I won’t say too much here on flying the plane. First flight was very nearly an exact copy of the transition training other than my RV10 is 260+ HP and the factory plane has a 210 HP Continental. That is a noticeable difference in acceleration if not flight characteristics. This thing is a blast to fly. I now have almost 100 hrs of flight time. Other than local flights, we have made one round trip to No. Carolina at 880 nm round trip and Salt Lake City at 2600 nm round trip. The plane is comfortable and reasonably fast. I generally cruse at about 2450 RPM, 11.5-12.5 GPH (LOP) and 23” (or WOT at altitude or as close to 70% power). This averages around 150 kts indicated. The plane seems happiest in cruse above 9000 ft. The CPI2 electronic ignition allows spark advance LOP the gives 2-3 knots advantage at the same settings. I actually went head to head with another RV10 on the way back from SLC. The LOP advance setting gave us a 2-3 knot advantage when selected.
The final paint job is now on the plane. I hired John Stahr to help here. Let me just say that my decision to paint the plane white worked to perfection. I completed most of the body work (some pin hole filling still had to be done) The white painting was also done prior to final assembly, getting all of the nooks and crannies, thus allowing the final paint to be done without disassembly. John helped me add to, and refine the paint scheme I had in my head. John was able to go straight to color application after wet sanding the whole plane (about 3 full days of sanding). One last comment related to costs. I spent about 3-4K on primer and paint with Stewart Systems water based paint to get the white base coat on. John came out from Oregon to my hanger and painted the plane in 10 days (with my complete participation as a helper) and charged me 12.5K for his help. He stayed with us in our house during the process. I spent about another 3K on paint for the color and clear coat. So, the all up cost of around 20K is what I spent. I know of other RV10s that spend
