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RV Grin number seven thousand something

rzbill

Well Known Member
Today was the day gents!
7 years, 1 month and 14 days.

Perfect weather at AVL this AM. Clear and calm (at least the weather was)
Tower, safety and ground crew all ready.

Flew for about 30 minutes to make a few trips around the field at 3000 AGL, calm down, check the gages (all better than expected) and a practice approach at 2000 AGL and then came around once more for a greaser.

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Ground crew quickly administered a very nice cigar from some joint south of Florida.

We peeled off the cowl and gave it a serious eyeballing. Nothing to speak of.

Diane and I went to lunch so I could settle down and then came back for a repeat flight with similar profile but just more engine time. It was getting windy by early afternoon and pretty bumpy so I called it a day at end of second flight.

Dang my cheeks hurt. REALLY, I'm not lyin' :D

Click on the latest work link below for more pics.
 
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Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bill, great grin-----front page material if I ever saw it.

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Congrats, this is a feeling you will never forget.
 
Congrats.

Great job getting it done. Only thing better would be owning that house up on the hill in your first pic, so you could look down an airport everyday.

Enjoy.
 
What a wonderful feeling to successfully test fly your hard work. Congrats!!! I feel your JOY!!!!!

Roberta:):):):):)
 
Way to go, Bill

I remember seeing this in your basement several years ago. Mighty fine work you were doing. Glad to see it pay off for you. After phase 1, y'all fly down to Columbia and lunch will be on me. After all, when ours is completed, AVL will be our first cross country. Congratulations on a job well done.
 
Nice Job Bill

Great photo! Thanks for posting. Here's to that same level of happiness every time you get into your plane in the future.
 
Excellent, Bill! Congratulations! I'm looking forward to this big day myself with great anticipation. :)
 
Grins and Frowns - Early hrs.

I had a good day today and had to post about it so I thought I might make the post more worthwhile by talking about some notable experiences of my last 50 hrs.

First, leading up to today I have been fighting with my avionics because they would not show LOC and GS. Last weekend I finally figured out what I had done wrong in the programming behind the scenes. This is GRT H1 WS wide screen and 430W. The instructions were clear, but the GRTs are very capable and as a result have MANY settings to get right. I missed turning on the 4 annunciators fed into aux 1 thru 4.

So, this afternoon I got a chance to start brushing up the IFR skills in my own plane for the first time. GRIN. I LIKE IT. I would call my system "simplified" since it is using RS232 and not ARINC. It won't do some things with autopilot but it is still WAY better than steam. I shot a localizer and an ILS at different airports. I'm rusty but it will come back quickly. My RV7 (and probably all others) is touchy in pitch. Altitude holding while hand flying will be the skill to regain.

I have round backup gages and realized that I had been using them nearly 100% instead of the glass while flying VFR. The hood practice helped me focus on the GRT. I noticed some helpful details (like the track indicator under the DG tape) today.

In other learnings, I wrote elsewhere about my leaky canopy. I have a tip up. I prosealed the rear window when I installed it, but the act of getting it installed messed up the sealant beads. It leaked badly. Since then I ran another bead on the exterior of the windor to seal it. Untested as of yet. (TESTED AND IT IS FINE 2013)

Here is a post about the front seal on my tipup that also leaked and my fix for it.
Front tup up canopy seal

I seriously doubt whether I will ever get the upper gear intersection fairings made and installed............

The first time I flew for an overnight, there were SO many things I forgot. Tiedown rings, control locks. Both safely tucked away in the hangar....

My HID landing lights do hiss in the Comm radios but not bad enough to change to LED.

I need to get the air valve doors onto my wheel pants. I am neglecting the tire pressure because of the neusance of removing the pants.

And I need to adjust my nose gear breakout. I can tell it has changed.

I noticed early on that my canopy would not lock like it did back in the basement factory. A few weekends ago I took a hard look and realized the "gap" between canopy and rear window was non existant. Some time with a file and sandpaper has this much improved but I'm at the 95% level and it needs a touch more work.

My static test passed with no problems. I did NOT use Vans cheezy static ports...kinda. I did use his rivet on the outside but I made and prosealed a flanged fitting such that I could have a 1/8 npt port for a hose fitting.

I learned that my Falcon altimeter purchase was a mistake (mechanical backup instrument). What a piece of ####! It did not pass cert. GRT passed with no adjustment.

Polishing aluminum is a PITA. Nuvite and Cyclo. I'm still working on it but polishing does not compete well with flying in the fun category....

Thats all for now!!
 
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Continued firsts (for me and Diane)

This is just a story about Diane and my recent flight that included two new "firsts" for us.

We were heading from Asheville KAVL to Brockport NY 7G0 to see her parents and other family for the 4th of July (its an annual pilgrimage). Its a fun time. They have an awesome farm and the extended family has a beach house on Lake Ontario next to a marina.

Anyhow, I filed IFR for 11.5K and Di and I took off. We checked ourselves with the fingertip oximeter (both 87) and decided to turn on the Aerox. It got us up to 97. I definitely felt better. You really don't notice it without the quick improvement provided by the oxygen. We had a mild tailwind. THis was the first time we had used the OX I bought at SnF.

We stopped a little more than halfway for bio and fuel. The weather was crappy in western NY. I decided to try to go VFR under it so I could see the enemy. We made it about another 100 miles before the clouds came too far down. We found a nearby field and put down. I studied the weather some more and decided to take a 2 hr nap to wait for the convection to move north. Afterwards, I had a nice chat with FSS about a plan of attack (to minimize rain). We agreed. I filed and off we went. About 50 miles from KROC, there was no other choice but to try penetrating the rain. The controllers had said it was light. Anyway, we went in. KROC vectored me for the 7G0 approach, (I love all the glass displays, HITS, flight path vector, etc). Shot it and popped out at about 800 feet. Landed.

Well, that was the first "REAL" one. All the rest have been hooded or so little clouds (like 30 seconds) that they didn't really count.

Diane got 2 little drips on her right foot. I got zip. Light rain was no problem.

Yeah baby. :D
 
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