I inventoried the backordered items that arrived last night. Besides the one bag of goodies that is still on backorder, there were 3 pieces missing that should have been sent. I contacted Van's and they are sending them right away. The parts that were starting to hold me back (besides the firewall parts which made me skip starting the firewall completely) were the baggage ribs, so with those in hand now I could keep moving on the center section.
The outboard baggage ribs needed a large hole cut in each of them since I'm installing steps on the plane. The steps (which also came in the backordered bundle) attach to the side of the fuselage, but there is a 1 1/2" steel tube that extends inside under the baggage floor, through the outboard ribs and gets anchored by a plastic block. I couldn't find a hole saw the right size, so I pulled out the fly cutter of death and used that. It's actually not that terrifying as long as I drop the drill press speed to its slowest setting.
As I put more and more on this center section, I'm realizing just how small my garage is going to get once I attach it to the tailcone, then especially once I put the forward skin and firewall on. I'm planning on reorganizing the garage as soon as I get the truck tires mounted that are taking up so much floor space right now. With those gone, I'll break down the big crate (I'll have to figure out where to store those parts, but it's mostly the skins and firewall, so I'll be using them soon) and shove all of my workbenches over into that center bay next to the wings. That'll give me more width for the fuselage. For the length issue, I'll deal with that by relocating my big floor standing tools. Those all take up a good 6 feet or so of room. I'll slide the table saw over to the next bay, then slide the bandsaw and drill press all of the way back up against the garage door. I think that'll give me all of the room I need until I'm ready to hang the engine, at which point I'm sure I'll have to reorganize again.
Speaking of the engine, I am going to pull the trigger and place an order and deposit on one to lock in my price and production slot. Last year engine prices had huge bumps two times during the year, leading to something like a 25% increase. So it's already going to be ridiculously expensive, but I figured I may as well lock in at that price vs suffer another one or two potential price increases while I wait. I won't need the engine for at least a year and a half, if not longer, but they are currently 14 months behind anyway. I spoke to the sales rep and he said they can work with me once we get closer to the production slot, so if I'm not quite ready for it they may be able to bump me down the list a little. He said they do pickle the engine to last at least a year before running as well.
The standard Van's offering for the RV9A is a Lycoming -320 (160 hp). They have two basic levels - the "normal" engine and the Thunderbolt engine. The Thunderbolt is simply Lycoming's performance build, so closer tolerances for balancing moving parts and a few other odds and ends that supposedly make for a nicer running engine. They charge an arm and a leg for it of course. I've ultimately decided to go with the Continental Titan engine instead. It's actually considered a Lycoming clone that has been modified with some improvements. Kind of funny, given that Continental is Lycoming's main competitor. Continental bought ECI Titan, an engine parts manufacturer who also built these clone engines, a number of years ago and brought the production in house. Because it's essentially a Lycoming clone, it can be used with the exact same engine mount and cowl from Van's. The reason I went with Titan was the fact that you get far more bang for the buck compared to Lycoming. Titan has many of the same performance features that the Lycoming Thunderbolt package does, but at a significantly lower price. All of the pilots I know who have a Titan really like them.
Titan doesn't make a straight -320 (or even -360), which are the standard Lycoming sizes. Instead, Titan strokes the -320 and -360 engines. Depending on the build options, the stroked -320 makes between 174-180 hp, as opposed to the 160 hp of the typical -320. I don't actually care all that much about the extra horsepower since the RV9A performs great on 160 hp, but since I want the Titan engine anyway, the extra power is just a bonus, mostly for climb performance (it won't change the top speed much at all). Since it's hard to say what the long term story will be with 100LL avgas, I want the option to run auto fuel if I need to. Because of that, I'm going with the 174 hp engine, which uses low enough compression that it can run auto gas. I'm ordering a hollow crank so the engine can support a constant speed prop if I ever choose to go down that route, although in all likelihood I'll start out with a fixed pitch prop. They just plug the crank for the fixed pitch scenario. In terms of ignition, things may change in the next year or two, but for now I've ordered it with dual P-Mags (by eMag). These are sort of like old school magnetos but with a modern twist. They are an electronic ignition, so much more powerful than magnetos, but instead of typical electronic ignition systems that are dependent on the electrical system, the PMags are a self contained system that will keep running after an electrical failure. Lastly, I'll go with fuel injection over a carb. I know the carb is simpler, but fuel injection is more efficient and without the danger of carb ice.
