J

John Courte

Well Known Member
I've heard good things about CNO, and my cousin had good luck with his VariEze at CMA, but I've got a buddy who's interning at XCOR at MHV.

Possibly a loaded question, but I'm curious to see what other SoCal RV'ers think. I should put this question to the SoCal RV list as well, but I know there are plenty of them on here and I tend to use VAF as my central nexus for all things RV.

I'm not ready for the airport move yet, but I can see the ducks well enough to start getting them in a row.

thanks!

-John
 
Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, soon to be congrats, how is that.

This is one of those great milestones you are approaching, good luck with it.

Gary Sobek would be a good source for info, BTW.
 
Last edited:
The EAA Chapter at Camarillo used to have a deal for first flights with space rental in their large hangar.

Don't know if that is still true, but it's worth a phone call.
 
I'm probably also looking for a stable population of RV'ers who would be willing to give me the occasional "idiot check" or second pair of eyes here and there before I start doing things like first engine start, taxi tests, and other causes of a potential bad day. The YouTube video of the guy collapsing the gear on his wingless turbine Lancair comes to mind. Not that we have that issue with our planes, but once the prop spins, there's a whole lot of mass in motion that demands respect and attention.

You can be as careful as you can possibly be, but if you don't know there's a mistake to be made, you might make it anyway and not know about it until it's too late.

I'm looking way too far ahead, I think, but it helps to establish a mental framework for the next stages to keep in mind during the current one.
 
Cable KCCB

EAA chapter 448 has space available for $100 p/month. I know this since I am moving my plane out this weekend. After three years in the chapter shared builders space, I was ready for a hangar of my own.

Cable is a great airport with lots of RVs. Building in the chapter allows close access to the tech vars that stop by on a regular basis.

Stop by and we will show you around. Come at lunch on a Saturday and you can join the normal lunch crowd that that loves to talk RV and planes and life and whatever comes up.:)
 
Most of the outlying airports SHOULD work. CNO and CMA are the two most used. MHV is good but TOO far from where most people live.

Where do you live and would test flying be allowed at the closest airport is the question. All LA County airports are out. Long Beach FSDO also does not have any airports that you can do phase I out off. I do not believe that there are any airports in Orange County that you can do test flying out of. Cable presently has an unpopulated path to and from the airport but in 10-years, it may not be acceptable.
 
I did mine at Chino

The immediate area at Chino is fine for those first short flights that change it from a mechanical marvel to a flying machine. However, the designated area for my phase 1 flights was down east of Temecula (sp?) and required flying over some pretty rough country along the back side of Saddleback. CMA seems like a good area but I don't know specifically where they send you for all of the testing. The main concern I had was getting a hangar. Since I lived in Orange County, Chino was the best option of the two. You have to consider the freeway time as lost build & fly time. My friend Ken Knowles was finishing his RV-6A at the same time I was and he found this very large hangar that we could use two quadrants of for our planes. It belonged to an organization called the Flying Prison Ministries (there are prisons by both airports by the way) and it worked out fine. Some people want a lot of "help" but I wanted privacy to get real work done. It took about a year to complete the plane, work through the problems and completed the phase 1 testing.

Bob Axsom
 
You must log in or register to reply here.