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What did you do with your RV this weekend? (7/2-4/2022)

4 country hop

Just a little 4 country hop to visit daughter #1 (CH/FR/DE/NL). 2.5 hours.

These little flying machines are amazing fun, and good transportation on top of that!

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11 hour roundtrip from west Texas to Huntsville Alabama.

When I finished building my 9A, I sold my DRDT-2 to another builder, thinking I would never need it again. Now that I have a 10 kit coming in October, I obviously need one again. David Olivares in Huntsville just finished his 8 and is in Phase 1 with that airplane, and was proceeding to make the same mistake I did - sell his DRDT-2 - so here we go! :cool:

I filled my inboard and outboard tanks and departed 73XS about 7am and went nonstop to Huntsville in 5.4, first at 9,000' for best winds and then later at 13,000' for rising cumulus buildups in the last 300 miles or so. I burned about 40 gallons headed east, didn't watch it exactly.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N16GN/history/20220701/1200Z/73XS/KHSV

I met David at his hangar and we went to lunch (great little Mexican food place down the road), loaded the DRDT-2 in my plane, and I launched for KHAB about 70 miles back toward home, where they were advertising $4.90 fuel. That's cheaper than anywhere else I have found 100LL recently, and almost as cheap as I can buy 93E10 back home, so I tanked up my inboards and outboards again, and launched for home VFR with flight following at 16,500', well above the buildups that were busy causing heartburn and angst with all the spam cans below me.

For some reason Flightaware does not realize these were two separate flights, so it shows it as one flight with an extra descent and climb. The altitude jitters on the way home are interesting as well, I was quite stable and smooth at 16,500 all the way.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N16GN/history/20220701/2004Z/KHSV/L%2031.76656%20-101.57997

I was truing out consistently between 147 and 153 knots on 6.0 and 5.9 gallons per hour all the way home. Gotta love the efficiency, especially with long range tanks. I went nonstop from KHAB to 73XS in 4.9, burning 30 gallons, and landed back home at 8:15pm. That's a 14-hour drive one way plus stops, and I roundtripped it in 13 with a good lunch in the middle, with 11 hours in the air.

David asked me why I would make a trip all the way across the country for a used DRDT-2. I told him I looked at it this way - it was about $400 in fuel, plus $200 for the used DRDT-2 (which was in excellent condition), for a total of $600. A new DRDT-2 sells for $550 plus shipping, so that's still going to be $600, it's a toss-up on price. But this way I get to spend all day doing what I love, seeing some new country, go to a place I've never been, meet another builder and BS about airplanes for a while. What's not to love?

UPS ain't got nothing on a 9A... :cool:
 

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Wife and I flew RV7 4136NM in 12 days. Indianapolis to San Juan Islands, down the west coast to northern California (to see giant redwoods) then to Salt Lake and back to Indianapolis.
 
Scouted the burn scar from the Black Fire and made this very quick and dirty video of one of our backcountry airstrips that was in the middle of it all - seems to have faired pretty well. Longer video coming - hoping to show the full extent of this 325,000 acre fire.
 
♪ Cutting and buffing ♫, wiping ♪ and shining ♫.... (if you remember the old car wax commercial song) Lots more to go.
 

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Soloed!!!

On Thursday, I finally soloed N174PM. It first flew in September and I've had some very patient instructors since then.
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Then on July 2 I fulfilled a decade-long wish to take it to EAA 1246's Coffee and Donuts in McKinney.
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Pete - congratrulations. (You may remember 174RT as a visitor in the hangar where you built your plane.)

Capt Sandy (Sunshine) and I flew to the chapter 1494 pancake breakfast at KMOR Sat morning. An RV-12 and an RV-8A as well as a Stinson, a Cherokee, and two gyrocopters from Hensley Airpark were also there. Nice turnout. Also got to visit with Marvin and Sandy McGraw.

Maybe I/we will get to fly some on July 4th!

Regards,
 
Had a GREAT trip from south TX to northern plains and Mt Rushmore. Black Hills of S Dakota are AMAZING!!!! Added 6 more states to my list of landings in the RV-10. (Kansas, Nebraska, S Dakota, N Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa)
 

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Was looking at weather forecasts, trying to decide if I wanted to fly today, heard some low flying planes. Went outside to take a look (being a good weekend to see interesting aircraft). Was a V of 5 RVs. Did one pass over my house, then down into Provo. A few minutes later returned again and headed back up the canyon toward Heber City. Didn't know there was a formation group in Utah.
 
I practiced some commercial maneuvers. Also went to see Jason Ellis building his RV10 in North GA. Great guy.
 

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1/2 an hour actual on a one hour IFR flight plan. Hand flown no autopilot assistance.
RV’s total performance
IFR cross country. STOL. Touring.

But best of all…. Wait for it…… Frugal on the expensive gas!!!!
 
Pulled the prop

Going for shoulder surgery tomorrow so last night I pulled off my 200RV propeller and boxed it up to ship out for tear down inspection. Only 4 years in, but figured I'd overlap the downtime with the longer one I'll have with my shoulder. Hope to be flying again in September. Installed an Anti Splat Aero easy exit bar, hopefully that makes my return an easier and earlier event.
 
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