WDYDWYRTW? 2 / 8-9 / 2025

[DeltaRomeo]

...getting this weekend's thread started. Hope you're having a nice one.
v/r,dr

 

[RNB]

Sheet metal class.

 

[toolmanmike]

Installed new fairing and light weight tail wheel from Fairings Etc. Great quality pieces and saved me over 5lbs on the tail. My fairing was very heavy.

 

[Vlad]

Visited a good friend of mine of many years. He was recently elected mayor of a small Wyoming town. Tough territory.







Three hours overdue on oil change.

 

[planenutz]

This weekend was the annual Sport Aircraft Association fly-in at Ashburton, a small town (population 20,000) on the east coast of the South Island. While only a small town, they have an excellent airfield with 8 grass vectors, gas and a great Aviation Museum. Weather prevented quite a few from attending the three-day event however there was still a good turn out and it was great to catch up with old friends and have an opportunity to make new friends. My wife and I were unable to get there on the Friday due to a warm front moving up the country, however the rain and clag lifted on Saturday and we made the 135 nm trip up without drama. The "fly-out" planned for Friday had been delayed to Saturday so as we arrived half the airfield left... which was bad timing on our part and meant I didn't have an opportunity to check out some of the newer machines which had been recently finished.

Best RV award went to an very nicely built RV-12, best Metal Kit was won by a very tidy Rans S-21 and Grand Champion was taken out by a superbly finished Falcomposite Furio LN-27RG.

The round trip accounted for 2.1 hours of flying, for yet another outstanding day thanks to our RV-6. If you're ever in the area be sure to check out the Museum as they have a great collection of equipment and their current expansion is going to double their footprint and allow even more cool stuff to fill the halls. I'm looking forward to the addition of a cafe in 2026 so we have someplace interesting to fly for the $500 cup of tea and date scone.

Besides the mass of RV's (the RV-6 and RV-7 series was well represented) there was an eclectic mix of aircraft. Having a wander through the DC-3 brought back memories and the F-111 cockpit (complete escape capsule) was really interesting to check out. The old refueling tractor was beautifully restored too.

 

[PilotjohnS]

I am curious if the bd jet ever flew or is flyable?

 

[ve0kog]

I flew some practice instrument approaches (VMC but filed IFR). on the first one the ATC asked to slow down 20 kts for a c172 in front. For the second they requested best forward speed to line up a Cirrus and a C17 behind me just a few miles apart. was happy to comply with both

 

[PilotjohnS]

Ok not rv but palisades fire overflight.

 

[planenutz]

I am curious if the bd jet ever flew or is flyable?

Gidday John. Yes, the BD-5 Jet is flying, although it didn't fly while I was there. The owner provided a very interesting presentation and Q&A session which was well attended and there was a good write-up in a magazine recently which outlined the challenges he'd experienced. My take-aways from the presentation were - that it was very difficult to see in the air, it moves very quickly, and endurance was always a dominant consideration.

I'm not sure of the engine selection other than the owner stated it was a "scaled down aircraft engine" rather than a "scaled up model aircraft engine", so reliability was high.