Jaypratt

Well Known Member
Mentor
In a previous life I sailed and scuba dived the British Virgin Islands for a job. We talked about diving a lot more than we were actually down. You can sail day and night, but you can't stay down all day...........

Today was a good RV day, but,..........the wind was blowing and it was cold, a good day to hanger fly and work in the shop.

This morning an out of state guy, Miles C-170B / Harmond Rocket kit, came in and we talked Bush flying, RVs and Rockets, showed him around RV Central. He has a girl friend and needs to tell her sbout RV8s,,,,,,??? We went to lunch on the field, Hicks T67, Rio Concho Restaurant, with Roy and Vickey RV6, Rooster and Susan RV7a, Pat RV8. Good RV talk. After, he went to 52F, and I went to work.

I installed some shoulder harness cables in a RV7a. Drilled the wheel pant halves together (3) on the same 7a,,, a lot of sanding and fitting, and a lot of sanding and fitting,and a lot more sanding and fitting , ,,,,, installed nut plates on same, put it all together, added a bunch of flox and set aside to cure. Spent about 6 hours of quality time in a heated hanger/shop. All in all a very pleasent RV Day. No flying but a good one none the less. I had fun.

What did you do?

Talked to doog Greeves twice. Comets WON!!!
Got it! Thanks! THE Duh, THE Duh Greaves

[ed. That's Duh............Duh Greaves :D. dr]
 
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The lucky ones...

Jay,
I feel the same way. I am lucky enough to have a vocation that lets me play with airplanes too and the best part of that is the people I work with. And like you guys, we talk about it more than we do it. :D

Then when I'm not at work, I get to come home and work on my RV-8 or buck rivets with some of my friends who are building (Mike-7A and Greg-Sportsman 2+2).

It's a good life...
 
Yes it was.......

...a good day. The 7A is going together in my hangar and we used the neatest/latest pitot-static system from Safeair1 that I've ever seen. The tees and elbows already have teflon on them and the tubing is simply pushed into the fittings and you're done! To remove the tubing, you push inward on the little collar and pull out the tube...you guys really ought to look at this...only $85 for everything...fittings, tubing...the works...

www.safeair1.com

An ex Delta/F18 pilot friend came by since he just bought a mint Christen Eagle with inverted everything and needs a TW/aerobatic refresher...Me:eek:

How does an Eagle handle on the ground compared to an RV taildragger? Anyone know?

Regards,
 
Good Day it was....

My -12 kit arrived Friday and after inventorying the wing kit, I called it a day. Well on Saturday, started deburring and fluting ribs with my youngest son helping. He was in diapers when I built the -6A.

So there we were, him asking why do we have to deburr ALL these holes and me explaining what stress riser were and that attention to detail is what sets shade tree mechanics apart from Craftsmen? I tell him these are Pearls of Wisdom, and he just looks at me funny and keeps on working?

He?s a pretty good mechanic for 16 years old but being a kid, he gets in a hurry sometimes so I?m working on that. The funny parts is when he ask me a question and when the answer I give him doesn?t make sense to him at first, I tell him
? Son, I build airplanes in my garage for FUN and fly them all around the country?
TRUST ME!
He just laughs?.

Good Times, Good Times Indeed!
 
A very good day....

Blowing a heckuva lot in Houston yesterday as well - and almost directly crosswind to our 22' wide runway, so we wondered out into the hangar after breakfast and didn't leave until it was supper time!

The project was mounting new Pressure-recovery wheel pants on "Mikey", the RV-6. Louise had previously gotten the front and back halves fitted, installed nut plates, and carved out preliminary holes for the struts and tires. This was fitting and alignment day, lots of finicky measurements, levels, lasers, plumb bobs....but by 5:00 pm, Mikey was ready to fly with his new pants (sans lower interesection fairings, of course....).

Looked out the hangar door, and the windsock across the way was still trying to depart for southern climes at a frantic rate, so flying could wait for another day.

Later, as we sat and enjoyed a wonderful steak dinner, we could agree that you don't have to fly to have a great RV day!

Paul
 
This morning an out of state guy, Miles C-170B / Harmond Rocket kit, came in and we talked Bush flying, RVs and Rockets, showed him around RV Central.

Jay, would that happen to be Miles from Tehachapi California? I used to talk to him a bit on the Cessna170 forums back when I had the 170B. Didn't know he was building a Rocket now.
 
thats him

That is the same guy. He has had the Rocket kit for 10 years. Said he was thinking of changing to a 7 or 10...
 
you bet, a good RV day. In Athens it was cold a rainy, and I was changing out an airspeed indicator and a few other items on my condition inspection ( no it is not a checklist item to change the AS -- it was not working well at low speed!).

Then put a new knob on my very old Dayton Murdock throttle quadrant propellor control. I met Dayton and his son at Oshkosh, via camping right next to his brand new beautiful RV-4, just down from Jay, by he way. Dayton asked about the size of the 8 cockpit, and of course I said "see for yourself"--I think his first words were, "I haven't seen knobs like that in years" well gee, since he was the manufacturer, I had to believe him. End of story my new RV buddy Dayton sends me new knobs and levers-naturally, he wouldn't take any money! I owe him a six pack at least. maybe two

Back to yesterday-my 59.5 year old body complained about all that crawing around inside checking, lubing, modifying levers (can't use em like they came-must be modified), so I started to lunch and saw a bunch of vehicles in front of a friends hangar---sooo naturally I stopped to find Vern Darley, who I also met at Oshkosh last year and recommended to the friend as a DAR, doing a sign off on my buddy's Murphy Moose! a new pink slip! The moose has the M-14, and a set of amphibious floats standing by.

Yes a great RV day
 
Indeed a good RV day here too. Also, no flying with the winds howling at around 35kts. So it was a perfect day to leave the bird in the hangar and shuffle out to the garage to work on the -8 project. Tanya saddled up and rolled up her sleeves as I mixed a big batch of proseal to install the rear tank baffle on the second fuel tank. Tanya cleaned rivets in MEK and got all the tools laid out. Our now perfectly coordinated team tank dance commenced and 2+45 later the deed was done to our satisfaction. Just as we were putting in the last few rivets, Tanya commented "Man, we've got this down pat. We could give lessons or something." A full team effort (again) with no idle hands, everything riveted wet. We're confident that the extra attention to detail is worth it with tanks. We'll see next week if they are leak free.

A good RV day, even without flying. In the evening, Tanya felt compelled to spool up the King Instrument Rating course on the computer, which is also where I found her this morning when I woke up.
 
Sounds like.......

....you got a real "keeper" there, Scott! It was great meeting you two at LOE last year. Good luck on the instrument training, Tanya.
 
Jay, would that happen to be Miles from Tehachapi California? I used to talk to him a bit on the Cessna170 forums back when I had the 170B. Didn't know he was building a Rocket now.

Hi Craig! Good to hear from you again. Apparently you are all out of airplanes? Here's where I am on the Rocket:

Right_Inboard_Tank_On_Wing.jpg


I also had as good an aviation day as one could probably have without doing any (real) flying. Met a GREAT bunch of guys at T67 and 52F, and had a great surprise upon return to Grapevine. One of our 170 guys is an instructor with Simuflite and got me and one of the other guys into the full-motion Hawker 800XP sim for about a half hour. Waaay cool!
 
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