Still thinking about an RV-14

Jim K said:
Built to plans. The subpanel frame attaches to those two ribs and the gunnels. Then the panel proper screws to it. I always found it a little odd that the avionics bay is closed by the canopy, but I suppose that makes it easy to get at.

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It doesn't hardly seem like enough structure, but with the panels screwed on it gets pretty solid, so wthdik?
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I forgot the -14 is a tip-up. Very different structurally in that area than the fixed windscreen on my -10 or the -6.
 
Jim K said:
My thinking would be to get a used IO-360 and overhaul it, making use of my new skill and tool set. I'm a little concerned about the performance difference between the 360 and 390. Haven't gotten as far as looking into the possibility of hot-rodding the 360 to get the additional 10HP, or how much real world performance difference there is. I understand that the Van's factory demonstrator -14 is an IO-360. A factory new IO-390 is something like $70,000 and 3-4 year lead time. Craziness.
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IMHO, moving up to a 360 to 390 isn't worth doing. Top speed will increase by the cube root of 390/360. You will get off the ground and climb a LITTLE faster, but I don't think going bigger will improve performance overall as much as fuel consumption will increase.
 
Not spending as much time in the shop, but still making progress. Got the rudder pedals rigged with the new titanium links. Got the glovebox built. Out of the blue, the two missing master cylinders showed up today, so I can slap those in. Working on my wiring diagrams now so I can start building the main harness.

I was particularly proud of the control stick grips, which I more or less finished Sunday. Carved them out of a block of cocobolo. I got the switches installed and I think I have enough space carved out for the wires to run, so there's some more wiring I can do. I think they look pretty cool, and they feel great in the hand. I might put another coat of oil on them, but the wood is so naturally oily I'm not sure it's necessary or even desirable.

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Jim K said:
Not spending as much time in the shop, but still making progress. Got the rudder pedals rigged with the new titanium links. Got the glovebox built. Out of the blue, the two missing master cylinders showed up today, so I can slap those in. Working on my wiring diagrams now so I can start building the main harness.

I was particularly proud of the control stick grips, which I more or less finished Sunday. Carved them out of a block of cocobolo. I got the switches installed and I think I have enough space carved out for the wires to run, so there's some more wiring I can do. I think they look pretty cool, and they feel great in the hand. I might put another coat of oil on them, but the wood is so naturally oily I'm not sure it's necessary or even desirable.

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Glovebox looks grate!
 
Jim K said:
Not spending as much time in the shop, but still making progress. Got the rudder pedals rigged with the new titanium links. Got the glovebox built. Out of the blue, the two missing master cylinders showed up today, so I can slap those in. Working on my wiring diagrams now so I can start building the main harness.

I was particularly proud of the control stick grips, which I more or less finished Sunday. Carved them out of a block of cocobolo. I got the switches installed and I think I have enough space carved out for the wires to run, so there's some more wiring I can do. I think they look pretty cool, and they feel great in the hand. I might put another coat of oil on them, but the wood is so naturally oily I'm not sure it's necessary or even desirable.

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Those control grips look great! What do they put on the wood steering wheels in luxury cars, you know that thick clear outer coating? Some sort of epoxy? I'm thinking that could be an idea for these grips.
 
I wish I had the talent to whittle my own grips. Those turned out great. And I don’t have a glovebox because of my MFD. I would get more use out of a glovebox. I underestimated how nice it would be to have a place to keep things like a flashlight.
 
Not that much talent involved. Getting from square to round without a lathe was the hardest part. Then I traced my hand on it with a sharpie and went to town with a 60 grit flap wheel in the 4" grinder until they felt good. Once I had the rough shape I took out the angry beaver marks with some roloc scotchbrite pads, then a final polish. I probably have 10-12 hours in them.

I've never worked with cocobolo before. I've had some 1911 grips made of it and anyways loved the look. I figured it would be like walnut and take multiple coats of tung oil to fill the pores and get that deep glossy look, but this stuff has almost no pores and is so hard that it polishes almost like metal. It also doesn't really absorb oil. An acetone wipe and a light coat popped the grain pattern out a bit, but it doesn't seem to want to take any more.

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Bill said:
Glovebox looks grate!
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My dad had a strange obsession with being able to wash cars indoors in the winter. Never mind that he pretty much never washed cars in general. He built a whole elaborate drainage system in this building with an oil separator and an indoor water spigot. He then never finished the building. When I was in high school, I insulated, wired, finished the interior, and installed heat. I then washed my car in there....once. It's really not big enough to do it and everything gets soaked. Terrible idea.

He also built a drain into the floor of the big machine shed for the same reason. Never used, and a pain to work around.
 
Jim K said:
My dad had a strange obsession with being able to wash cars indoors in the winter. Never mind that he pretty much never washed cars in general. He built a whole elaborate drainage system in this building with an oil separator and an indoor water spigot. He then never finished the building. When I was in high school, I insulated, wired, finished the interior, and installed heat. I then washed my car in there....once. It's really not big enough to do it and everything gets soaked. Terrible idea.

He also built a drain into the floor of the big machine shed for the same reason. Never used, and a pain to work around.
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My dad did the same thing in his garage when he built the addition. Never been used for cars despite that being the intent. Usually to clean up blood after skinning a deer. Another time to clean up my own blood after taking an umbrella pole to the chin on the elevator. Roughly an inch and a half from certain death on that one.
 
Jim K said:
Not spending as much time in the shop, but still making progress. Got the rudder pedals rigged with the new titanium links. Got the glovebox built. Out of the blue, the two missing master cylinders showed up today, so I can slap those in. Working on my wiring diagrams now so I can start building the main harness.

I was particularly proud of the control stick grips, which I more or less finished Sunday. Carved them out of a block of cocobolo. I got the switches installed and I think I have enough space carved out for the wires to run, so there's some more wiring I can do. I think they look pretty cool, and they feel great in the hand. I might put another coat of oil on them, but the wood is so naturally oily I'm not sure it's necessary or even desirable.
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So I'm assuming - PTT, AP disconnect, and dual .50's for the stick buttons?
 
Well, it's been a month since I touched the project. Kind of depressing. Still don't know when the money will be there to move it forward. Didn't help that 35E had an expensive annual that ate up all the reserves I had put away. That's what the money was earmarked for, but I was hoping I could rob some for the RV.

I logged a few hours today, drawing wiring diagrams. I wanted to get that done before I start making the harness, which I did already buy materials for. That task will definitely take a bunch of time. I have been feeling the draw to get back into the shop the last couple days, which I haven't for a while, so that's at least a good sign. Hopefully I can channel some of that energy into selling some stuff. I think the Trans Am would pay for the finishing kit if I get it running and cleaned up.
 
Jim K said:
Well, it's been a month since I touched the project. Kind of depressing. Still don't know when the money will be there to move it forward. Didn't help that 35E had an expensive annual that ate up all the reserves I had put away. That's what the money was earmarked for, but I was hoping I could rob some for the RV.

I logged a few hours today, drawing wiring diagrams. I wanted to get that done before I start making the harness, which I did already buy materials for. That task will definitely take a bunch of time. I have been feeling the draw to get back into the shop the last couple days, which I haven't for a while, so that's at least a good sign. Hopefully I can channel some of that energy into selling some stuff. I think the Trans Am would pay for the finishing kit if I get it running and cleaned up.
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Trans am? Dibs…..
 
Are your kids at all interested in the Trans Am? I know that If I sell another car to fund aviation I'll regret it. Im still more excited about my Zenith than my old Barracuda, but I figure if i get rid of another car for the plane, I'll lose my medical. I can still enjoy collector cars if I'm too old/sick to fly. On the other hand, old cars are easier to replace than my flying years, so theres that.
 
I do like a Trans Am. What year? Bandit or Knight Rider?
 
Listen, if money is a problem, I'll buy that plane project from you for 20 cents on the dollar. :lol:
 
moparrob66 said:
I do like a Trans Am. What year? Bandit or Knight Rider?
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It's kind of a strange bird. It's a1980 Indy Pace car edition. So it's a second gen, turbocharged 301 v8 car. Been sitting maybe....15 years? So it'll need some reconditioning to even sell. It's straight with minimal rust, so it'd be a good restoration candidate.

It's a cool car, but I'm just not a car guy, at least at this stage of life. If I did have time for a fun car, it'd be something with a clutch and a lot more power. I just don't have the time or space for a hobby car. If I was to lose my medical, the money I have wrapped up in airplanes would buy a really cool car.

As far as the kids go, I think only the boy would care about it, and I'm not going to sit on it for another decade for his benefit. That body style is popular right now, so it's a good time to get rid of it.
 
Does it have the golden chicken decal on the hood?
 
Classic!!! Sell to EMan as is!
 
Jim K said:
Well, it finally happened Sunday. My build hours surpassed my total flight hours at 1030 total. Not sure how I feel about that, but it was bound to happen. I can't imagine it ever flipping back unless I have to stop building or wind up getting some kind of a flying job some day.
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interesting thought twist!

part of me would love to take on a kit project
but the other part of me sees it as a daunting scope. I'm very mechanically inclined and I enjoy tinkering, but something like your rv-14 is just such a long time commitment.
Your trans-am project car reminds me that what I'd really like to do is to get an already built plane to restore... seems like that could be a shorter time compromise as long as I'm not shooting for an Airventure award....but the whole A&P requirement, and need for certified parts and all put a kibash on that idea. Years ago I'd all but decided that I wanted to get an old Cessna 170 (or maybe 172), pull it apart, and do a pretty thorough refurb on it...my neighbor at the time was a retired A&PIA, so it seemed perfect. I'd just got rolling putting the pieces in place to go, and then I got laid off from work and so that plan went away

I recently did a little woodworking project building a prop for my daughter's winterguard team. It was a time crunch, so I worked pretty much every evening after work, and every free moment I had on weekends. Did a lot of hardware store runs and planning on my lunch breaks, and otherwise when I had a minute here and there. It was the first time in a long time that made something that I could "drop on my foot"...and it was a good feeling.
Now that it's over I'm having a really hard time getting motivated to clean up my garage from the project so that I can get my truck back in there, because the rest of the garage is such a mess that I have no place to put things.
& Now that I'm retired part of me would love to do a kit, but a bigger part of me would rather get recurrent and start flying again.....not to mention that I would seriously need to clean that garage to make room!
 
schmookeeg said:
I wish I was old enough to know if that was still an option on a 1980 T/A :)
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According to the internet, it was. I -think- the Pace Cars came standard with a cassette deck which had red backlighting to match the dash. At least, that's the way mine was. I also see there was an optional tri-band AM/FM/CB radio antenna, lol. Factory installed CB no longer appeared to be an option though.

Mine currently has a Sony Minidisc head unit that I installed some time around 1997. Anybody remember those?
 
I think selling the Trans Am to fund the aircraft is way more acceptable, even on a pilot's forum, than selling the offspring.
 
Albany Tom said:
I think selling the Trans Am to fund the aircraft is way more acceptable, even on a pilot's forum, than selling the offspring.
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A hunting buddies dad has a standing offer that he'd give me 50k if I marry his daughter. Unfortunately for me we live in a country where she can veto.
 
Get back to work!

My dog and I went to Bozeman and back this week. 2.7 hours out despite nasty headwinds and 2.4 hours back. Today I noted 168 KTAS on 7.9 gph (2300 rpm WOT) at 11,500 as a data point.

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Since @Jim K has been busy farming, I decided to take my own first step towards building. I just don't have the space in my current house, so I bought a building. A 30x40 shop with a huge roll up door. It has a central drain, too. The electrical panel shows dedicated 240v circuits for a welder, plasma cutter, and air compressor, and 120V service runs down the long wall from the man door to the back wall across to the midpoint, where the vent fan controller is. It's going to need lighting, and a lot of it, but the bones are there. Oh, there's also a 50A RV circuit. I've never seen an electric RV-10, but somehow the building knows I'll need that circuit for the plane.

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My wife likes the shop, especially since it comes with a detached house with it's own garage that I've been pre-emptively kicked out of. She said anything that isn't a "currently registered and regularly driven non-****box automobile" is verboten in her garage. That garage doesn't have a 50A rv circuit, so no airplane building or parking in there. I The original builder of the house appears to have been a guy that hit the farmer's market/craft show circuit with metal goods.
 
Excellent contribution! What are you building in that fine shop?
 
moparrob66 said:
Excellent contribution! What are you building in that fine shop?
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Right now? Dreams and plans. We close on the 14th, then have paint and floors being done in the big house. We hope to start moving in by Thanksgiving. In the spring, I'm going to look at foam insulation and a minisplit as the first order of business.
 
TCABM said:
Since @Jim K has been busy farming, I decided to take my own first step towards building. I just don't have the space in my current house, so I bought a building. A 30x40 shop with a huge roll up door. It has a central drain, too.
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It took me about a microsecond to think "I hope you put a screen over the drain so that you don't drop any small parts down there!"

Congrats on the shop with the detached house! Since the market and interest rates will likely keep me stuck with my current house for life, I guess I'll always have the "shoulda coulda woulda" feeling about one house we looked at that had a huge shop - I'd guess 40x60 - with compressed air, power, etc on hoses/cords from the ceiling all over the place. Oh, and the house was pretty nice too. :rofl:
 
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