Introduce Yourself

Jay Pratt
I have built two RV6s, put 500 hours on the first, The second one has 650 hours so far. I built a RV8 but its sold. If I can sell the RV6. I will start another RV8 this year.
My interest are formation flying, aircraft camping, $100 hamburgers, Bush planes, Jeeps CJs and Wranglers.
Spent 17 years sailing and flying the eastern Caribbean Sea. Tortola to Trinidad.
I also built, own, and fly a North Star kit plane, like a wide Super Cub with a 180 hp Lycoming. See www.customflightltd.com
Named my RV6 "Borrowed Horse"
The Cub is called "Shooter"
The Jeeps have names too.
I help RV builders get their planes in the air.
Based at Hicks airfield T67. near Fort Worth,Texas

Introduce yourself

Mornin' everybody.
I'm Pierre Smith, 59, Comm, asel/mel/glider/CFI ag pilot for 34 years, currently flying Air Tractor 502/PT-6 680HP (Texas built) in Olney. Spray mainly cotton and peanuts and a little instructing on the side. Building RV6A/180HP/Catto 3 blade, close to skinning top front.
Enjoy Scuba, NASCAR, motorcycle races and love the Lord.
Pierre
Louisville, Ga

Introduction

Mark Patey
I love to get off road.
4 Wheel drive or 3 wheels up!
550 hrs in the last 12 months on my 2002 RV6A
Also a jeep lover. I have a 2002 6x6x6 Jeep. 6 wheel drive with 6 wheel steering. I put on UROC events all over the country. That's United RockCrawling and Off-Road Challenge. My RV gets me to my UROC events, how much better can life get? Oh ya, it gets better; I have a wonderful wife, and she's given me 4 fantastic boys. We also enjoy scuba diving, riding motorcycles and we love our Lord.
Provo UT PVU
This is me... the guy clostest to the camera on the covershot...
http://www.dirtsportsmag.com/dec04/ec_cover_story.htm

Introduction

Hi,

I have a 2002 RV6A that I purchased from an estate in Georgetown, TX, in September, 2003. Seven hours of flying later, I found myself sitting in a very small field in Kingston, OK, after a gear came loose in the accessory case.
After much help from Jay Pratt, Rich Rudolph, Bill Akin, Bob Avery (of Avery Tools) and several other RV'ers, I was back in the air exactly two months later. I commenced to log 197 hours in the following 12 months and now have over 240 RV hours (275 total on the RV).
I am currently flying off a flight test after conversion from fixed pitch to constant speed. Once again, all my RV buddies assisted me during this effort. We have a great RV community and I really thank Doug Reeves for getting all this going.
When I'm not flying my other passions include watching minor league hockey games and going crappie fishing. My wife, Mary, supports me and enjoys all my hobbies, especially flying!
We also participate in the "RV Hotel" concept that Doug started and currently have an RV8 builder staying with us.
Our hangar apartment will be open soon as Bob Dean is about half way thru his flyoff time so if anyone is coming thru Fort Worth and needs a place to stay, let me know.

Old enough to know better but young enough to care

My nick name is Bob but my mother called me Robert especially in those development years of extreme youth before spankings were a criminal offense. I spent over 50 years in aerospace beginning with a 4 year enlistment in the U. S. Air Force and ending with 19 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. I have had a life long passion for flight that has been kept simmering all these years however I could without unreasonably compromising my responsibilities to my job and my wife. It was she that opened the door after I mentioned that there was a flying club at the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company - West and she said "Well you are not getting any younger and if you ever want to learn to fly you had better start now." I was 44 years old at the time. I passed through the open door and never looked back. My job and home life were still the most important parts of life but both were made richer by the passage. After several years of flying I started to think about the future in retirement. Building an airplane that I could maintain myself seemed like the best way to be able to sustain my passion for flight on a limited and fixed income. A lengthy but enjoyable study of the available airplanes made it obvious to me that the RV-6 was the very best for us and the life we had planned. The "A" was a compromise but my "much wiser than I" wife insisted and in retrospect I believe her practical vision was right. It was very demanding to build this airplane in our garage by ourselves while performing a very important job in aerospace and completing a 4 hour commute to work each day but I wouldn't trade the experience of those eight years for any option I could have had. I knew this plane would be the only airplane I would ever build so I documented it in our cross referenced builder's log and photo album. No work compromises were made that would affect the final airplane quality. If I could do something good enough in a week (leave wires exposed in the cockpit, not upholster, use disorganized systems, settle for a day VFR airplane, etc.) or if I really studied the situation and what I could do with the resources available to me I could do it a lot better, I always chose the "as long as it takes" option. At this end of the process I am very happy with the outcome. My smile of satisfaction could possibly be construed as an RV grin.

How long can I hide this project from my wife

BIll Whidden
AKA "The Ice Man" No, really, I do Ice sculptures for a living.
I'm 40 years old with 3 kids and a lovely wife.
I grew up in the everglades south of Immokalee Florida where we always had broken aircraft engines in our airboats. One engine I remember was from a twin that crash landed near our airboat camp while trying drop off bales of
smelly weed. Started flying 14 years ago in a little experimental sea plane call a buccaneer sx. A few years later got to know the guys over a progressive aerodyne and helped build and owned the very first SeaRey. Had about 1000 hours or so and then the first of three kids landed abruptly after the wedding. Actually a good landing just sooner than I had expected. Got a new business up and going doing these corporate events www.icemagic.biz and felt the need to get in the air again.(getting tired of those long business drives). Was looking seriously at the Lancairs when an old flying buddy from the sea plane days said " I know you Bill and you'll want to fly fast AND land in all of those grass strips again". He was right, and proceeded to get me a ride in a 6 and then an 8. Wow!!!!! Started looking immediately for a 6 or 7 because I know the kids will want to ride up front. Found a project on Barnstormers in Jax. Fl. and bought it. It's a 6 with an 0-360 that I'm changing to an I0 and I've bought the garmin 430 and MX 20 just because. I met a really neat Ex Nave Aviator named Pete Burrismyer and he's helping me fit the fiberglass cowl along with the final assembly. Another Fine Gent, My "Technical Advisor" is Bill Davis who has built many a fine RV is also helping with the project. Hope to be done and flying by Oshkosh. It's also a slider "Cool like the Ice"

Bill,

An ice BAR? How cool is that! (pun intended!)

Amazing work that you do! I've just got to ask....how many times do you get right down to the final adjustments on a piece, and something goes 'crack'??? I have always wondered about that! ???

breaking Ice

Not very often because we have a system of tempering the ice so as not to shock it. Most cracks in ice are cause by temperature changes to the outside of ice before the inside (colder part) has a chance to adjust. But when it does happen we simply charge the client more for the added "art work"

Life size RV Ice sculpture???

Do you think Van would mind if every one showed up one morning at Sun N Fun and found an 8 thousand pound replica of an RV-6 (slider) outside of their booth?

I don't think anyone would "mind" at all....anything with a tailwheel should be allowed anywhere, anytime...aluminum, ice, whatever

Although, I know nothing about the 'shelf life', but I bet it would melt fairly quickly in Florida?

RV 6 in "Ice"

It would last about 8 hours.

Introduce yourself

Name: Kelly Patterson
Country: USA
City: Phoenix, AZ
Status: Finish Kit & FWF [1200 hours so far]
Configuration: RV-6A / Tip-up Canopy glued on
Engine: Fresh O-320 w/ EMag & 9.2:1 CR ~170HP
Prop: AL Sensenich 83" cruise pitch

Work as a civil engineering manager in precast concrete. 20+ years same company. Got my PP in '99 at Aurora, Oregon airport (you may have heard of it!). 150 hours in 152-182 spams. Divorce allowed time and funding (imagine that) to build RV I have always wanted. Started in December 2003 with an untouched wing kit found on EBay. QB fuse came 8 months later, and an abandoned emp was purchased from a builder in CO. Panel is night VFR with Garmin 296 and Trutrak Pictorial A/P. Engine monitors and vans gauges fill the rest of the holes. Added an extended baggage compartment to the tailcone for skis or long things. Glued my canopy on, not even one hole drilled in plexi. Currently finishing the gear fairings, half way thru the wiring, and getting ready to hang the engine. Will paint and have the plane finished for first flight this year. Have an A&P living a block away building a 9A at the same stage of construction. Very helpful and a huge confidence builder. I'm on the RV hotel list and always welcome fellow builders and pilots.

Name: Rod Schneider
Location: Woodstock, Ga. USA
RV-6 with a sliding canopy, working on getting the fuselage ready for engine installation. The engine will be an Eggenfellner Subaru H-6 with a Warp Drive ground adjustable prop, due for delivery in August this year.
I'm a maintennance supervisor for Delta Airlines in Atlanta, been there for 26 years. I got my Private Pilot ticket about 3 years ago and I'm getting tired of renting! Time to get the fun plane finished. I also enjoy tinkering with cars and I have two other "money pits" besides the RV. A 1965 Porsche 911 and a 1988 Pontiac Fiero GT, both of which are a blast to drive. I also dabble a bit with sound and video systems and spend part of my weekends doing sound mixing for my church, which is a lot of fun--full drum kit, bass, two guitars, and two or three singers with the occasional keyboards thrown in. It's kinda like going to a rock concert every weekend. I've been single since 1999, which has the advantage of no one complaining about strange airplane odors or sounds coming from the basement, but has obvious disadvantages as well.............