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Another RV-10 ws "born" today !!!

BlackhawkSP

Well Known Member
Folks: After just under 4 years of mostly solo work and 2700 hours of labor, I got my RV-10 inspected today and the Airworthiness certificate issued !!! Needless to say I'm a happy camper. Mr Chris House from the Indianapolis FSDO did the inspection and it was a pleasant experience. This guy knows his stuff ! At the beginning of the build I asked a good friend John Hubble what he would do different if he was doing another 10 (he has a beautiful RV-10). I did everything on his list. It was extra hours, but I'm very pleased. I did the Rod Bower inlet, all Garmin G3X, touch and many other after market items. I bought so many goodies from Aerosport Products, that they sent me a Christmas card last year !!! I'm planning on a week or so for the first flight.

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Congrats Larry!!

Jon showed me a screenshot of your airworthiness certificate today.

We're anxiously awaiting performance data on that prop!


I've seen Larry's airplane and it is NICE!!!
 
-10

Very Very nice!! Congrats on a job well done. I look forward to hearing some numbers as well. motivation to get mine done
 
Congrats

Congrats Larry!!
Always admired your workmanship when visiting your hangar. Very nice paint scheme. Stop in for a visit at HNB if in the area.
Squeak
 
Congrats! Did you do the 90 degree elbow with Rods stuff?

Yes I did use the 90 (thereabouts) elbow, but I modified mine to take out the yaw angle to line the bore up with the longitudinal axis of the engine. When I get home tonight, I'll try and post pictures of the Ram Air install for reference. I also have a machine shop here to rework the elbow for others at a reasonable price too.
 
Larry,
Congratulations on a job well done. I knew you were close to the final event when I saw you last. I remember when you started; It does not seem like 4 years. You have done a great job building. Fantastic airplane.
Dave
 
Very Nice!!!!!!

I too found the FAA inspector nice, professional, and helpful.

I'm jealous!! Aerosport did not send me a Christmas card.. and I have about every Aerosport accessory they sell..

RV-10 N1861G (5 hrs total time)
 
Looks great Larry! Tell me more about your "Rod Bower Inlet" please. Thanks.

Mike: here are a series of pictures to explain most of it. The first thing I did was to modify the elbow to get rid of an offset to realign the opening with the longitudinal axis of the engine.

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I also had to modify the bottom cowl for the larger scoop/snout. The directions/videos are on Rod Bowers web site. You might also notice that I used the electrically actuated cowl flaps instead of the Van's louvers openings.


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Heres everything mounted.


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Here's everything together and painted. If it gets me an inch, or better of manifold pressure at altitude, it will be worth it. I've read that you can actually feel & hear a difference in the engine when you open the inlet in flight.


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Great pictures Larry! Some added info, Rod now has a spacer that fits between the servo and the elbow to give it that 3% turn back to centerline. Also he now makes them with a more rectangle filter inlet hole. I sent my can back and he made the changes for $100. The idea is it’s a more efficient filtered air system I guess.

Your scoop looks great!
 
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Thanks! Sharp! My favorite paint jobs have the paint going in the direction like yours. Cessna had one year where they had short 'stripes' going up in the same direction like yours that I really liked. Just something about that style. A couple of more in the same vein. I save pics of similar paint jobs for inspiration in case I ever get my own plane. Adding yours to the folder. :D

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Well done sir. It's nice to see one take flight fully finished. The workmanship looks good.

If it gets me an inch, or better of manifold pressure at altitude, it will be worth it. I've read that you can actually feel & hear a difference in the engine when you open the inlet in flight.

With a Bower system, the "1" or better" gain is the difference between (a) lower cowl pressure while sucking air through reed valves (butterfly closed), and (b) ram air (butterfly open). What users don't see on the EIS is the lower cowl air supply temperature...120 to 180F. The lower cowl pressure offsets a little bit of the reed valve loss, but the air temperature flat kills power. Given a 540 on standard day at sea level, we're talking 15 to 30 HP due to temperature alone. A user should definitely feel and hear a difference when they open the butterfly. They're bypassing the reed restriction, and allowing the entry of some good 'ole 60F standard day air.

The available MP increase due to dynamic pressure recovery at altitude isn't huge. It can be expressed as aircraft velocity - engine intake velocity due to pumping = velocity for available dynamic pressure. The intake velocity varies with displacement, RPM, volumetric efficiency, and intake area. Given a 540 at 100% VE, 2400 RPM, and 170 KTAS, the available MP rise due to ram alone is about 0.33 Hg with a 3" ring and 0.61" Hg with a 4" ring. Some report a larger increase when switching sources (at the same airspeed and power setting) because their non-ram air source (usually filtered) is somewhat restrictive. Others are not reporting ram rise due to source change, but rather, rise due to airspeed increase. The Q delta for 100 knots vs 170 knots at 8000 ft is about 0.7 Hg.
 
Well Done!

Beautiful job Larry! We are not far from other - looking forward to seeing you and your plane around the area.
 
Congratulatoins. A very nice looking plane. I also hope our paths cross some day as you are not far.

Larry
 
Well done sir. It's nice to see one take flight fully finished. The workmanship looks good.



With a Bower system, the "1" or better" gain is the difference between (a) lower cowl pressure while sucking air through reed valves (butterfly closed), and (b) ram air (butterfly open). What users don't see on the EIS is the lower cowl air supply temperature...120 to 180F. The lower cowl pressure offsets a little bit of the reed valve loss, but the air temperature flat kills power. Given a 540 on standard day at sea level, we're talking 15 to 30 HP due to temperature alone. A user should definitely feel and hear a difference when they open the butterfly. They're bypassing the reed restriction, and allowing the entry of some good 'ole 60F standard day air.

The available MP increase due to dynamic pressure recovery at altitude isn't huge. It can be expressed as aircraft velocity - engine intake velocity due to pumping = velocity for available dynamic pressure. The intake velocity varies with displacement, RPM, volumetric efficiency, and intake area. Given a 540 at 100% VE, 2400 RPM, and 170 KTAS, the available MP rise due to ram alone is about 0.33 Hg with a 3" ring and 0.61" Hg with a 4" ring. Some report a larger increase when switching sources (at the same airspeed and power setting) because their non-ram air source (usually filtered) is somewhat restrictive. Others are not reporting ram rise due to source change, but rather, rise due to airspeed increase. The Q delta for 100 knots vs 170 knots at 8000 ft is about 0.7 Hg.

Dan,

Thanks for breaking it down. Question: If I use the standard Vans setup, wouldn't I still see the benefit of "Ram Air" at cruise? Or, to put it another way, is the standard Vans setup similar to the Rod Bower setup with "butterfly open" all the time?
 
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