RV-6 rebuild project in Palm Springs CA

[crabandy]

Originally Posted by jamlip

I left him alone with the sanding block for 15 seconds and he scoured a bunch of lines into the face of the prop. No point getting angry with him. When he's older I will point them out to him at every given opportunity for the purposes of emotional blackmail. Silver linings, etc.

This made me chuckle and smile as I can totally relate! I was working on my cowling in the garage at home with my lil' dude who was 2 ish. I'll be darned if I didn't turn my back long enough to mix some epoxy and he'd grabbed the sanding block of 40 grit and went to work on my wife's van, that doesn't exactly buff out. Or when he parked his Strider bike on the aft fuse I'ld just freshly polished all the scratches out of...
On a positive note, after being subjected to the airport/hangar environment for about 4 years they can generally be trusted, even in other people's hangars.

[Lars]

James, the bones of that RV-6 are really nice. It won't be an RV-4, and as long as you don't ask it to be one, you won't be disappointed. I can assure you that it will be up to the challenge of being a magic carpet/adventure machine. The issues with it appear to all be in the realm of the aesthetic. Trivial really, in the grand scheme of things, at least insofar as performance is concerned. And well within the scope of your obvious talents to resolve.

[jamlip]

Originally Posted by crabandy

On a positive note, after being subjected to the airport/hangar environment for about 4 years they can generally be trusted, even in other people's hangars.

I'm looking forward to this. He's a menace at home, but at the hangar he knows to behave, and I even had him handing me tools, which is a real benchmark. It's nice to have a lackey.

Originally Posted by Lars

James, the bones of that RV-6 are really nice. It won't be an RV-4, and as long as you don't ask it to be one, you won't be disappointed. I can assure you that it will be up to the challenge of being a magic carpet/adventure machine. The issues with it appear to all be in the realm of the aesthetic. Trivial really, in the grand scheme of things, at least insofar as performance is concerned. And well within the scope of your obvious talents to resolve.

Thanks Lars. Looking forward to having a little more space, amongst other things. I'm looking into that trim servo stuff right now.

[Dan 57]

Flight control feel, basically no difference. The lift section of the wings being shorter on the -6 give it a higher effective wing loading which can be felt, the more so with a 360 up front.
Where the -6 looses is visibility... though I?m seating as high as I can, I loose sight of the runway in the flare when 3 pointing. Vis is also worse, partially blocked forward right, whilst taxiing or on initial take off roll.
Flying aeros is more enjoyable in the -4, sitting on the centerline, balanced vis right and left.
Larger tanks and more payload for the -6.
Better looks for the -4 (those cowl cheeks on the narrow fuse are sooo sexy).
Of course, the -6 wins hands down with its cargo compartment. The ability to slide the canopy all the way back on the Supertracks, load a pile of luggage or my foldable bike from the ground, and wifey on the right seat make it a winner

Judging by the quality of your work, yours will be a winner as well!

[jamlip]

OK, so I'm down to a handful of things left to do on this silly old crate. One of them is to mount the manual trim cable and, due to reconfiguring the centre tunnel (yes, I should never have done this, but the firewall and gascolator were already positioned for this setup), I'm just not happy with any of the options.

So I'd like to hack the green snake out of the fuselage and go to electric trim.

Before we get into a big conversation about how manual trim is better, I've owned aircraft with both and don't have strong feelings about either.

I have strong feelings about the pluralization of the brand name 'Lego' when describing Lego bricks, I have moderate feelings about how Americans spell words like 'pluralization' with a 'z' rather than an 's', and I don't care about stuff like how my trim inputs are delivered, as long as its available.

So, in the interests of getting myself out of this situation, does anyone have any decisive info on the Gretz tailcone-mounted trim servo setup? I'm looking for info on

• which Ray Allen servo to use?
• what length Bowden cable to use?
• photos of servos installed using this method

Any assistance is, as ever, greatly appreciated.

[jamlip]

Originally Posted by DeeCee 57

Judging by the quality of your work, yours will be a winner as well!

Too kind. I do hope so.

[bd4mark]

Originally Posted by jamlip

Well the RV-4 sold today to the first viewer. I don't feel particularly happy about it - I love that aircraft. It was my gateway to aviation in the US and I have lots of happy memories attached to it. It was also mega to fly.

James, thanks again for selling me your -4. She is sweet! I will take good care of her and keep the Bakersfield history alive.

Mark.

[Mike S]

Mark, welcome aboard the good ship VAF

Are you the guy who had the BD4 in the hangar where we had the SacRVators lunch meeting a few years back??

Lars may have been a hangar mate?

[bd4mark]

Hi Mike, Yep that's me. I sold the BD4 three years ago and did some other stuff for a while. Now getting back in. Gotta have an RV, and the 4 is the most "personal fighter plane" of them all. I had the hauling machine. Now I want the FLYING machine! I have decided that it's all about the flying not the hauling. Thanks for remembering me.

Mark.

[Lars]

Originally Posted by Mike S

Mark, welcome aboard the good ship VAF

Are you the guy who had the BD4 in the hangar where we had the SacRVators lunch meeting a few years back??

Lars may have been a hangar mate?

How time flies (ha). That was over 10 years ago. More like 12. Glad to have Mark be the keeper of a very special RV-4.