Kick the Tires and Light the Fires!

Anoth­er Mile­stone for N104AL

Today was a mile­stone event for N104AL RV-10: after a near­ly sev­en-year build, she com­plet­ed her FAA required 40-hour flight tests.

So, what does that mean?

Well, for the first 40 hours of flight of any air­craft — in this case an exper­i­men­tal air­craft — the FAA requires all flights to be:

1) Restrict­ed to a des­ig­nat­ed 100 mile radius tests area — which can be nego­ti­at­ed by the builder / own­er. In the case of 104AL, I chose the cen­ter of that area to be Prospect, Ore­gon — which allowed me to reach most of my favorite destinations.

2) No non-crew pas­sen­gers allowed. Most of these flights were solo, with a few occa­sion­al excep­tions such as with Bryan Milani who was the des­ig­nat­ed Builder / Advi­sor on the whole project.

3) Only VFR flight allowed. (no IFR, or fly­ing into clouds, fog, etc.)

4) All flights logged and documented.

Upon com­plet­ing the 40 required hours (today), all of these restric­tions are now removed — mean­ing we can for the first time fly any­where, with any pas­sen­gers, into any weath­er that meets pilot cer­ti­fi­ca­tion (all-weath­er in my case)

So now what?

The upper and low­er engine cowl were removed, a new fuel pump gets installed, oil change, and a few minor tweaks to improve cool­ing. Also, avion­ics data bases are all being updat­ed to cur­rent, sun visors, oxy­gen, glare shield dash­board, and a host of oth­er details in prepa­ra­tion for her first “real” long cross-coun­try trip.

Nashville / Oshkosh

July 20 N104AL will depart Med­ford, Ore­gon and head east to Kansas City, Nashville, Oshkosh — with a few fuel stops along the way. This will pro­vide us a chance to real­ly ring her out and find any lurk­ing squaks — while at the same time vis­it pre­cious friends in Nashville, attend the annu­al NAMM (Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Music Mer­chants) con­ven­tion, as well as the Oshkosh Air­ven­ture air show.

Once N104AL gets home, she will be torn down, and a com­plete new (per­ma­nent) engine cowl fab­ri­cat­ed and installed, fin­ish up the inte­ri­or, and get ready to go into the paint shop. By ear­ly spring N104AL will final­ly be a com­plete and fin­ished air­craft. (whew!).

Retired — again

I have final­ly decid­ed to retire from the air­craft man­u­fac­tur­ing busi­ness, and con­cen­trate on fly­ing instead! Cess­na N9836C will be sold, and God will­ing I will fly-out my days in N104AL and N36AL — the two babies I helped cre­ate. They are both like my kids, and thanks to both Bryan and Butch Milani, are among the high­est qual­i­ty air­craft in the world — attest­ed by the tro­phies and awards 36AL has earned over the years, and undoubt­ed­ly N104AL will accumulate.

Ded­i­cat­ed to the Best!
That said, this post is ded­i­cat­ed to the best air­craft builders on plan­et earth: Butch and son Bryan Milani. I feel hon­ored to know them as friends, and to have par­tic­i­pat­ed in these excit­ing (though at times frus­trat­ing) projects over the past 13 years! You guys are Top Gun in my book:)

Al