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Show Us Your Rocket!

DeltaRomeo

doug reeves: unfluencer
Staff member
I'll get the ball rolling. Instructions on how to insert an image HERE.

Welcome aboard, Gentlemen.

Best,
 
N395V SN#69 365hrs IO 540 250HP

Me, my boss, and the plane at 0V2 Salida Colorado

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With an RV 8 at 64GA




(ed: Milt, I re-uploaded that pic to a clickable thumbnail so it wouldn't push the subsequent repies off the page (large images do that). Hope you don't mind, and welcome again to the group! B, dr)
 
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Escort Duty

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Over NE Oklahoma on a return leg from a 3600NM tour of the Western US.

The 235 Apache was our freighter.
 
It also works as an interceptor

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This is Jim Crunkleton in his RV8 absconding with my wife. She has the checkbook, credit cards, and all the money so I had to get her back.

Forced him down at the Mallards landing flyin where I saw Vics RV 10 and Jim Franks almost finished F1 along with several other RVs
 
Milt,
I wandered around your Rocket at the Mallard's Landing Fly-in, taking several pictures. Here are a few of them.







A beautiful airplane for sure.
Enjoy!
 
My "Temp" Paint Job

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This is my temporary paint job. I tried painting it myself but it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. So I stripped it and made an appointment with Grady at GLO Custom for November.

In the mean time, I'll terrorize Indiana in my Russian fighter.
 
Evo 1

Here is a picture of my EVO F1. It has passed the final inspection and I am just waiting for the flight permit
 
Rock-it!

Here is a picture of my 97" HR2 I recently bought as a "bizness plane". It lives alongside my RV4 I finished in 97'...(It's parked in my driveway!)

LyCon IO-540 dynoed 315HP/3000RPM...gotta love it!

Rob Ray
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That is one amazing looking plane. With each completed plane I see on here it becomes harder to think of these as "home-built". When you tell someone you're building a plane in your garage they sure don't picture a beauty like this. Congrats on a magnificent looking plane.
 
Beautiful Randy!! I just remembered I have a couple of pics of you doing a fly-by at a little fly-in over in Indiana, northeast of Indy, from this summer. I'll see if I can dig those up in the next couple of days...

Your Rocket is STUNNING!!!

:cool: :cool: :cool:
 
Finally got around to REMEMBERING to find those pictures from The Last Resort fly-in this past summer Randy...

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Looks a little different now. Amazing what a paint job does.

Thanks for posting the pictures. The Wilson ice cream social is a "must do" fly in each summer.
 
See Video clip

See video clip @ www.landshort.com. 4 blade MT sounds wild outside, in the **** pit total silence compared to 2 or 3 blade.
Camera man said Rocket came by to fast and it caused him to shake :eek:
 
David,

Those look like "stock" photos from the internet to me. Not necessarily THE airplanes they rent.

I think the owner of that website is a VAF member (Milt I think...), not any sort of scam if you ask me.
 
90% done -- maybe
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(milt i'll go check out your site for a place to sell my 7a)
 
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down to the extra stuff

I'd be done if it weren't for the extras....

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I didn't finish in time for Bakersfield's L45 EAA fly In this Saturday June 2nd where all the Rockets show up to play golf with John Harmon. I was close but no cigar.
 
Done!

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Dan Checkoway with www.weighmyplane.com stopped by along with John Harmon. Thanks!

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only things I wish I had is a lipstick camera monitor and a couple VAF stickers. thanks to you guys and gals for all the info; wish me luck on my airworthiness inspection!

finished on my big 5 0 birthday too! :)
"born on the 7th of July"
 
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I didn't know you were building a Rocket mark... what made you decide to ditch the sissy wheel? :D j/k

Good luck on the Phase 1.
 
well, I figure I have an Anna Nicole model and a Paula Abdul version!!! :)

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I got dinged by the FAA Inspector for .030 safety wire on the prop bolts. (I didn't think the .040 would go thru there, it does now.)

A starter cable sitting too close to the exhaust.

Crankcase vent tube venting right on top of the exhaust pipe.

And nylocks on the front rudder pedal and cable assy.

20 hrs. Phase One
60 nm miles
$$$ one bottle of water; our tax dollars at work!!!

(you probably won't hear from me for a while. gotta fly now :) )
 
Interestingly enough, Hartzell tells you to use .032 wire on the prop bolts. I found that out when we installed our new 3-blade on the Cardinal. The 'standard' .040 is something that every mechanic I know swears by, but the hartzell manual doesn't bear out.
 
osxuser said:
Interestingly enough, Hartzell tells you to use .032 wire on the prop bolts. I found that out when we installed our new 3-blade on the Cardinal. The 'standard' .040 is something that every mechanic I know swears by, but the hartzell manual doesn't bear out.
Yep, I have the Hartzell prop too. An A&P/IA stopped by my hangar one day and mentioned the .032 safety wire on my prop and said I needed .040. I pulled out the manual and showed him the .032 callout. He said it was the first he had heard of that and acted very surprised. I've heard it time and time again that .040 should be used, but I guess the prop manufacturer knows best??

Congrats Mark on the airworthiness certificate! Fly well & fly safe.
 
Mark: Love your plenum chamber! Can you tell me where you got it and if there were any special issues with installing it?

Regards,

Lee...
 
thanks for the replies!!!

I'm going back to .032 then. Since the Rocket made one circuit and came right back down(cut the .041 off) and the prop's off the plane along with the governor.

And the B and C alternator popped the 50a C.B.

Regarding plenum-- Massey's aircraft in Shafter,CA makes a rough one but mine got sliced down the middle to fit right and it took me one year to get it looking the way it does. But the inside is what counts, I just wanted it show worthy or when I get to do an oil change. ;)

thanks for the kind words.
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59.9 gals. capacity
57.9 useable
$233.33 fill up!
 
mark manda said:
well, I figure I have an Anna Nicole model and a Paula Abdul version!!! :)

070907002xg2.jpg


070907003ow2.jpg


I got dinged by the FAA Inspector for .030 safety wire on the prop bolts. (I didn't think the .040 would go thru there, it does now.)

A starter cable sitting too close to the exhaust.

Crankcase vent tube venting right on top of the exhaust pipe.

And nylocks on the front rudder pedal and cable assy.

20 hrs. Phase One
60 nm miles
$$$ one bottle of water; our tax dollars at work!!!

(you probably won't hear from me for a while. gotta fly now :) )

The FWF instructions tell you to vent the crank case breather tube over the exhaust so that the oil vapour burns off and doesn't grease up the belly of the plane! Go figure?
Jim Sharkey.
 
A class act....

When you guys get ready for the DAR, think of how neat this inspection was. A clean table for the DAR and a bottle of cold water! First impressions folks.....this was a class act.

Pierre
 
Keep the DAR Comfortable

pierre smith said:
When you guys get ready for the DAR, think of how neat this inspection was. A clean table for the DAR and a bottle of cold water! First impressions folks.....this was a class act.

Pierre


Agreed, Pierre. AND it looks like Mark has one of those swamp cooler fans in the background pointed at the DAR. A class act indeed!

Don
 
Double Trouble...

Here is "Miss Behaving" my 96' HR2 alongside the first plansbuilt Rocket to fly. It belongs to my F16 squadron mate and friend Mark "Slim" Culpepper. Double Trouble!!

Rob Ray

 
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When

Hi Smoke,
BTW, just when are you gonna come up here and show me the correct way to do a big old barrel roll? :D Gas and a steak dinner on me....grilled at my house.

See ya....
 
The FWF instructions tell you to vent the crank case breather tube over the exhaust so that the oil vapour burns off and doesn't grease up the belly of the plane! Go figure?
Jim Sharkey.
I have had some negative experience with this installation. On my rocket I was getting excessive oil on the belly, increased oil consumption and a few more minor leaks from the engine than I would have liked. I had been reducing the size of my cowling outlet air and thought that I must have created some more suction in that area. To test that theory I hooked up a water manometre to the dipstick tube and another one too the area above the engine plenum and another tube by where the crankcase vent dumped on to the exhaust pipe. The results were exactly opposite from what I was expecting. The crankcase is being pressurized relative a full 7" of water. Relative to the lower plenum it was about an inch higher. I spoke with knowledgeable engine guys at AirVenture, Bart Lalonde and Allan Barrett, and they both felt that the pressure would cause the problems that I was seeing.
I rerouted the vent aft of the cowling and now I have a -2" reading, or a slight vaccum. Since that time I have over 25 hours on the engine. The oil on my belly has decreased dramatically and all the minor oil leaks, particularily around the prop seal, have dissappeared. My oil consumption went from about 5.5 hours per quart to well over seven hours.
Based on my experience I could not reccomend venting the breather line into the lower cowling area. Oh, yea I do get two or three drops on my hangar floor now. That was the reason for venting the crankcase to the exhaust pipe in the first place but it is a bad tradeoff in my opinion.
 
I rerouted the vent aft of the cowling and now I have a -2" reading, or a slight vaccum. Since that time I have over 25 hours on the engine. The oil on my belly has decreased dramatically and all the minor oil leaks, particularily around the prop seal, have dissappeared. My oil consumption went from about 5.5 hours per quart to well over seven hours.
Based on my experience I could not reccomend venting the breather line into the lower cowling area. Oh, yea I do get two or three drops on my hangar floor now. That was the reason for venting the crankcase to the exhaust pipe in the first place but it is a bad tradeoff in my opinion.

After talking with Tom at Airventure, I did the same thing and my results mirror Tom's exactly. This has finally solved several perplexing oil drip problems in my engine compartment. I have about 20 hours on mine and not a drip of oil from the bottom of my cowl or engine. This is a great find Tom. I can't thank you enough for it.
 
air to air video

There should be two short clips; I'm told it's my '48 Cessna 140 I just sold and me flying off the right wing in my HR-2.
The clip is filmed from the back seat of Skyjack's HR-2.

I flew in with the Rocket (and RV-7A) yesterday at Flabob's Veteran's Day Celebration.

Hope the link works, it might be ALL Cessna. ;) my computer can't view them.

www.dropshots.com/pilot4life88
 
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Tom: I don't quite understand what you mean when you say you routed your oil breather tube "aft of the cowling". Does that mean you lengthened such that it sticks out of the cowling exhaust area (like parallel to the exhaust pipes or something?).

Thanks,


Lee...
 
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