A Short Story
By
Thomas Kenney & Mary Dauphinais

Where to start? Probably best to tell you a little about us. Tom has his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Penn State. Mary has her Bachelors in Computer Science with a minor in Physics from Sonoma State University and her Masters in Computer Science from Penn State. We have successfully built and flown our RV-10 which is based at New Garden (N57). We were married in March of 2013 and in May of that year the first kit arrived, the empennage. Mary had no idea what she had signed up for. Tom had built a Kitfox 7 with his partner George Daelemans so he was aware of the dedication and skills it takes to complete a project like this. At first Mary wanted nothing to do with the actual building. She was concerned that a mistake might lead to AIDS (Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome). After Tom had made a few mistakes (a couple of which involved ordering replacement parts) she realized she could help.

One of the first big decisions was to build the RV-10 kit from the ground up rather than a quick build. The first few years of the project were spent in the basement of our home building the empennage, wings, and fuselage as separate components. Tom would wake up every morning at 5AM to work a couple hours on the plane before heading to work. The empennage, which on the RV-10 includes the tailcone, was completed in October of 2014 and the wings were started. The wings include the fuel tanks which were probably the biggest challenge in the build. The stink of tank sealant, even through a respirator, is tough to take. Despite passing the bench leak tests a few hours into flying we had to repair small leaks on each tank. In addition, that tanks were the only location where we experienced rivet fracture during setting. The wings were completed in April of 2016 and manufacturing of the fuselage tub began. With the completion of the fuselage tub in June of 2017 the project moved to New Garden.

During our time in New Garden we became snow birds moving the project from our unheated west end hanger to the luxury of the EAA heated hanger every winter. Progress slowed as it was a 45-minute drive from our home in Phoenixville to the airport. While at N57 we joined the tailcone to the fuselage tub, completed the installation of the fiberglass canopy and fitting the doors. Tom is not a big fan of fiberglass work. The Lycoming Thunderbolt IO-540 engine arrived in June of 2020. In November, with the help of several of our friends from EAA Chapter 240, we installed the wings. Then after a few more months working the final elements of engine and avionics installation the engine roared to life for the first time on March 14, 2021. From that point it did not take long to complete the final elements and on May 29, 2021, N198JD received its Special Airworthiness Certificate from Ed Coudon (FAA DAR).

On June 6th, 2021 at 8:53 AM Tom had the unparalleled experience of taking off in our RV-10 for the first flight. Lifting off on runway 24 before passing the wind sock. He climbed to 2500 ft and circled over the field for several laps and then descended to pattern altitude for a great landing at 9:27AM. Tom flew off the 40 hours doing the required solo flight testing. The final paint was done by Lancaster Aero in November of 2023. The interior is still a work in process, as builders know the plane is never “done”.

We are happy to report we are still married and have just started a RV-9A as a retirement project.