What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

What did you do with your RV this weekend (07/11-07/12)?

catmandu

Well Known Member
Gotta start it, 'cuz I did something! Finally dressed up my polished aluminum with a warbird scheme. All vinyl. Definitely a learning curve, which is why I started with the invasion stripes on the bottom of the wing, and then the small stuff on the tail.

hGsxzwll.jpg


We affectionately called the unidentified bird on the tail logo of my squadron's war machines the 'sea chicken' so I decided to go with the logo from the squadron my Dad commanded in Vietnam, because given a choice, you chose a Smokin' Tiger every day over a sea chicken! And I downsized the numbers to 2" and added the X-ray, so when I repaint the baggage compartment bulkhead I can dispense with the EXPERIMENTAL placard.

icm0MCUl.jpg
 
Slower traffic patterns and approach speeds

My home airport has long, wide runways, a fair amount of jet traffic and lots of unstable summertime air. Often I fly LPV or ILS approaches at 100 knots and reduce power as late as possible. All this means that it's easy to be very proficient in all kinds of non-standard approaches to fit in with traffic (excuses, that is) but flying the RV-9A like an RV-9A take a bit of pre-planning.

Early this morning was very light wind and, after the three regional jets departed, I had the airport to myself. Normally I fly the pattern at a very comfortable 80 knots, but today, I flew some at 70 and then some at 60. At 60, I used flaps 10 to keep the nose down, but was surprised that the stall warning chirped at me a few times. Hmm. A C172 wouldn't do that.

Next time I'm up in calm air, I'm going to measure the airspeed accuracy at 60 knots at various flap settings -- and there's an easy way to do this that I've not read about. My avionics has a wind readout, so it's easy to fly directly upwind and downwind. Do this at the desired airspeed with the desired flap setting, and since there will be little if any crosswind component, you don't need to compensate for crosswind component or do the fancy four directions bit. (A winds aloft forecast would probably be good enough.)

Then compare the true air speed (calculated automatically) with the average groundspeed, and that gives the error in true airspeed. Let's make up a number for the observed true airspeed error, say, five knots. If the indicated and true airspeed differ by, say, 5%, then the difference between indicated airspeed error and true airspeed error will also differ by 5%. 5% of 5 knots is a quarter knot, insignificant. This means you can use the true airspeed error for the indicated airspeed error directly and not have to do all the math to get indicated airspeed error. At higher altitudes, the difference might be a knot or two. But with digital data recording, you can do all that math stuff after you get home.

Anyway, I'm working to really, really know the -9A, now that I've got a constant speed prop on it. I'm learning that the -9A will do a pretty good short approach at 80 knots, full flaps, power off, but when you flare, the airplane really doesn't want to slow down, unlike my old Cessna 175 with 40° flaps. I now do short approaches in the -9A at 70 knots -- doesn't descend as fast but doesn't float as far. The RV-8 was so much better at short approaches...

One exercise I did with the fixed pitch prop in the -9A was to fly a steady approach speed right down into ground effect and see how long the plane would float at different airspeeds. I need to re-do that exercise with the constant speed prop.

Practice, practice. Education and recreation. And when you've got the whole airport to yourself, you can do lots of aviating for only a few gallons.
 
First Family Flight

Took the family up for the first time in the -10. Each of my wife and two kids had flow a few times with me but not as a family to stretch the legs a little on the -10.

In-laws live in Prescott, AZ so off we went Saturday Am, departing KSEE about 8:00am arriving about 1.9 hours (6.5 hours drive). SPent the night and flew back this morning.

Great first family trip.
 

Attachments

  • 75716.jpeg
    75716.jpeg
    196.5 KB · Views: 294
I changed out 1632 Li coin cell batteries on my Tire Pressure Monitor Sensors and verified balance weights are still in place. All is good….

 
Finished conditional and chased down an A/P gremlin

Back flying after the conditional, where we changed tires on mains, spark plugs, and a starter. It ran great today on the test flight.

Blue skies.

Geoff
 
Phase 1 at 10.5 hours

N430WB wanted to leave the nest and stretch the wings .. after some local flights above the home field, it was time to fly south for a while .. out of gliding distance to a home field runway. Did some 60 deg steep turns, all manner of stalls (clean, half and full flaps, straight and turning, power on), worked on the envelope speed runs to 160 and 170 kts IAS in a power on dive (with some maneuvering on the way down). Most of the time was spent doing engine break-in. CHT1 was always the black sheep, running about 35F higher than all the rest (which limited the high power break in runs). After some VAF research, I decided to remove the dam in front of Cyl1 .. the next flight, all CHTs were within 10 deg of each other .. perfect!

In the end, I was seeing ~355 F CHT (plus and minus a bit across the four) at 75% power at ~6500 MSL .. sweet! (Houston, we have break-in)

Landings have been at 75kts, half flaps, which floats the landing about half of our 5000' runway. No problem at this point, but I'll keep working to bring the fence speed down. Still, the plane lands great! Lots of positive control authority in our windy and gusty costal climate.

Big thanks go to Brian, my AC 90-116 qualified pilot who helpd through the rough parts (and gave a insider's tour of the coastal landmarks during the droning parts)

Keep pounding those rivets .. the final result is a joy!

2020071219232592--338139671004174334-IMG_0951-L.png
 
Last edited:
MMV, BDN, LMT

This weekend flew a friend north from Sacramento to McMinnville / Bend Oregon and over Crater Lake. Visited the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation Museum. They had a great collection with a wide variety of very nice planes as well as a space museum across the street. They did have an RV-6! Definitely recommend a visit. If you don't want to rent a car there are a couple hotels within a few miles and the museum is across the street from the airport.

Was fortunate to have nice calm winds on the way up and over from MMV to BDN, allowing us to fly close "The Sisters" and get some great views. Bend, Oregon is a great destination with a beautiful river flowing through and a cute downtown area. My first time there, but not my last. On the way back south we took a slight diversion and did some steep turns over Crater Lake. Gorgeous!

Photos from Evergreen Aviation Museum:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/JoxFerniSxdEXe9b7

Flight photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/zykEFLj3L3B6d6mc6
 

Attachments

  • IMG_8265.jpg
    IMG_8265.jpg
    217.9 KB · Views: 260
  • IMG_8387.jpg
    IMG_8387.jpg
    281.2 KB · Views: 274
Last edited:
Acro

Did some acro on saturday


IMG_3129.jpg




In fact I replaced the carpet, tweaked the ailerons a bit and made a short almost straight and level flight.
 
Sunshine

Took advantage of the empty hangar and rolled Highlander (?) out for some vitamin D. That and I swept the hangar...

Working on planning my Dynon and VPX installation.

20200711_085345.jpg
 
A different kind of RV’ing for us this weekend. I forgot how driving long distances really sucks!!
 

Attachments

  • 63D37E19-B735-45CB-A6F3-1BD3E858E00D.jpeg
    63D37E19-B735-45CB-A6F3-1BD3E858E00D.jpeg
    141.6 KB · Views: 320
Flew down to the Georgia coast to St. Simons Island for lunch at Southern Soul BBQ. MMMmmmm, good!
 

Attachments

  • Southern Soul BBQ.jpg
    Southern Soul BBQ.jpg
    602.8 KB · Views: 389
New Fuel Selector installed

This weekend I installed the new fuel selector, and the flex lines that run from it to the aux pump and fuel tanks.

Fuel selector install using a lexan cover plate to check the installation:

3_lines_connected_top_640.jpg


The flex line on the right was led under the wire bundle instead of over it as the old line was. To prevent chafing I wrapped both the wire bundle and the fuel line with 1/8" rubber hose:

chafing_gear_installed_640.jpg


And finally the new selector is installed with the new cover plate:


Selector_Installed_640.jpg



There is a little work left to be done on the chafing gear, and then fuel flow testing can commence.
 
Ok, so it doesn’t involve flying or working on an RV....

But scroll to the bottom, there’s a picture of my partially finished -8. And it’s a couple weeks old (life’s been hectic lately, but it was an ‘RV weekend’, just not this past weekend).

https://ruxinjohnweddings.com/2020/...fWi1RQqz0zQoLl-voIm1A4p2nAFTr1Ms4mGoOim56p1yg

You may ask how I knew she was a keeper... shortly after we met and she learned what an RV-8 was, I was told: “well I don’t want to sit in back, you have to build ANOTHER plane. I let her pick it out at Oshkosh.... and here we are.
 
The RV turned a 30 minute drive into 10 minutes of getting the oil up to temp thanks to the 90+ weather. Lil' dude was all in for today's mission of helping Cindy out, unfortunately her husband flew west 7 months ago dropping his airplane off at the shop for an ADSB upgrade. When I go it'll be too soon but if I could coordinate it at the end of a flight like Gary did that would be great.

Lil' Dude and I fueling the RV up with cheap 100LL.

IMG_8745_heic-L.jpg


The Skyhawk hasn't flown since December, Lil' Dude and I spent about 2 hours airing up tires and checking things out with the battery charger on. Gary's hangar is a small town Ks homemade hangar, half metal pipe with welded braces and half wood and a partial concrete floor. His Hangar was impeccably organized. Air compressor with the neatly coiled hose next to the fuse box, flip the breakers labeled air compressor and we are compressing air. PSI gauge, masking tape, sand paper, Extension Cords, battery charger, step ladder, fuel sampler etc were all exactly where I would expect them in my own hangar/aircraft. Perhaps us aviators think alike, perhaps Gary was supervising us but either way it felt natural. Unfortunately 2 hours wasn't enough to charge the battery after 2 failed attempts to spin the prop, Lil' dude and I went to lunch (to go only for Covid). O-300 odd prop clocking, nose gear, super sharp prop, no competent pilot meant I wasn't about to attempt hand propping. For American style Chinese food this place in Garnett rivals any takeout in the KC area hands down, My wife can't wait until they can do the buffet again after Covid....

IMG_8741_heic-L.jpg


Another 1.5 on the charger didn't yield any better results turning the engine over. I'ld invited Cindy along and she commented "well that's it for today.'' I said I have one last trick up my sleeve, I double checked the mixture/mags off and I turned the prop over by hand carefully several times. I positioned the O-300 so the prop would be descending on its first revolution and strapped in the left seat again. I hit the starter and it just made it past its second compression stroke and it popped to life like it was just run last week. Cindy clapped after it started (so emotional for her) and we did an extended runup and put .6 on the airplane with it smooth and cool above 3500 hands off as it should be. So glad to be able to share this with Cindy and most likely Gary too. Post flight getting ready to push it back in the hangar, yeah not a bad way to spend half a day.

IMG_8743_heic-L.jpg
 
Last edited:
Congratulations, Sam! Thanks for sharing the pics of your big day.
So now it's get that -8 flying so you can start on a side by side? You're going to be a busy guy!

Doug
Seattle area
 
Last week, changed the 5-500 mains on my RV-12, and the tubes and repacked the bearings with grease.

Matco 5" split rims are a hoot to change tubes and tires on, even have to pull the disc rotor from the rims to get the valve stem in.

Repitched the ground adjustable prop from something more cruise oriented to something more climb oriented, the week prior.
 
Congratulations, Sam! Thanks for sharing the pics of your big day.
So now it's get that -8 flying so you can start on a side by side? You're going to be a busy guy!

Doug
Seattle area


Yep, I work on the -8 every chance I get, and will have to make room in the hangar for a side by side. Busy... yes, but before that, I was thinking that I might have a bit of empty shop syndrome, so it is working out well.

Sam
 
Back
Top