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What did you do with your RV this weekend? (3/27 - 3/29)

SPX

Well Known Member
Sponsor
With the stay at home orders expanding, I suspect that fewer of us did much with our RV this weekend. But, certainly some flew theirs, and others progressed on their build. So... what did you do?

Friday I flew my RV to get a few things from Aircraft Spruce, and then to meet up with another VAF member to talk about a panel upgrade. Then back into the hangar it went..

Today, I rode over to the airport and gave the RV a dry wash. Looks so much better.

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I made 10 landings at Eastern Washingtion region airports. 4 pilot lounges were closed. Trying to collect stamps for the Fly Washington Passport program. Solo flight with thousands of feet of social distance FUN!
 
Did a 1-hour flight to empty my left tank so I could do some work on it and to see if I had found the source of a nuisance oil leak. Mission accomplished on both.
 
I made 10 landings at Eastern Washingtion region airports. 4 pilot lounges were closed. Trying to collect stamps for the Fly Washington Passport program. Solo flight with thousands of feet of social distance FUN!

I followed your example Doug. Marked one airport. The rest of the weekend spent hiking. Found a perfect chew for Dave12’s German Shepard. :)



 
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Stirred the oil for 1.7hrs over western Florida. Achieved 5000? vertical social distance. A beautiful way to calm the mind. Weird seeing empty beaches this time of year.

Peter
 
RIR

Filed TEC from LGB to RIR to top the tanks and keep the brain used to working in the system. Then VFR to Elsinore to check out the old Hang Gliding site. Then VFR back to LGB. Couldn't get Flight Following on the way back as SoCal had controllers working multiple sectors and they were busy! Oil stirred and back in the hangar.

Then an auto trip to drop off 2 large sacks of dog food to German Shepard Rescue of Orange County (https://www.GSROC.org) who do great work with getting rescued dogs placed in furever homes.

-Marc
 
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Real live airplane noises...

Finally the fateful has arrived to see if all this assembly of airplane parts actually can actually make airplane noises.

I went through all the pre-oiling procedures discussed here on VAF and in the Lyc docs, tested for good oil pressure, fuel pressure, fuel flow, the whole nine yards. All good.

Towed the plane to the nearest pad that had a pad-eye, tied her down, hooked up a car-sized battery in lieu the little Odyssey - in case there were lots of cranking involved

Turns out that the external battery was soft and it had a hard time turning the engine over with the plugs in. However, it only took one blade to start once it got around and then we're off the the races!

Obligatory evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6wuyqh9ejE

Only significant issue is that the CHT2 reads about 10% below the rest, but tracks well the other 3 well. No CHTs on this run above 275 F. EGTs track tightly.

And, I found that the Andair fuel pump is a noisy beast when the pressure comes up. It purrs like a kitten with no load during fuel flow testing, but it's quite noisy when pressure comes up. You can clearly hear it in the video prior to the start. Anyone else have this experience.

First flight getting closer!
 
Couldn't get Flight Following on the way back as SoCal had controllers working multiple sectors and they were busy!

This weekend was the first where ATC facilities across the country reduced staffing to somewhat of a skeleton crew..
 
Rudder coverage

After flying my -8 for 3 years, I FINALLY vinyl-wrapped my rudder in orange vinyl to match the ailerons.
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[/url][/IMG] Oops...can't see the aileron.
 
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Nothing fancy

Nothing fancy but did get to fly at least.

Got called into work (a blessing these days)...didn't think I could fly because of rain and icing potential, but a quick brief found I could stay out of the ice as high as 3000'-4000'. 1.5 hobbs, no ice, smoother ride then I was expecting, but nothing but white to look at for 1.3 of those hours so it was kinda boring.
 
I got sick in February when this COVID-19 got started. Have not flown since February 02, 2020. Had many of the symptoms of the virus going around so went to see my doctor 03-02-2020. Doc gave me two Rx that typically someone with asthma would use. Doc said it was a virus but he did not think it was one to worry about as I did not have a fever.

I am finally over being sick. I have been social distancing for over a month before everyone else started doing it. I am one of the lucky ones that it is 18-steps from my house to my hangar. After a through preflight, I was able to get a short flight in. It felt good after not being PIC for almost 2-months.

Postimage.org uploads is down for maintenance so here is my first time using imgur.com where I cannot resize the images. Sorry.

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I also go a wing jig fixture built for the right wing of the RV-8 plus got parts installed in the jig.

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I remembered that I also needed to get a bracket to mount the autopilot servo so placed an order for it from Steinair. I already got a confirmation of the order from Steinair. I did tell them that I understand that there could be delays in deliver.

I flew again today and now am almost full fuel except for the flight home. AvGas price has dropped from $4.19 to $3.98 at the airport I filled up at.

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Flew the -8 over to Tuskegee to get some cheap gas. Pulled power on downwind and made the prettiest squeaker ever, right on the numbers. Per the Laws of the Aviation Universe ("Great landings are never seen."), it meant the FBO was closed and the airport was abandoned by all humankind.

So I went back to Wetumpka, got Bill's Cub, and got in a dogfight with an old friend and his Kolb. A Legend Cub has doors on both sides. Accelerated stalls make the lower doors flap like a bird ;)
 
I work for a Hospital system and we have been going for 3 weeks non stop, but I
did get a chance to get out and clear my head with a formation flight with a few
buddies on Sat. We did practicing good Social Distancing on the ground and in the air.

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http://youtu.be/UFWEBfZHRRE

Everyone be safe out there and practice social distancing.
 
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