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What did you do with your RV this weekend? (4/11 - 4/12'ish)

SPX

Well Known Member
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The weather in San Diego finally cleared today, so I woke up early and took the RV up for a flight.

I really had nowhere to go, so I decided to fly along the coast, down to Coronado, and then reverse course and head back to Fallbrook to do a few landing before putting the airplane back in the hangar.

A short video out the side window as I did the 180? turn..

https://youtu.be/rPxkA9gzXnU

Interesting flying right now .. SoCal approach had one controller for the entire San Diego area. I know that the facility has limited staffing now due to less traffic, and also to help reduce the chances of a controller getting COVID-19, and getting the entire shift sick. So, they've reduced the shift size so as to have a backup team if one shift gets sick.

This was likely to be my second to last flight before converting the panel from this:

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To this:

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Just a little oil-stir flight from LGB to over Catalina Island. Nice day to fly and obviously a lot of other pilots felt the same way as it was busy over the local practice area. Oil stirred and back to the hangar.

-Marc
 
Went for a short flight with my daughter. Not a lot of places to go right now, so we just took the long way around south Dallas then stopped at Bridgeport for a while and then back to aerocountry. Good day to get in some crosswind landings, it was 90 degrees off pretty much everywhere.

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Just stayed around the airport doing touch and gos as I am trying to burn down my fuel as low as possible leading to reweighing. Trying to minimize amount I need to drain. I have done a bunch of mods over the last few years like removing mags for EI and adding servos and AP and want to measure weight and CG against calculated.
 
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Local area

Had a couple of nice days this week in Tulsa so got some vertical distancing exercise and blew off the Oklahoma dust. Practiced wheel landings, steep turns, standard rate turns (tricky due to my tendency to crank around), loops, rolls, stalls, and rechecked the AoA calibration on the Dynon (still spot-on).

I still would like a dash mounted AoA visual indicator but the tone system does its job well (except when 3 pointing the landing and it keeps going)

Visited a buddy working in his hanger on his -10 by doing a deer clearing pass down the runway and waving :D

Finally gassed up at $3:50 gallon at Sand Springs airport and came home.

As usual the tower folks at Riverside Jones were great even on a skeleton staff.

All in all a fun couple of hours, and after 12 years I am still amazed at how well the -7 flies. The plane flew great as usual and nothing broke:D
Figs
 
Back to baffle work. Who knew that the air seal fabric would take so long to fabricate? I didn't... but I'm learning. Not done yet... but progress is progress.
gJ6J0VXSTxnL4lnWTiDbGVebKN396gKeKd1hddJv29OaDFqA75pdGykNt-13KEmiWx1H5iLrakqxZdrNFIWW6rW2WUJAD_4Ap-IEDprfCRmG1R7BpP_TZDUEtEeM8mC45lRZIWl3TdDLrojLAT9kgv1Z8FKYyIxffBYPfw48jtEHcFs_QN2wcH-zJ8Mq6UNaqdrdwoYh1eV1NTtFeajBw79dSW-aWTC4gSzaSF3vzgw2asEYct9wa-eZXFugjnkPQZrVf3_Ntzrz_uUnpYWjNCooeHLfEiPTCQjGsZ9n6jHVBR2oA9oeWu_RfLo_0BJ8e1LkBIH5OrlBh6Xs_MZjXiVC8NXIzt3H-OsHtUZJSAGF4N-NnU7N1ukLDFPw3yykBpWuTjm5QcgnveYTL5KwsjJ8GEdfdPz5TUkrJmGTbom8kDD13IKMODlY5lH-ZTy19vJhY44Ra5H1CAPZy-c0Cid58shjuO3f0V1pCjlk8kw8_DMWTiFu-36OjISg_u1thXrj94itF4XxRhf_hyUpAuWH7eBjrynDko4e8jHKhCZ4-T5bKI-mmnuMJ-fGZ7MH0qWjJUF5Iw9naKMbuZS9egvRJr0I81Y46VgjcVqUlxPpPCVZSOrc31v6HH1ETBSloLUAv4V-Lh-pkY9aS3M6WrGOJKvH8Zorh3Y4QsPVrox7u-ghM-4wvgyKGKQQhQ=w1080-h720-no
 
$100 Burger

The wife and I flew from Pontiac, MI (KPTK) to Owasso, MI (KRNP) for fuel ($4.18) best price around. There is a very small diner on the field that is open for take out. Two burgers and chips ordered by the wife while I filled up the plane. We ate in the completely empty terminal building as it was too cold outside, washed up, sterilized with sanitizer and flew home.

Pontiac cleared us to land 6 miles out. During normal times there might be as many as 6 planes doing training in the pattern. I have had to remind tower to clear me for landing while turning final.

A weird world we live in now
 
3000nm relocation trip from Ajo, AZ to Hillsboro, OR

I wanted to take N174RT (RV-7A) from Ajo AZ (P01) to Hillsboro, OR (KHIO) and get back to Ajo so Sandy (Capt Sandy on VAF) and I can start our reposition from being snowbirds in Ajo and return to the Pacific Northwest. Our original plan was for me to fly the RV to KHIO and get an Alaska Airlines flight back to Phoenix.

Then COVID. I'm not interested in going through commercial airports or flying in a big silver tube. My good friend James (jmjula on VAF, CFII and RV-7A builder/pilot) said he would help. We discussed the risks of being close together in the plane and believe we have each been isolated enough that it would be safe.

The struts for my tip-up canopy stopped supporting the canopy on Thursday the day before planned departure. P01 was the busiest I'd ever seen it on Thursday.

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I left P01 Friday morning with about 30 gallons of fuel. Picked 1L1 for my first fuel stop, easy 330nm flight.* Probably not the best stop from a "what if something happened" perspective. There was nobody at the airport. The self serve fuel worked fine. No T-Mobile cell coverage. Next stop was Mountain Home (U76) near Boise. I did see a few people there, enjoyed my PBJ sandwich. I was also able to call Van's and placed a will call order for canopy struts. Stopped at KUAO and picked up the canopy struts that were left for me. One more stop at Twin Oaks (7S3) for $3.75 fuel before flying to KHIO and putting N174RT in the hangar. Bob and Betty Stark are the original owners of Starks Twin Oaks. His son Danny Stark now runs the maintenance part of Twin Oaks. Danny's 10 year old (guessing) daughter drove a golf cart to fuel pump to turn it on since they were using a backup tank. Third generation off to a good start.

Volcanoes in the Cascades to the south and north of my crossing.
Jefferson is the closest
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Hood is the closest
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More work to do on Friday: unpack the plane, change the oil, fill the O2 bottle and see what might be in the hangar that Sandy and I might want during the next several weeks. Also charge the battery in the car that had been waiting for us since mid October.
My good friend James and I took off from Hillsboro early Saturday morning on an IFR flight plan to Eureka NV (05U). We were in the clouds for a minute or two after departure, then kept the IFR services with VFR on top for the rest of the flight.

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There was a lady at the Eureka FBO who confirmed the self serve fuel worked. James and I enjoyed a nice 2nd breakfast that he brought. Before leaving 05U I confirmed with Sandy that we would meet at Goodyear near Phoenix. Sandy's pirep from the Ajo / Gilla Bend area helped choose the airport. James and I estimated a 2.5 hr flight and Sandy had about a 2 hour drive.
Flying to Goodyear we overflew the Grand Canyon.

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Sandy weather Pirep looking to the north from Ajo.

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Red Rocks near Vegas
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to be continued
 
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(continued) 3000nm relocation trip from Ajo, AZ to Hillsboro, OR

Sandy arrived at Goodyear within 5 minutes of when James and I parked the plane.
30 minutes of so later James headed north to Chico CA where he would spend the night with his mom. Sandy and I did some essential shopping in Phoenix before returning to Ajo. James landed in Chico before we completed our drive to Ajo. Long flying day for James, he flew about 1700nm in about 11 hours in a plane I built!

Pictures from James flight from Goodyear to Chico
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Easter Sunday James completed the relocation mission with a "short" 2+ hour flight to Hillsboro.
Castle Crags
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Mt. Shasta
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Thanks to James for the help shuffling N174RT. Thanks to Van's for making and supporting a great kit. Thanks for DR and the VAF community.
Regards,
 
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p.jpeg


I hope this works. It's the first time in a long time I've posted a picture.

We Installed a smoke system from Smoke-System-Helper in my neighbors RV-8. It's a great kit, very complete, fit well, welds on the tank are professional, etc. I was impressed!
 
Maybe someone can tell me how to embed the photo so you don't need to leave VAF. Once I know how, I'll post the video!
 
My thunderbolt is exactly the same color. They said they had some left over silvery grey paint so I said go ahead and use it. It may have been yours.
 
Had to do some social distancing in the RV today, so took a rip up to Mt Washington, a stop at Bethel for a top off of 100LL and then out to Portland ME and South down the coast. Felt nice to get out and leave the world behind for a short while.

Mt Washington
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Portland, ME
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Biddiford, ME
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York, ME
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Brian---an excellent picture of Mt Washington showing Tuckermans`Ravine---John Fleurent RV-8 KPSM and Spruce Creek FL (7FL6)
 
Brian---an excellent picture of Mt Washington showing Tuckermans`Ravine---John Fleurent RV-8 KPSM and Spruce Creek FL (7FL6)
 
Had to do some social distancing in the RV today, so took a rip up to Mt Washington, a stop at Bethel for a top off of 100LL and then out to Portland ME and South down the coast. Felt nice to get out and leave the world behind for a short while.

Mt Washington
Mt-Washington-4-19-2020.jpg


Portland, ME
Portland-4-19-2020.jpg

Very nice Brian! Feels strange a bit to me now since my airport is higher then Mt. Washington :)
 
Brian---an excellent picture of Mt Washington showing Tuckermans`Ravine---John Fleurent RV-8 KPSM and Spruce Creek FL (7FL6)

Yeah, Tuckerman's looked lonely. My son who is an avid snowboarder tells me they have closed it for social distancing. Seems like overkill to me!
 
Very nice Brian! Feels strange a bit to me now since my airport is higher then Mt. Washington :)

Yeah, for Easterners, Mt. Washington is pretty high, but most in these areas don't realize Mt. Mitchell in NC is higher and both are pretty short by Western USA standards!
 
Maybe someone can tell me how to embed the photo so you don't need to leave VAF. Once I know how, I'll post the video!

I made a video on VAF photo sharing and put it on my YouTube channel. I'll include a link here; you can also go my channel "goatflieg" by clicking on the link in my signature. You'll need to use a hosting service that will allow sharing links of the photo or video URL address; see the description and comments.

https://youtu.be/85gYGfBqhh8
 
Maybe someone can tell me how to embed the photo so you don't need to leave VAF. Once I know how, I'll post the video!

I made a YouTube video on how to share photos here. You'll need to use a hosting site that will allow you to copy shareable links of the photo URL address. I'll share a link to the video here; there's also a link to my YouTube channel (goatflieg) in my signature below.
https://youtu.be/85gYGfBqhh8
 
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