N662F – Bruce's RV-14A

I flew two long cross-country flights (and lots of shorter ones):

Richmond (KFCI) to Chicago, IL (KPWK)

Richmond (KFCI) to Hopkinsville, KY (KHVC).

Had a fantastic tailwind on the return flight from KY:

I got my CFI rating using my RV-14A for my check ride.

I got my CFII rating using my RV-14A for my check ride.

This probably isn’t the easiest way to accomplish those goals because some DPEs don’t want to fly in airplanes they are not familiar with. Luckily, I convinced two different DPEs to fly with me. Of the two, I would say that the CFII was the one I was most worried about (many people say the opposite). I think there are so many ways to bust the CFII check ride (get low, off course, bad radio work, etc. etc.). Somehow, I didn’t do any of those three but I did nearly fail because I didn’t know that I still needed to carry my commercial license with me when I have my CFI license. It actually says that right on the back of the CFI license, but I was blissfully unaware. The DPE actually let me call home and have my wife send him a copy of my commercial license (which was sitting in my top desk drawer).

I fixed a couple small things recently. The red LED cockpit lights used to occasionally blink. I didn’t use them often so I just ignored the issue. I recently tracked the issue to a loose connection in the switch/dimmer. It only took a few moments with a tiny screwdriver and the issue was gone.

I had an intermittent issue with the oil pressure sensor. Very occasionally, I would get the dreaded red x on the G3X MFD for oil pressure. I knew that it wasn’t really an oil pressure problem (no CHT issues, engine ran fine). Annoying as heck though. My first thought was it was a bad wire from the sensor to the Garmin GEA 24. I checked the wire multiple times but couldn’t find the issue. Turns out that I had an earlier version of the pressure transducer that had known reliability issues. Thanks to my friend (Jon) that happened to know that little tidbit of information. $300 and fifteen minutes of labor and I had the improved version 2 of the sensor installed and my problem is gone. 🙂

The last one is a bit more complex. I noticed that my Garmin autopilot in HDG mode would overshoot a turn to the right. For example, if I was on a heading of 180 and I commanded a turn to 270, it would go to 280 and then work it’s way back to 270. The auto roll trim would be pegged to the right too. I thought it was an issue with the roll servo or the Ray Allen trim servo. Turns out it was a setting in the G3X was backward. When the autopilot was calling for right roll trim, it was actually adding left roll trim. This would cause the autopilot to ask for even more trim. This would continue until it had commanded all the trim that was available. A talk with the guys at Steinair solved the problem. They had seen this type of issue before and had me make a single change in the configuration and the problem is completely gone.

BTW, I love the G3X system. Garmin has packed a huge amount of capability into the system and they continue to provide substantial updates to it.

A lot has happened between the first flight in November of 2020 and now, I just didn’t write about it. The reason I haven’t posted in a while is that I locked myself out of this WordPress site and I simply took two years to get around to getting myself back in…

I flew off the 100 hours required for the airworthiness certificate.

I had only a single significant issue to deal with. I had a small but persistent oil leak near the number one cylinder. After each flight I would find a fine mist of oil on the top of that cylinder but couldn’t identify where it was coming from. I eventually took it to a mechanic who quickly found a lose plug in an oil journal in the front of the engine case. Total cost to fix it was $950 which Lycoming covered under warranty.

Lots of flights in the local area (I was limited to a 100 mile radius from KFCI) and I was becoming pretty confident in my piloting skills and my new airplane. I did quickly realize that there is a lot to learn about the avionics in the airplane. I have to admit that I had the experience of “why is it doing that?” or “why isn’t it doing that?”.

My friend, John Jaromin and I flew the airplane to and from Sun n Fun in Lakeland, FL.

Marianne and I flew the airplane to Hilton Head Island for a brief vacation. Even got to fly in some yechy IFR conditions on the return flight.

I flew it to Smith Mountain Lake multiple times.

I flew it to State College, PA (picking up Drew in Leesburg, VA). Penn State won.

I worked on getting my commercial pilot rating for single engine land airplanes. I passed the check ride (woot!).

The airplane went to the paint shop in Alabama in late October of 2021. I thought it would be there for about two months but it actually took closer to six months. They did an amazing job and I couldn’t be happier with the result despite the long wait.

It’s been back for several months now and I realize that I STILL have a punch list of random things to do on it.

Airplane flies great

The paint job by Evoke is exceptional

Garmin avionics are very, very impressive

Still need to get gear leg fairings installed

Slightly more than 150 hours on the airplane now