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POSTING RULES

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03-22-2006, 04:58 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Flanagan, IL
Posts: 194
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Looks like I am kinda a loner here so far.
I own a plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning service company. bought out my father last year, and have been very busy with it. Unfortunately the RV7 building time has decreased due to that. My wife is a Speech Therapist at the local hospital.
Currently starting the finish kit. 90% to go!
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03-22-2006, 05:34 PM
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And on the legal front . . .
I'm an attorney, and formerly was an R&D engineer at a large commercial aerospace company located in Seattle. My partner and I have a small law firm doing mostly civil litigation defense, and despite the ups and downs and stresses of the job (as with any line of work), it does put the kids through school and pay for the -6 to keep flying. My wife is a willing passenger in the RV (hey, our first date was a flight in a rental 172 at the Boeing Employees Flying Association way back in 1985) and has been very supportive of the project since I started in late 1994 - first flight was 9/8/2004, so it was a slllowwww-build for sure.
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03-22-2006, 05:43 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Southlake, Texas
Posts: 626
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ironflight
Hello Jay!
T-38 IP? Single? No kids? And you're trying to decide between a -7 and an -8??!! Jay, you need to be using that O2 at a much lower level my man....
The -8 is the way to go, BEFORE you find a wife that might change your mind...
Paul
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Amen Paul,
The 8 is the way to go even with a wife. Builder Doll (wife) showed me how much she really loved me, and encourgaged me to build the RV-8. No regrets. After 2400 hours in the T-38, centerline tandem flying is the only way to go.
__________________
Danny King
Beautiful Doll 80434 TT 1675 hours
I0360 A1B6 200 HP
Christen Inverted Oil
First Flight 12 July 2000
VAF Dues current for 2020
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03-22-2006, 05:51 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Columbus, MS
Posts: 79
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Touche
Touche...what was I thinking!? I have been leaning toward an -8 ever since I saw a few at Oshkosh back in 03. Thanks for setting me straight!
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03-22-2006, 06:23 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: monterey ,ca
Posts: 105
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what do you do
im cabinet maker with 12 years of experience have good income but ,baby on the way im currently on rv-3
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03-22-2006, 07:02 PM
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unqualified unfluencer
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Highland Village, TX
Posts: 4,088
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OK, I'll chime in...
Mon-Fri 7am-4pm:
I work as an 'information security' nerd at ArchonGroup.com - a full-service investment management and support services company (that's what the web site says) wholly owned by GoldmanSachs.com. Typical computer geek stuff with the occasional photography assignment (apartments, etc). I work with a few guys I've known most of my life and have corrupted several of them with RVation.
All other times:
I run a small aviation web site - usually in pajamas - and do whatever my wife asks.
Best wife in the world, two perfect kids and lots of good friends.
Life is grand.
b,
d
PS: It's nice to know that if I ever need a cop, surgeon or lawyer I can search through this thread and find one  .
__________________
Doug Reeves (your host) - Full time: VansAirForce.net since '07 (started it in '96).
- Part time: Supporting Crew Member CAE Embraer Phenom 300 (E55P) @ KDFW.
- Occasionally: Contract pilot (resume).
Last edited by DeltaRomeo : 03-22-2006 at 07:04 PM.
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03-22-2006, 07:43 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: NW San Antonio Boerne Stage Airfield 5C1
Posts: 160
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Well add one more cop. I am a Houston Police Officer 
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03-22-2006, 08:13 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Palm Bay, FL
Posts: 420
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RV-9A flying and online story of it all!
I have read all 18 pages of the posts on this thread and see a number of folks I have met in their shops, at LOE5, OSHKOSH, and online. An early posting in this thread by Bob Axsom required that I find my web page with his photo from LOE5 and some talk about his job before his retirement. http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a180.htm
As for me, I have been in the cable television and satellite communications industry for the past 34+ years. My 35th anniversary comes on July 26, 2006 as I celebrate my first job with the largest company in the industry that began back in 1971. I applied for that job wearing the only suit I owned at the time, a CLASS-A green uniform of the US Army. I was still on active duty at Fort McPherson when I went for my first civilian job interview.
I fit into the electrical engineering side of this group of RV-builders. I have built satellite uplinks for C-band and Ku-band, both mobile and fixed installations. During my satellite years I met people like Senator Howard Baker, Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, Burt Reynolds, and Elizabeth Taylor. The company I worked for in those days had contracts to install 40 satellite receiving systems for television stations that premiered the Paramount syndicated show "Entertainment Tonight", which is still running after 25 years. I am now working for a small, family-owned fiber optics company that supports the cable industry and other specialized communications.
As for my flying career, no USAF, no Army helicopters, no airlines -- nada! Like so many others here, as a kid I started in the mid-1950's with the plastic models, Cox 1/2-A control line models, etc. I did not build and fly radio-controlled models until 1978 at the age of 31. I did not start flying lessons in a Cessna 172 until October 1991 and got my PPL in March of 1993. My pilot logbook shows 189 hours of flying rented spam cans around from flight schools before my first flight for transition training in N666RV with Mike Seager. http://n2prise.org\rv9a132.htm#May31
My RV-9A first flew on June 9, 2005 after 2000 hours of building time in my garage and at the airport before I got the airworthiness certificate on June 8th. The project began in October 2002, eleven years after I became a student pilot. I managed to finish my 40 hours of phase-1 testing by July 2nd and took the 3rd off from flying since I put in 10 hours of flying on July 1 & 2. On the Fourth of July, I flew the airplane out of my Tennessee test area for the first time on a short trip into Georgia with some pilot friends. The airplane went into the paint shop on July 5, 2005 and came out the day before Airventure 2005 started. I worked on it that afternoon and the following morning putting in some of the interior and the seats and left for OSH July 24th. I was the last airplane parked in homebuilt camping 30 minutes before the airport closed Sunday evening, July 24th with 51 hours on the Hobbs meter. You can follow my Oshkosh exploits and the trip to New England that followed OSH beginning on this web page: http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a151.htm
I was able to put in so much time building and flying during 2005 because I was laid off from my previous job at the end of February 2005. I had the airplane all paid for, and enough money in savings to have some fun through LOE5 before starting to look for a new job. The holidays are a tough time to get a new job unless you are doing something seasonal. It gave me more time to fly my airplane during the holidays to see old and new friends in Florida. All that stuff is documented with photos in my web pages.
You probably know by now that I was a Star Trek fan from the first season it was on NBC in 1966, when I was in college. What else could I call my "star ship" but ENTERPRISE! The whole story of its construction is online at www.n2prise.org for all you builders to see and to ask questions if you don't find what you are seeking in my many photos.
The new job I took in January 2006 will allow me to fly my airplane instead of the airlines when it makes sense for time and money. The new job came just in time before the savings ran out. I am posting this entry from a hotel room in Pittsburgh, PA before a sales "meet and greet" event tomorrow at the local cable system. I had to drive my car this week due to bad weather, but spring should bring other opportunities for business travel in my RV-9A.
If you have been reading my web site, you probably know that I am assisting another builder with his RV-8. You can see those pictures and other builders I have visited on my web site also.
Jerry K. Thorne
East Ridge, TN
N2PZ flying 171.2 hours so far
RV-9A #90622
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03-22-2006, 09:13 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Dardanup. Western Australia
Posts: 167
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Another air tractor driver
Add another airtractor driver to the list.Flew At301,At502,At802 spraying cotton(day&night ops)and wheat here in Australia for 18 years. We operated up to 9 turbine Airtractors in busy times and I am a firm believer in the company moto " nothing beats an Airtractor"(except an RV!!).I recently changed jobs and moved to the other side of the country and now fly an At802 on fire bombing ops.
Between spray jobs I built an RV6 that I started in 93 and took 10.5 years to complete!!.Its done 110hrs now and I still can't believe the speed and flying quilities it has, all on an 0320!.I often fly it after a days spraying just to let of steam.
Cheers and beers
Gray in West Aust.
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03-22-2006, 09:20 PM
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VAF Moderator / Line Boy
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Dayton, NV
Posts: 12,256
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Civil Servant
I?m a Civil Servant, but I really don?t feel like I?m part of the government?we?re more like a publicly funded research organization?.
I?m a Lead Flight Director for the Space Shuttle at NASA?s Johnson Space Center in Houston. For those who saw Apollo 13, that means I?m the guy in the crew cut and white vest. ?Failure is Not an Option? (although Gene never actually said those words at the time?) and all that. I?ve been flying the Shuttle since I was a Coop student during STS-1, and have worked probably 80 missions in some capacity (Flight Controller, Manager, Flight Director). I was selected as a Flight Director in 1993, and have flown 23 missions in the position, starting with the first Shuttle/Mir Rendezvous in 1995. We generally have about 8 to 10 active Flight Directors in the Office at any time, selecting about one new one per year, and we rotate missions. I was a young Flight Controller when we lost Challenger, and one of the most senior Flight Directors when Columbia went down (although that was one of my missions off). Each of the Flight Directors in the office have some unique background, and mine is real aviation, so I spent two months out in East Texas after Columbia went down, running our strategic air search operations. That meant coordinating everything from powered parachutes, through the CAP search planes, and up to U-2?s searching for debris.
I got to work on my first airplanes when I was 13 years old ? a couple of old J-3 Cubs owned by an FBO who decided to sponsor an Explorer Post, giving us teenagers a head start in aviation. I soloed at 16, was licensed at 17, and had quite a few hours in lots of different stuff before I graduated from High School. Glasses kept me from going into the military, so I studied Aeronautical Engineering while working 40 hours a week as a professional diver in Minnesota (that means diving under the ice several months of the year, and in Lake Superior?s near-freezing water much of the rest of the time). When I started with NASA as a Coop Student in my junior year of college they put me in the Operations group because of my diving and flying experience (I knew what is was like to actually put my own little pink body on the line?) ? it sure wasn?t my GPA! Hey?study for exams, or go flying?.Hmmm, let?s see?.
Every NASA Flight Director, by tradition, selects a call sign for themselves. This started out with Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz, and John Hodge being Red, White, and Blue Flights in the early days. All the good colors had been used up my time, so I selected ?Iron? as my call sign, because my family comes from the iron Range of Northern Minnesota.
I?ve been fortunate to get a lot of interesting flying in over my career, both for real and in some pretty neat simulators. But as I?ve said before here, nothing gives me the same personal satisfaction as flying the RV-8 I built with my own hands!
(I'm pleased to see all the police officers we have on this board - surprised we don't have more firefighters! I've been a volunteer fireman for 23 years...anyone else?)
Paul
__________________
Paul F. Dye
Editor at Large - KITPLANES Magazine
RV-8 - N188PD - "Valkyrie"
RV-6 (By Marriage) - N164MS - "Mikey"
RV-3B - N13PL - "Tsamsiyu"
A&P, EAA Tech Counselor/Flight Advisor
Dayton Valley Airpark (A34)
http://Ironflight.com
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