I’m held up a bit waiting for a delivery from the USA so it’s time to tidy up the workshop and do a few other work items. I spied a box on the shelf that’s been sitting there for the past 18 months, and once I remembered what it was I just had to go ahead and play with it. The box contained a Control Approach RV-10 rudder kit. As far as I know this was one of the last kits Paul ever sent out and they are no longer available.
I never liked the look of the Van’s rudder pedal assembly. Hated the brake cylinders and hoses being on the front of the pedals. Without really researching it well at the time, I took a punt and ordered this kit back then because it was going out of production, and now I’ve assembled the kit I’m glad I did. The parts are high quality and the design and construction is first rate. The brake master cylinders and associated hoses are relocated under the pedals where they belong. The rudder cables stay in the tunnel and don’t have to come out the sides into the cabin.
There was some evidence this was Paul’s last kit, a few of the longer AN3 bolts were obviously “pre-owned”. I set these aside and used new ones I had on hand (because there’s no way of knowing if a bolt someone else used has been over-torqued). The assembly instructions leave a lot to be desired, but there’s only really one way the parts can all go together and it doesn’t take too much head scratching to figure the assembly out.
One of the stainless steel pins was a problem. The thread stripped, and it’s hard to know how that happened since I was using my usual miniature torque wrench to do up the AN365-1032 nut at the time. It’s a very simple piece and I have access to a facility that can turn up a replacement so I’m not too bothered about that.
