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What did you do yesterday ?

Great Video!

I loved watching your video. Very inspiring to get my plane finished. Although, being from Southern California, all that snow was a bit intimidating. Great Job!:)
 
uh, put up more christmas lites?....you win!

Nice Darren,
took me a few tries to find you on Google maps.....:)
nice grass strip, what is that, about 2250' ?
...too bad the guy next door won't pave his 'driveway', it looks like about the same length, dead straight! ( except the south 'ramp' would be the trans Canada highway!...possibly a little 'line up and wait' there, eh?

Do you usually do T&G on the rockies strips to test the snow depth anyway? I see there were some tracks, but hard to know if they've since frozen & crusted over etc.

anyway, good x-wind technique I'd say! Love the paint job too!

( and before all the tipup guys say it, what a view it would be without the canpy frame....ever tried the video from the dash? Might need the 170 angle lense there.)
 
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Nice work!

Can't wait to get my airplane up north. Really wanting to fly Oregon -> Alaska (where I grew up) next summer. Beautiful country up there in BC and i'm looking forward to visiting by air someday soon.

I think I have seen a picture of an RV4 on skiis. Doesn't seem like a good idea. My dad has lots of experience flying cubs on skiis in Alaska and says it's way harder and more dangerous than any other surface to land on.

One of the rental planes at my home airport here in Oregon was landed on snow once at a high elevation airport. The pilot didn't realize the snow was 4 feet deep as it appeared to be only inches. The airplane (a cessna 172) flipped over pretty much instantly.

Thanks for the video!
 
Fun video

Fun video, watch your wheel pants don't fill up with ice/snow!
I was snorkelling at Kaanapali Beach, Maui...;)
 
Thanks for sharing your video. It was really awesome! I bet the guy on the snowmobile was excited to see someone frolicking out there too :)
 
Glad you liked the video and hopefully it provided a little motivation for some. They are incredibly fun and versatile little airplanes.

Home field is just to the east of the Calgary International Airport control zones. It's a 2000 foot grass strip. I usually take off, stay below the class C and then climb when I can.

The snow on the runways was about 2 - 3 inches I guess. The video doesn't show it but on real short final I could see the runway markings. A little tricky landing on a pure white runway where there aren't the usual visual cues as to the your height.

I am leery of snow in the wheel pants. When I land I spend a few minutes digging loose snow from inside the pants so that my wheel isnt' frozen solid next time out. Once last winter I had to remove the pants to knock some ice out. It's not ideal but diehards will do what they have to get a flying fix:)

Snorkelling in Maui........you win !!

Darren
 
Glad you liked the video and hopefully it provided a little motivation for some. They are incredibly fun and versatile little airplanes.
Snorkelling in Maui........you win !!

Darren

Absolutely inspirational...
Call it a draw...:cool: Great looking bird.
Bob's airport isn't it?
 
Very nice Darren. Thanks for sharing! Referred my student to your xwind landing technique. Perfect!

- John Munroe
RV8 @ Front Royal, VA
Wing Kit in progress
 
Hey Mike,

Yea it's Bob's field. He was away for a week in Vegas that's why the runway wasn't plowed. He's usually very good at getting out there to clean the place. Especially for diehards like me. You asked earlier about some pictures of the -7. Maybe to get some ideas for your bird ? Pm me with your email address and I will send you some.

John, thanks for the rating of my crosswind landing :) There is another East-West runway but it's only 1000 feet long and I'll land there if the crosswind is over 20 knots and blowing. If I have near full rudder deflection,
and I'm short final I'll go around, otherwise I just keep that wing down into the wind, nose straight, and focus on touching one wheel first. The dicey part is when the wind is blowing you to the edge of the runway and the surface is slippery. Tap dance on the brakes a bit, play with the rudder and get the tailwheel down as soon as possible. That's what I do.

Have a great day everyone. Off to work I go :(

Darren
 
The dicey part is when the wind is blowing you to the edge of the runway and the surface is slippery.

If the surface is slick, and the wind is really nasty, you could actually deal with that by letting the plane weathervane into the wind slightly so that you're "crabbing" on the surface of the runway so that as the plane slides, you're tracking the runway rather than getting slid across the runway toward the downwind side. I know of someone who uses this technique when landing a J-3 on grass when the x-wind component gets to be around 30KT and would otherwise skid the airplane toward the edge of the runway.

Tap dance on the brakes a bit, play with the rudder and get the tailwheel down as soon as possible. That's what I do.

So then why not just do a 3-pointer? :)
 
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