Meeting with Jerry Jackson
After reading my comments on this forum, I was unexpectedly contacted by Jeremiah (Jerry) Jackson. He offered me a copy of his new book, Four Minutes which describes, in detail, the last four minutes before the crash of his RV-10 near Ramona CA. Jerry invited me over to his hanger at MYF to retrieve the book, meet him and check out his RV-6A (aka the Feral Chihuaha). While I was delighted and surprised at the invitation, I wasn?t quite sure what to expect. However, I have to report that Jerry is one of the nicest people I have ever met. He is a very humble guy for having accomplished over 2000+ parachute jumps, building his own RV-6A, building his own RV-10 and achieving the round-trip transcontinental speed record in his RV-6A. This list, of course, says very little of his professional accomplishments including a PhD and owning his own business, but I digress. Jerry also gave me a book entitled The Flight of the Feral Chihuaha, which details the trials and tribulations of his successful effort to achieve the round-trip transcontinental speed record.
As we talked, Jerry shared the details of his build log pictures for the RV-6A, including, and of particular interest to me, pictures of the jigs that he built to build the wings, horizontal stabilizer and fuse. He shared the details of a devastating prop strike he suffered in the RV6A just before a non-stop test flight to El Paso as he built up to the round-trip transcontinental speed record. We discussed his engine setup for the 6A along with its modifications including, EFI, a high compression parallel IO-360, custom exhaust and Sam James cowl. I think he may want to sell his plane?? I was really impressed with his plane. It has the appeal of an old school fighter.
Jerry is a resource to the RV community and a ?stand up? guy. He was/is willing to share the highs and lows of his ?RV? experience including the details of his RV-10 incident at Ramona and his successful achievement of the round-trip transcontinental speed record. Both of these events are covered in books written by him. I hope to read both of the books shortly and perhaps even offer up a review later. Thanks to Doug and VAF for making this meeting possible, and thanks to Jerry for taking time to show me around your hanger.
P.S. His RV-10 will fly again and is currently being painted.
Kind Regards to All?
