This post has been a long-time coming - N14YZ finally has a beautiful paint job by the master, Jonathan McCormick and his team at Evoke Aviation at the end of May, 2022. A couple years ago he designed the paint scheme with input from me. I can highly recommend both the design firm (Evoke Aircraft Design) and his paint shop (Evoke Aviation) - they are the best in the business!
As of today, my RV-14A has flown just over 105hrs and is going strong. She is simply a joy to fly: nimble, and precise in all flight regimes. My bird cruises at over 160KTAS, burning around 9gph; her range is at least 700nm (~4.5 hrs) with a full hour fuel reserve. I don't fly with less than an hour of fuel in reserve.
I received my repairman's certificate from the FAA earlier this year, and am in the middle of an extensive condition inspection (CI), which I am performing progressively over a couple months. The CI is the experimental version of an "annual" inspection in the certified aircraft world. The FWF portion was completed with the help of my friend, Joe D., last week (e.g. compression test, borescoping the cylinders/valves, checking mag timing, etc.) and there are only the cabin and fuselage sections left to complete. In total, the CI takes about 40 or so hrs; I like to spread out the work so I can use the plane once each section has been completed, instead of having the plane down for a couple weeks to complete it all at once. In reality, I'll be performing many of these tasks more than just during the CI - for example, if I rotate the spark plugs, I'll check the mag timing and borescope the cylinders.
Here are a few pictures, professionally taken by Jonathan McCormick at his home base in Gadsden, AL. Click on them for a larger image. I can't stop looking at them; the plane is this gorgeous in person, too.
