at all.

In the end, I decided that I use the electric trim so much on my Lance that I would miss having it on the stick, and the A/P disconnect really is a safety issue. What I will probably end up doing is getting some exotic wood (cocobolo?...probably) and carving my own. I mean, I'm doing everything else the hard way so why not add one more task?
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I'm a believer in PTT and trim on the stick. The -6 isn't so bad, but the flaps on the -10 induce pretty high pitch forces, so it is nice to have the trim control very handy so I can retrim continually as I reconfigure the airplane in the pattern. keeping a hand on both the throttle and stick. Or the stick and flap toggle. I believe the -14 has a similar flap system to the -10, so I would expect it to have a lot of flap induced pitch as well.

I've never found it necessary to have the trim and/or AP kill on the stick - both of mine are right in front of me on the panel. But that's a personal preference, so do what works for you.
 
Jim K said:
Nah. If I'm spending thousands of hours hand building a plane, the control grips are going to look like a BBQ gun, not a Glock :cool:
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Design and 3D print a part, find someone that has one of those old router/copy things that Sears and others used to sell, and make a finish one out of walnut. :) Or, maybe build one of those copy things...
 
kyleb said:
The -6 isn't so bad, but the flaps on the -10 induce pretty high pitch forces
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The -14 is like the -10 in that regard. The last half of the flaps travel throws the nose down pretty hard.
 
Jim K said:
I eventually figured out that they had attached the wrong photo on the webstore. The 3 button one is NLA through them, and $400 through Spruce. The single button is $140 through Van's and a bit more from Spruce.
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I remember going direct to the manufacturer on these stick grips. Looks like the website is on the paper in the plastic bag. The three button is wonderful, and direct they'll customize.
 
Jim K said:
Nah. If I'm spending thousands of hours hand building a plane, the control grips are going to look like a BBQ gun, not a Glock :cool:
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Tosten makes some options. Maybe not bbq gun worthy though.

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keen9 said:
I remember going direct to the manufacturer on these stick grips. Looks like the website is on the paper in the plastic bag. The three button is wonderful, and direct they'll customize.
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Yeah...their website is pretty thin. I figured I'd at least price them direct before committing to making them myself.

TCABM said:
Tosten makes some options. Maybe not bbq gun worthy though.

tostenmanufacturing.com

Home - Tosten Manufacturing

Free Shipping Above $5 Only Certified Organic 100% Guarantee Huge Savings At Lowest Price Easy Returns No Questions Asked Best Selling Products Farm Fresh
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That is the most popular option, probably not least because they sell them plug n' play, pre-mounted to the control sticks. I'm not crazy about the military looking ones personally. I might also just be a contrarian. Definitely wood for this airplane anyway.
 
Jim K said:
That is the most popular option, probably not least because they sell them plug n' play, pre-mounted to the control sticks. I'm not crazy about the military lo
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They also pre-bend and cut the sticks. It’s a common issue in the 14 that the stick will hit the panel. It’s the easy button option, and we all have to pick a few easy buttons but not all of them.
 
Almost finished attaching the tailcone today. While we were in there....I decided to replace a few rivets I didn't like in the tailcone skin:

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Jim, you sure have dedicated kids! Do you promise flying lessons at 15, and PPL at 16?

Back to the grip, wood is warmer feeling in the winter, and cooler in the summer.

Walnut, Maple, and Oak are the only really good ones for durability.
 
geezer said:
Jim, you sure have dedicated kids! Do you promise flying lessons at 15, and PPL at 16?

Back to the grip, wood is warmer feeling in the winter, and cooler in the summer.

Walnut, Maple, and Oak are the only really good ones for durability.
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It's gotta be Goncalo Alves, if you want it to have the BBQ gun look...
 
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