Thank you VAF for a great day!

I am feeling highly motivated tonight after a couple of great experiences with the Vans community today.
First I met Deene Ogden at GTU where I not only came away with my shiny new used DRDT2 dimpler, but also tons of builder tips and things to watch for, techniques, etc... I am amazed how much he managed to teach me in the 45 or so minutes I spent in his hanger, hanging out next to his RV-8.
Fast forward a couple hundred miles up I35 and I decided to swing by 52F on my way home with my new tool. I drove by the Van Cave to see if I could squeeze in another chat session with some ?RV people? but by then it was late in the day and the hanger door was closed. As I drove past taxiway Charlie and the Van cave, I pulled into the next taxiway to turn around and head to the house. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of an RV sitting in a hanger with the door open. I decided not to make the uturn just yet and do a quick drive-by of the neighboring hangers, which were also still open. As I looked into the opposing hanger I see an RV-8 sitting front and center and I thought ?cool, 2 RVs right here!? And then BOOM I look into the next hanger and there are no less than 5 RVs of various versions staring back at me!
At this point the u-turn became a parking maneuver. As I walked up to the hanger, I was greeted by a friendly face under a Vans Airforce hat. I had stumbled upon the hanger of Randy Richmond. Besides being what Kitplanes magazine describes as a legendary A&P mechanic I can tell you Randy is a very friendly and helpful person. He immediately stopped working on the baffles of the RV he was working on and began to answer any questions I could come up with. We talked about different kit versions, engine selection, avionics, planes he has worked on over the years. I found myself soaking in knowledge as fast as I could, for the second time today. We were soon joined by a retired naval aviator(who?s name I failed to write down..). The conversation then quickly expanded to include preformance comparrisons of his 8 and several of the RVs at 52F and the engines pulling them. This discussion then evolved into a wonderful story of an arrestor hook landing in Da Nang.

All this while standing among a flock of RVs! I was in heaven and had to peel myself away to get back to the real world.

So THANK YOU Vans Airforce and the Vans builder community for welcoming me in today. I am super excited to be starting this journey in earnest!

Stick with us Brad. We are a friendly bunch. You may encounter a light turbulence down the road but most of the ride with VAF is smooth. Welcome!

Sorry I missed you...

Brad, sorry I wasn't there when you came by.

Monk's a good guy, and I'm guessing the other one was Gary Platner talking about Vietnam. Fun people to be around, as you now know, and welcome to the hobby!

Looking forward to meeting ya and enjoy your build. I don't live too far away, so if you get stuck give me a shout.

v/r,
dr

Update:

Brad showed up at 52F yesterday, and this time I was there to meet him. Nice guy?.for an Aggie ;^). Went to lunch with us and had some laughs.

After lunch I had the nice experience of giving Brad his 2nd RV flight - he got the demo ride several years ago with Gus at the mothership. About a minute after takeoff?.?You have the aircraft.?

A little bumpy, but pleasant enough to motivate.

Brad, come out and visit anytime!

v/r,
Dr

Thats how we got hooked.

At GPM, my hangar neighbor is Rusty Williams. We would pass each other from time to time and then one day we saw his plane.... An RV7A. Our 182 was getting to be a little slow and a lot expensive to keep fixed. Rusty took Amanda for a ride and she came back and said we should have one of those planes! I got a ride too and agreed. I met John Winchester and Pat Tuckey and Boomer and the list goes on. All wonderful RV souls that have been inviting and kind and are still good friends today. They were all helpful during the build process..and encouraging when things were going wrong... or it was just HOT at the hangar. Across the nation I have met so many vans people. I usually wear a shirt with some sort of aviation thingy on it and it frequently will have a vans on it. This allows folks that are airplane friendly to start a conversation.
Vans folks are smart, passionate and a bunch that really digs airplane topics.

Welcome aboard and I bet we see ya at breakfast one of these days.

DR and Co

Huge thank you to Doug! He too is a nice guy, even though he is not an Aggie...
Seriously though. If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Doug in person you are missing out. And flying his RV was a BLAST! In addition to being only my second time in an RV, this was my first experience with a modern glass panel as well, and that was very cool.

Had a fantastic lunch with a great group of RVers, even though most of them were very rude about which end of the plane I plan to put the third wheel
Sid seemed to be the only one in the group that gets me...

Sid also offered to take me up in his RV after he got his panel put back in, but unfortunately I had to get back to work.

All in all it was a great "lunch break" and extremely motivating.
Thank you to all my new friends!

...the panel's back up.