LONG POST
Hi all:
I rarely post but thought some of you in the early RV-14 flying stages or nearing completion may be interested in some real-world feedback. I first flew our -14A on September 8, 2016 and now have 237 hours on it. Prior to that I put our RV-8A through some 1700 hours so I know the pros and cons of each. Our -14A was a standard full build kit (SN 140134) with an IO-390 from Van's and the recommended Hartzell CS prop. It is IFR with two Skyview displays, GTN-650 navigator and a back up Grand Rapids Mini-B EFIS. It has an impulse coupled mag on one side and P-Mag on the other. I followed the plans closely and only made minor modifications to them.
In no particular order, here are some thoughts, characteristics, performance data and features that may be of interest to you:
1. Both the wife and I find the -14 to be more difficult to get into and out of compared to the -8. One hand on the side rail and the other in the center of the cross bar behind the seats is required to support your body weight, especially getting out. It takes some stretching to do. Don?t let pax grab the instrument panel or canopy, as they are inclined to do. Holding onto the roll bar while facing inboard and standing on the seat, then turning forward while crouched down like a baseball catcher leaning against the seat back is a technique that works. You may end up developing your own method that differs but that?s what I do.
2. Similarly, loading baggage is more difficult than in the -8A. I cut off the upper 3 ? inches of the -14A seat backs to make more room between them and the roll bar above. I find it easiest to kneel on one of the front seats, facing aft, and either have someone hand me the bags or just pick them up off the wings. Placing a hook at the aft end of the support above the baggage compartment serves well for a hang up bag.
3. I cruise at 155 knots TAS at 2300 RPM and 7.5 GPH. This is good up to about 13,500 MSL. Our -14A will go 180 TAS with FT and 2500 RPM at 8500 density altitude but uses 11.7 GPH. Speed and fuel burn is not much different from the -8A, which had a 180 HP O-360. My cruise parameters were selected as a good balance between speed, fuel burn and cockpit noise. You may choose differently.
4. Generally, I take off with full rich mixture regardless of density altitude. The power loading is such that performance is still excellent and the engine cools much better when doing this. Leaned takeoff at high altitude airports results in CHT levels going beyond 400F pretty quickly and you don?t really need the additional power leaning provides. The same was true with the -8A. FYI we?re at 5000 feet MSL here in Grand Junction, Colorado and takeoffs from higher mountain airports in the summer frequently involve density altitudes of 10,000 feet. Our highest takeoff in the -8A was at 11,500 density altitude at full gross and it still climbed at 500 FPM. I lean once airborne after the CHTs stabilize.
-14A cruise CHT in winter is just below 300F with oil temp from 165 to 180. In summer, CHT is in the mid 300s with oil 180 to 200. I almost never see 400 degrees CHT unless I lean a bit too much in climb. The IO-390 cools very well.
5. Our -14A, after paint, can carry full fuel, my wife and me plus the maximum recommended baggage weight of 100 pounds and still be a few pounds below gross and forward of aft CG.
6. Starting from empty, full tanks take 50.9 gallons in our airplane so we actually have more than the published 50 gallons total. In phase 1 testing, I burned out each tank in cruise flight and then refilled it on the ground to determine actual usable fuel. For us, usable is 25.6 on one side and 25.3 on the other. Do I believe 100% of the fuel is usable? No, but to the accuracy of the airport?s fuel pumps this is what the numbers showed. There is very little unusable fuel. I found the same to be true in the -8A.
7. The Skyview fuel float sensors in the tanks are accurate to about one gallon. I also have a totalizer but it?s nice to know the gauges are accurate too.
8. For starting the engine cold I set full throttle and fuel rich mixture and run the boost pump to 3 GPH. Then I shut off the pump, set mixture to idle cutoff and open the throttle about half an inch. It starts right away and then the mixture can be gradually moved forward. I alternate starts between the P-Mag and the impulse coupled mag to make sure each works for start. For a hot engine I do the same thing except no priming is needed for at least the first hour after shutdown. Just set the mixture at idle cutoff, open the throttle a half inch and push the start button. I do open the oil door after I shut down to allow cool air to flow up past the engine. This helps avoid vapor lock if you plan on starting again soon. To help keep the door open I installed a small spring in it.
9. I used the straight RV-8A back seat control sticks in the -14A and set aside the curved ones supplied. The top of my sticks go just under the instrument panel at full forward pitch input and this fits me well. I did not see the need for the curved sticks and their bend location made it impossible for me to fit in the stick grips I wanted.
10. I ended up riveting a trim tab on the rudder and installed a wedge under the left aileron to get the airplane neutral for trimmed flight. I understand some builders don?t need anything on the ailerons but I did. But then again I build fast and make mistakes?
11. The kit fuel caps work fine for me. I had them engraved with fuel type and volume and they seal well.
12. The engine burns about a quart of oil in 9 hours. This was the new experimental Lycoming IO-390 Van sells and I had hoped to have lower oil consumption than this. I have broken in many engines over the years, all with very good results, but this was the first done at altitude and not near sea level. Getting 75% power up here, unless it is very cold, requires operating full throttle and max rpm so low you?re passing adjacent to the cars and trucks driving on I-70.
13. The -14 plans are orders of magnitude better than the -8 plans. Between that and the fully matched hole construction, the -14 is simply easier to build than the -8 and our -8 was a quick build. In fact, it was an actual joy to build the -14A. I could not believe how quickly it went together.
14. A good place for Home Depot PVC chock storage is in the large lightening holes in the seat back adjustment braces. Chocks are easy to store there and do not require getting into the plane to reach them as you would if they were on the baggage floor.
15. I mounted the tow bar vertically in the very front of the baggage compartment with the nose wheel end in a U channel on the floor and the handle in a clamp on the aft side of the cross brace. It is out of the way and convenient to reach when kneeling on the wing walk.
16. Don?t know how, but I managed to shear the pin in the autopilot pitch servo. Easy replacement. This never happened on the -8A.
17. Wish I had discarded the black plastic vents in the kit and used something else. They leak no matter how well you seal them and are very difficult to replace once installed. The kit should come with better ones.
18. Water leaks through the forward canopy seal, near the hinge covers. Need to look at this further since I don?t use an external canopy cover to avoid scratching the plexi. I use internal covers instead. May end up just using white electrical tape on those occasions where the plane is parked outside on a rainy night. It is normally hangared so solving this has not been a priority.
19. As have others, I cracked both landing light lenses trying to get a tight fit in the wing opening. You may want to buy a couple of spares just in case you have the same experience.
20. Van?s rudders are easily damaged in the wind when the plane is parked. I made a simple rudder lock with a red streamer on about a three-inch metal bar with two AN-3 bolts in it. One bolt goes through a hole you drill in the rudder control horn and the other goes into another hole you drill in the rudder control stop on the same side.
21. The best way I can describe the interface between our Dynon Skyviews, Garmin GTN-650 and the Grand Rapids Mini-B is that they wire up OK and all work fine but some features are ?clunky.? There are numerous operational interface issues that are not discussed in any user manual and are found via trial and error. Even Dynon folks were not aware of some of the issues I?ve brought up. This is an ongoing challenge that may or may not occur with you depending on whose avionics one uses and if they all come from the same or multiple manufacturers.
22. Control pressure is heavier than in the -8A but this is in keeping with the -14 models being more of a cross country airplane than an aerobatic one. But this is subjective so you may see it differently. I've looped and rolled our -14A but mainly use it to turn dead dinosaurs into flying miles.
In summary, I was perfectly happy with our -8A for the 1700 hours and 15 years we had it. I had no intention of ever selling the airplane. But most of our flying was when we lived in So. Cal. with warm weather even though we flew the airplane throughout the U.S. and in Canada. The back seat of both -8 models is difficult if not impossible to heat and air leaks under the canopy skirt are worse in winter than in summer. So when the wife saw the RV-14A prototype at Van?s and then asked me if we could build one, I did not hesitate! Yes, her request to build a new airplane ? rare as it is in most families -- actually happened. We ordered the kit and I flew the completed -14A two and a half years later. It was a good decision for us and for the -8A, which is now with a very happy new owner in warm Florida.
Hi all:
I rarely post but thought some of you in the early RV-14 flying stages or nearing completion may be interested in some real-world feedback. I first flew our -14A on September 8, 2016 and now have 237 hours on it. Prior to that I put our RV-8A through some 1700 hours so I know the pros and cons of each. Our -14A was a standard full build kit (SN 140134) with an IO-390 from Van's and the recommended Hartzell CS prop. It is IFR with two Skyview displays, GTN-650 navigator and a back up Grand Rapids Mini-B EFIS. It has an impulse coupled mag on one side and P-Mag on the other. I followed the plans closely and only made minor modifications to them.
In no particular order, here are some thoughts, characteristics, performance data and features that may be of interest to you:
1. Both the wife and I find the -14 to be more difficult to get into and out of compared to the -8. One hand on the side rail and the other in the center of the cross bar behind the seats is required to support your body weight, especially getting out. It takes some stretching to do. Don?t let pax grab the instrument panel or canopy, as they are inclined to do. Holding onto the roll bar while facing inboard and standing on the seat, then turning forward while crouched down like a baseball catcher leaning against the seat back is a technique that works. You may end up developing your own method that differs but that?s what I do.
2. Similarly, loading baggage is more difficult than in the -8A. I cut off the upper 3 ? inches of the -14A seat backs to make more room between them and the roll bar above. I find it easiest to kneel on one of the front seats, facing aft, and either have someone hand me the bags or just pick them up off the wings. Placing a hook at the aft end of the support above the baggage compartment serves well for a hang up bag.
3. I cruise at 155 knots TAS at 2300 RPM and 7.5 GPH. This is good up to about 13,500 MSL. Our -14A will go 180 TAS with FT and 2500 RPM at 8500 density altitude but uses 11.7 GPH. Speed and fuel burn is not much different from the -8A, which had a 180 HP O-360. My cruise parameters were selected as a good balance between speed, fuel burn and cockpit noise. You may choose differently.
4. Generally, I take off with full rich mixture regardless of density altitude. The power loading is such that performance is still excellent and the engine cools much better when doing this. Leaned takeoff at high altitude airports results in CHT levels going beyond 400F pretty quickly and you don?t really need the additional power leaning provides. The same was true with the -8A. FYI we?re at 5000 feet MSL here in Grand Junction, Colorado and takeoffs from higher mountain airports in the summer frequently involve density altitudes of 10,000 feet. Our highest takeoff in the -8A was at 11,500 density altitude at full gross and it still climbed at 500 FPM. I lean once airborne after the CHTs stabilize.
-14A cruise CHT in winter is just below 300F with oil temp from 165 to 180. In summer, CHT is in the mid 300s with oil 180 to 200. I almost never see 400 degrees CHT unless I lean a bit too much in climb. The IO-390 cools very well.
5. Our -14A, after paint, can carry full fuel, my wife and me plus the maximum recommended baggage weight of 100 pounds and still be a few pounds below gross and forward of aft CG.
6. Starting from empty, full tanks take 50.9 gallons in our airplane so we actually have more than the published 50 gallons total. In phase 1 testing, I burned out each tank in cruise flight and then refilled it on the ground to determine actual usable fuel. For us, usable is 25.6 on one side and 25.3 on the other. Do I believe 100% of the fuel is usable? No, but to the accuracy of the airport?s fuel pumps this is what the numbers showed. There is very little unusable fuel. I found the same to be true in the -8A.
7. The Skyview fuel float sensors in the tanks are accurate to about one gallon. I also have a totalizer but it?s nice to know the gauges are accurate too.
8. For starting the engine cold I set full throttle and fuel rich mixture and run the boost pump to 3 GPH. Then I shut off the pump, set mixture to idle cutoff and open the throttle about half an inch. It starts right away and then the mixture can be gradually moved forward. I alternate starts between the P-Mag and the impulse coupled mag to make sure each works for start. For a hot engine I do the same thing except no priming is needed for at least the first hour after shutdown. Just set the mixture at idle cutoff, open the throttle a half inch and push the start button. I do open the oil door after I shut down to allow cool air to flow up past the engine. This helps avoid vapor lock if you plan on starting again soon. To help keep the door open I installed a small spring in it.
9. I used the straight RV-8A back seat control sticks in the -14A and set aside the curved ones supplied. The top of my sticks go just under the instrument panel at full forward pitch input and this fits me well. I did not see the need for the curved sticks and their bend location made it impossible for me to fit in the stick grips I wanted.
10. I ended up riveting a trim tab on the rudder and installed a wedge under the left aileron to get the airplane neutral for trimmed flight. I understand some builders don?t need anything on the ailerons but I did. But then again I build fast and make mistakes?
11. The kit fuel caps work fine for me. I had them engraved with fuel type and volume and they seal well.
12. The engine burns about a quart of oil in 9 hours. This was the new experimental Lycoming IO-390 Van sells and I had hoped to have lower oil consumption than this. I have broken in many engines over the years, all with very good results, but this was the first done at altitude and not near sea level. Getting 75% power up here, unless it is very cold, requires operating full throttle and max rpm so low you?re passing adjacent to the cars and trucks driving on I-70.
13. The -14 plans are orders of magnitude better than the -8 plans. Between that and the fully matched hole construction, the -14 is simply easier to build than the -8 and our -8 was a quick build. In fact, it was an actual joy to build the -14A. I could not believe how quickly it went together.
14. A good place for Home Depot PVC chock storage is in the large lightening holes in the seat back adjustment braces. Chocks are easy to store there and do not require getting into the plane to reach them as you would if they were on the baggage floor.
15. I mounted the tow bar vertically in the very front of the baggage compartment with the nose wheel end in a U channel on the floor and the handle in a clamp on the aft side of the cross brace. It is out of the way and convenient to reach when kneeling on the wing walk.
16. Don?t know how, but I managed to shear the pin in the autopilot pitch servo. Easy replacement. This never happened on the -8A.
17. Wish I had discarded the black plastic vents in the kit and used something else. They leak no matter how well you seal them and are very difficult to replace once installed. The kit should come with better ones.
18. Water leaks through the forward canopy seal, near the hinge covers. Need to look at this further since I don?t use an external canopy cover to avoid scratching the plexi. I use internal covers instead. May end up just using white electrical tape on those occasions where the plane is parked outside on a rainy night. It is normally hangared so solving this has not been a priority.
19. As have others, I cracked both landing light lenses trying to get a tight fit in the wing opening. You may want to buy a couple of spares just in case you have the same experience.
20. Van?s rudders are easily damaged in the wind when the plane is parked. I made a simple rudder lock with a red streamer on about a three-inch metal bar with two AN-3 bolts in it. One bolt goes through a hole you drill in the rudder control horn and the other goes into another hole you drill in the rudder control stop on the same side.
21. The best way I can describe the interface between our Dynon Skyviews, Garmin GTN-650 and the Grand Rapids Mini-B is that they wire up OK and all work fine but some features are ?clunky.? There are numerous operational interface issues that are not discussed in any user manual and are found via trial and error. Even Dynon folks were not aware of some of the issues I?ve brought up. This is an ongoing challenge that may or may not occur with you depending on whose avionics one uses and if they all come from the same or multiple manufacturers.
22. Control pressure is heavier than in the -8A but this is in keeping with the -14 models being more of a cross country airplane than an aerobatic one. But this is subjective so you may see it differently. I've looped and rolled our -14A but mainly use it to turn dead dinosaurs into flying miles.
In summary, I was perfectly happy with our -8A for the 1700 hours and 15 years we had it. I had no intention of ever selling the airplane. But most of our flying was when we lived in So. Cal. with warm weather even though we flew the airplane throughout the U.S. and in Canada. The back seat of both -8 models is difficult if not impossible to heat and air leaks under the canopy skirt are worse in winter than in summer. So when the wife saw the RV-14A prototype at Van?s and then asked me if we could build one, I did not hesitate! Yes, her request to build a new airplane ? rare as it is in most families -- actually happened. We ordered the kit and I flew the completed -14A two and a half years later. It was a good decision for us and for the -8A, which is now with a very happy new owner in warm Florida.