Arlington Fly-in

We flew into the Arlingtion Flyin (used to be NW EAA flyin) Tuesday morning under low ceilings.
By the end of the day on Tuesday, we were the only RV in the RV parking area. Today, at the end of the day (official opening day), only one other RV-4 had made it in to join us (local fastback RV-4 for sale). The irony is that RV parking has moved to a new bigger area because they were overflowing the old area in the past years.
Weather is supposed to be improving for later in the week. It hasn't been that bad on the ground, just overcast and occasional light showers.
What has been great is access to the vendors. With such a light turnout, the normally crowded areas are gone. We spent an hour talking to the Dynon guys and then another hour talking to Gary at Aerotronics. Gary gave us lots of valuable tips on wiring and we got to see him unpack and turn on the AFS 4500 he had just received from Rod. The synthetic vision really looked good.
Outdoor movie tonight is the animated cartoon "Fly me to the moon".
The Aveo strobe/nav light combo seemed really bright. They said they were going to have a strobe/nav/landing light combo at Oshosh that would fit in the RV wingtip cutout area.

Hey Tom, Saw your -4, there was a total of 3 4's when I wandered by at one point. Looks like another RV.., kinda sad. The whole show is down significantly.

Highlight for me. I was pitching my tent and a box Van pulls in nearby. Out pops Scott from Vans. We yak'd a bit while both setting up camp(I've met him before). He said he's available for free after hours Tech support. I told him I need all hours financial support to get mine finished.

Tomorrow should be better

I have a family reunion this weekend or I'd be up there for a couple days. Next year!

--Bill

Arlington

I will be flying in Friday morning for that day and night.

We are heading to McMinnville tomorrow to see the Spruce Goose and The Raven.
Saturday we will head to Johnson Creek for the night.
We are looking forward to it. I am taking my dad and my brother with me on this trip and will be flying in with an F-1 and RV-7A from St. George Utah.

We will see you guys there!

I'll be there tomorrow

Flying up Thursday am IFR if necessary.

See you there

Frank

I'm camping Friday/Saturday at Arlington. Looking forward to the weekend.
I'll be the one wearing the VAF cap!

Canadian's not coming?

lorne green said:

I'll be the one wearing the VAF cap!

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That's funny. I'll be camping friday and saturday too. I'll be the one wearing an RV7 shirt

There may be less Canadian aircraft there this year due to the onerous USA border crossing regulations. Sounds like many/most are staying away. It will be interesting to see.

Bevan
Rv7a wiring

Planning on Friday as well. The weather hasn't exactly been great if you're VFR coming in from anywhere outside the Sound area but today and Friday should be better.

Arlington

Bevan said:

That's funny. I'll be camping friday and saturday too. I'll be the one wearing an RV7 shirt

There may be less Canadian aircraft there this year due to the onerous USA border crossing regulations. Sounds like many/most are staying away. It will be interesting to see.

Bevan
Rv7a wiring

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Here's one more Canadian who would like to go, but just like the new passport requirements, would rather be flying here, than filling out forms and filing online.
I plan to get all the ducks in a row one day, but it's just a pain I'm avoiding today.

Is Aero LEDs there?

rvator51 said:

The Aveo strobe/nav light combo seemed really bright. They said they were going to have a strobe/nav/landing light combo at Oshosh that would fit in the RV wingtip cutout area.

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Tom, I spoke with Nate at Aero LEDs about a month ago and he said they were also working on a light package for the RV's (strobe/nav/landing/taxi/wig-wag). If you happen to see them there, could you please post your impression of their product offering.

Thanks,

If I get the plane fixed I might come up Tomorrow afternoon.

Hi Jake,

I went through every vendor tent and didnt see Aero LEDs.

rvator51 said:

Hi Jake,

I went through every vendor tent and didnt see Aero LEDs.

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Really? That's interesting. AeroLEDs is located out of Boise, ID. That's a sorta-long one day drive up to Arlington. Aveo's distributors are out of NY... Makes you wonder if AeroLEDs is having financial issues...

--Bill

Just got back home from Arlington. My first HUGE fly-in! I was totally amazed at the quality of the aircraft on the ground, and the skill of the pilots in the sky.

Here's a few pics of the Black Jack Squadron:

bigbill25 said:

Really? That's interesting. AeroLEDs is located out of Boise, ID. That's a sorta-long one day drive up to Arlington. Aveo's distributors are out of NY... Makes you wonder if AeroLEDs is having financial issues...

--Bill

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Hi Bill,

No, no financial issues with us... we just have a lot of work to do getting ready for Oshkosh and going to Arlington would have interfered with those efforts.

The Aveo folks in the USA are just a marketing group, with the product development and construction happening in Slovakia. They have more time to travel around to shows than we do right now.

We may go to Arlington next year, but this year Oshkosh, the AOPA Expo, and a couple of other shows are higher on our priority list.

We will have a significant presence at Oshkosh this year, so look for us there.

Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC

By the way, we will be exhibiting inside in Hangar A, and outside at the North Aircraft exhibition area next to Kitfox.

We are looking for a customer plane that has our products installed in it for the North Aircraft area for the week, and would prefer to have an RV this year.

Anyone interested in putting their plane on display? We will have people sleeping in a trailer on-site to provide security at night.

Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC

After a slow start(partially weather related) NWEAA Arlington picked up the pace on Friday and Saturday. some Vendors missing and guestimated a 20% lower people count, But a nice camping getaway for me.

I strolled through Saturday and counted 60 RV's and know I missed some.....plus another 20 or so in the Blackjack Squadron corral.

I was driving to save the airplane fund. Arlington is <$100 roundtrip in my wife's Honda. I camped on the field and brought the grill and food from home. I figured this save almost $1000, over flying the citabria & eating carnival food.
Anyway I'm too beat for a proper write-up, But here's a pic I snapped during my morning walk on Saturday. Love the first light walks and fog on the runway, followed by Balloon launching during a cup of coffee


Also spent some time talking with FrankH(RV-7a), Karl(RV-8), and a few others. Recognized quite a few RV, but didn't speak with them. Scott S (RV-10) must have been off taking some more great pictures.

Best looking RV, in my inexperienced view, was this RV-3. Nice guy also.

I spent a day at Arlington. Didn't fly down this year because of the anti-tourism activity of the TSA and the dreaded eAPIS procedure for trans-border operations.

Looked like attendance (fly-in) was down substantially from last year, although I had one vendor say that his foot traffic was about the same. It used to be about 35-50% of aircraft were Canadian, now it's down to 'several'.

Pretty sad-- in my opinion the simple economic truth is that the layers of security on General Aviation are causing a lot of economic pain on both sides of the border.

I was hoping to see the major EFIS vendors display their products, but I only found Dynon with their new demo products. I was with an MDRA inspector all day, and he was shopping for his panel stuff. We were both impressed (as always) by Dynon. No AFS, no GRT, no MGL, no Garmin, no TruTrak.

In the words of one (high profile but anonymous) vendor "We go to all of the shows because if we skip one, everyone will think that we are out of business". The reality is that in a poor economy, marketing becomes more important, not an expense to be cut!

Thank goodness Bart&Sue were there, and Precision Airmotive was there.

Precision makes the Eagle EMS which is very interesting (full multipoint electronic fuel injection/ignition) and Bart Lalonde has good things to say about it. Sounds like a winner with a bit more field experience. Unlike many other things you can buy for your aircraft, this promises to have an economic payoff by lowering fuel consumption, optimizing your engine performance and reducing maintenance. Should solve hot start problems as well. It's about a $3600 upgrade over a conventional FI + single electronic ignition system when you have your engine built.

My only criticism is that the electrical hookups are a bit cumbersome. I estimate 3 circuit breakers and 2 fuses are required (despite the documentation showing only 2 breakers and 1 fuse). I've sent some comments on this issue for them to review. I wish they had contracted me to help with the design!

Vertical Power was there. This is a beautifully executed system, but it's not for everyone. They addressed my question on failure modes with a direct answer (put shadow switches in for critical systems). I admire the engineering in this stuff. At some point, though, their control screen will have to disappear and end up as a page on an EFIS somewhere. When that happens, the panel space and cost requirements will drop substantially.

Here's some random airplane pics, with more available:



This was the only military jet that I saw. Looks like all of the American hardware is busy somewhere. This F18 jockey is building an RV!







More pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.ca/VxAviation/2009_07_11?authkey=Gv1sRgCKmNyIXot8Xi6wE&feat=directlink

Vern

flyboy1963 said:

Here's one more Canadian who would like to go, but just like the new passport requirements, would rather be flying here, than filling out forms and filing online.
I plan to get all the ducks in a row one day, but it's just a pain I'm avoiding today.

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This is a sad turn of events, but perhaps inevitable in the current world. I've had many excursions to and from Canada over the last 55 years; never needed a passport; usually just a friendly greeting at the border. Some were flying, but most were driving, the first when I was 12 years old. We have been as close as two countries can be. I lived and worked on the DEWline, which was a joint Canadian-American Radar Defense system stretched across the artic during the cold war. Half of my class at the DEWline training facility in Streator Illinois were Canadian lads. Now the bureucrats tell us that we have to treat each other like foreigners. Sometimes I feel like we have seen the best of times and they are permanently behind us. Sorry about the rant.

E-apis

Guys,

Couldn't agree more. Having crossed alot of borders in my day, (some where they shot at me for crossing) the new system angered me as well. However comma, after using it to travel to the Bahamas last month, it was almost painless, very low key. You simply have to plan a bit more and make your crossing times, simple pilotage. If you're willing to do a bit of planning, save some bookmarks on the web and show your passport to customs, it works out fine. My biggest complaint is having big numbers on the Rocket.
I used Duct Tape, again

Smokey
HR2

Vlittle,
What is the second picture of? The one with the IAF insignia?
Amit.

Vern,
The EFIS screen photos are new Dynon stuff?

Amit said:

Vlittle,
What is the second picture of? The one with the IAF insignia?
Amit.

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It's an Israeli Airforce Dror (Sparrow) based on the Dornier D027-B5. What looks like a Lycoming angle valve engine is actually a BMW.

This airplane was very impressive. Seats 6 or 2+stretcher.

Vern

DanH said:

Vern,
The EFIS screen photos are new Dynon stuff?

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Yup, that's the new Dynon stuff. Dynon is relatively local to Arlington, so it was an easy trip for them. I wish AFS had come as well.


Vern