ECI O-320, C/S Prop, 1 MAG & 1 LSE Plasma III
Welcome aboard the Van's Express. One thing for sure, by the time you get to that first flight, you will have made so many decisions about things you never dreamed about until now.
Although my builder number 90622 is for the 622nd empennage kit shipped for the RV-9A, I was in the air with my RV-9A as the 155th airplane to fly on June 9, 2005. You will find the first entry on PAGE 1 of my web site posted on October 25, 2002. It shows the 1-car garage preparations before the first boxes arrived from Van's Aircraft.
I had met some RV builders and pilots in the Huntsville, Alabama area and saw for myself the takeoff performance of a fixed-pitch prop and a constant-speed prop on a pair of RV-6's. But when I got into my phase 1 testing, it was apparent my engine/prop configuration was a winner for short field takeoffs and landings.
My engine choice was the ECI clone of a Lycoming O-320-D1A with the nickel-carbide cylinder coating ECI calls "CermiNil". The cylinders with this patented coating just do not rust from lack of use. Porche licensed the use of the process to ECI. I had the engine assembled and tested by Penn Yan Aero and even paid them a visit to see some cylinders come in for overhaul. The cylinders with the CermiNil coating were beautiful after more than 2000 hours! The other thing I liked about the ECI engine is the extra oil spray nozzles for the cam shaft that are not in the certified Lycoming engines.
As for the accessories, I wanted a regular carburetor and I want to say, that paid off recently when I had a dead battery and had to get another pilot friend to prop start the engine. Now that would not have been possible if my airplane had TWO solid-state ignition systems. I have one Light Speed Plasma III which adds about 15% extra fuel economy compared to a pair of Slick MAGs. Oddly enough, the first time I started the engine after 10 months on the airplane, I forgot to engage the circuit breaker to the LSE solid state ignition. That first engine start was using the one magneto only. My last short flight to return the airplane to home base was also on the one magneto. The guys who use dual solid state ignitions ususally have a second isolated battery in their airplanes.
Let's get back on track about the engine and accessories. With the carb, the mag/solid-state ignitions, and the C/S prop, I feel that I have a combination that provides excellent fuel economy in the range of 25 MPG while cruising at 160 MPH true air speed. The one Plasma III ignition adds about 15% better fuel economy compared to using two regular Slick mags. With the Grand Rapids engine monitor, I lean for an even fuel burn by monitoring EGT's and CHT's while noting engine smoothness. The engine RPM is set to 2300 via the blue knob to the prop governor, and the fuel flow is usually in the range of 5.5 to 6 gallons per hour. I try to do all my long cross country flights at 10,000 to 13,000 MSL where the Roncz airfoil wings of the RV-9A and the engine prop accessory combination provide the best fuel economy. I have made non-stop flights from Chattanooga to West Palm Beach, Florida. My trip to Denver in 2006 had only one fuel stop at Fayetteville, Arkansas on the west bound flight. I crossed a low weather front at Memphis in VFR conditions that day, briefly at 14,000 MSL over the rain clouds that were causing many pilots to divert around the storms below.
In the panel, I have a Dynon D-10A coupled to a Garmin GPS296 which keeps me advised of real-time actual winds aloft during my flights at any altitude. The GPS396 and GPS496 had not yet been introduced when I was building. The panel has Van's passive gauges for air speed, altitude, and vertical speed indicators. The Dynon can quit completely, and I still have the air-operated gauges for a safe flight.
I have an old NavAid wing leveler guided by the GPS 296 course data. I would buy the Trio autopilot if I were building today. I have also installed a toggle switch to couple the NavAid guidance from the CDI voltage output from my VOR receiver in my Garmin AT SL-30. The output data stream from the SL-30 can also be fed to the Dynon D-10A for VOR/ILS indications on the LCD screen. I also have the traditional GI-106 OBS/ILS display head powered by the SL-30. I still have room in the radio stack for a panel-mount IFR-approved GPS when and IF the budget allows in the future. For now, the airplane can meet basic IFR requirements.
For the amount of money I had available during the construction, I feel I got the key features I wanted and indeed, they have served me well in the past four years. I flew to Oshkosh in 2005 on the weekend the airplane came out of the paint shop. I also went again in 2006 with a video camera installed and recorded my arrival and departure from OSH and posted those videos on the web. The video recordings include the audio from the COM radio and the intercom in the airplane.
There are 135 web pages dealing with the construction of the airplane. Another 15 pages cover the phase 1 test flights and the paint shop experience leading up to the trip to Oshkosh in 2005. The trip to OSH 2005 begins on page 151. That was the beginning of an eight-day trip that included the Great Lakes, across Ohio and Pennsylvania to New Jersey. A short day trip to New England and a Hudson River sight-seeing return to NJ was also in the mix before returning home to Tennessee. I flew the airplane to LOE 2005 and won a trophy for the best RV-9/9A. I have made several trips to Florida, with two of them being ONE-day round trips on successive weekends.
I also created some web pages for a friend I coached while he built an RV-8 quick-build kit. He sold his Cessna 182 to make room for the RV-8 in the hangar. The 500+ photos he and another pilot took during their 5-day trip to Alaska are also posted on my web site. There is much to see and do via my web pages, including a visit to Van's Aircraft during some of my non-flying trips when my airplane was still under construction in my 1-car garage.
The bottom line, I am just one of the web-published RV builder/pilots to have made the journey you are just beginning. I hope the story of my experiences will motivate you and your wife to get the project off to a good start and make it an enjoyable joint-venture. Good Luck!