What did you do with your RV this weekend? Put up a pic of your build progress or flight!
Hope you’re having a nice weekend,
dr
0926 CST Sunday:
Hope you’re having a nice weekend,
dr
0926 CST Sunday:
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WDYDWYRTW? Jan 3-4, 2026
- Thread starter DeltaRomeo
- Start date
3pm CST. Storms out west really keeping people out of the air.
It was a busy long weekend for me with a little of everything going on. I flew the Rocket up to Steamboat for the New Year’s celebration on the 31st. It was the first time the Rocket spent the night outside under my ownership. The tie down spaces at SBS have electricity, so my baby kept warm with its new engine heater and insulated cowling cover. A mild overnight and no precip made it relatively easy. The weather problems started when I tried to get home….
Scud running with a dozen 14,000’ peaks between me and home takes on a whole new level of complexity. Long story short, I tried finding a way home in every conceivable direction and ended up stranded in Granby, CO (KGNB). Lucky for me a neighbor friend has a hangar, a Yukon XL, and a house in Grand Lake. “Hey Adam, any chance your hangar is available? I’m stuck!” “Sure. Use it. The keys are in the Yukon. Go stay in the house or drive home. Your choice.”
I tucked the Rocket in the hangar and turned around to grab the Yukon to run into town for a late lunch to wait out the weather…Flat tire… bummer. Ended up swapping out the tire with only the factory-installed tools. Really makes me appreciate all the equipment I have in my hangar! The weather never improved so I ended up driving home that evening.
I needed to be home on Friday to meet the refrigerator repair man and accept delivery on a new TV for my hangar. Found out my old 1997 Sub Zero fridge isn’t quite going to survive to my planned kitchen remodel date of 2028. The TV arrived without incident (small victories).
Had coffee with neighbors Saturday morning and then drove the Yukon back to Granby to retrieve the Rocket. It was a bit windy coming back over the divide Saturday afternoon. I saw over 300mph ground speed at one point, but didn’t get a picture because I was busy trying to stay inside the plane. Power to idle and wings level is the play in this type of turbulence. Really need to look into a 5 point harness.
The neighborhood gang flew to breakfast on Sunday morning. Two RV6’s, an RV8, a Skywagon, my Rocket, and an Aerostar. 13 people in all. Living an an Airpark is pretty cool sometimes!
I came home and spent the afternoon installing my new TV on the north wall of my hangar. I don’t really watch that much TV, but it’s nice sometimes to have the background noise when I’m working. I’m also hoping to host movie nights at my place once I finish improving and tidying up my hangar.
On the agenda for this week is fabricating larger landing light brackets for the Rocket and fixing a fuel tank leak on the RV3. The fun continues…
Scud running with a dozen 14,000’ peaks between me and home takes on a whole new level of complexity. Long story short, I tried finding a way home in every conceivable direction and ended up stranded in Granby, CO (KGNB). Lucky for me a neighbor friend has a hangar, a Yukon XL, and a house in Grand Lake. “Hey Adam, any chance your hangar is available? I’m stuck!” “Sure. Use it. The keys are in the Yukon. Go stay in the house or drive home. Your choice.”
I tucked the Rocket in the hangar and turned around to grab the Yukon to run into town for a late lunch to wait out the weather…Flat tire… bummer. Ended up swapping out the tire with only the factory-installed tools. Really makes me appreciate all the equipment I have in my hangar! The weather never improved so I ended up driving home that evening.
I needed to be home on Friday to meet the refrigerator repair man and accept delivery on a new TV for my hangar. Found out my old 1997 Sub Zero fridge isn’t quite going to survive to my planned kitchen remodel date of 2028. The TV arrived without incident (small victories).
Had coffee with neighbors Saturday morning and then drove the Yukon back to Granby to retrieve the Rocket. It was a bit windy coming back over the divide Saturday afternoon. I saw over 300mph ground speed at one point, but didn’t get a picture because I was busy trying to stay inside the plane. Power to idle and wings level is the play in this type of turbulence. Really need to look into a 5 point harness.
The neighborhood gang flew to breakfast on Sunday morning. Two RV6’s, an RV8, a Skywagon, my Rocket, and an Aerostar. 13 people in all. Living an an Airpark is pretty cool sometimes!
I came home and spent the afternoon installing my new TV on the north wall of my hangar. I don’t really watch that much TV, but it’s nice sometimes to have the background noise when I’m working. I’m also hoping to host movie nights at my place once I finish improving and tidying up my hangar.
On the agenda for this week is fabricating larger landing light brackets for the Rocket and fixing a fuel tank leak on the RV3. The fun continues…
The upside of flying every flight with a CFI while I'm awaiting a medical is that we do interesting things and learn things.
Today was another hand flown ILS that went really well until we hit the mixing layer at 700' AGL and were treated to updrafts and downdrafts, lions and tigers, oh my. Lesson learned was a really good instrument scan in smooth air doesn't necessarily hold up with all the distractions of turbulence.
The CFII dinged me once on a previous flight, appropriately, for turning too aggressively in the pattern. At altitude, we did steep climbing and descending turns at low airspeed. The RV-9A didn't care, flew nice.
She also wanted to see slow flight, and that went really well, with the altimeter not even budging, the airframe buffeting gently, and a chance to watch the AOA for amusement -- the airplane already told me everything I needed to know. I'd done a gazillion stalls of all sorts, but somehow never done slow flight in the -9A and was surprised to see the gentle buffet while holding altitude.
Last were power off approaches from a long straight in, just to see how much the plane would float. The first one was final at 70 knots, full flaps, the second at 65. It didn't help that at 800 feet we had a ten knot tailwind, tapering off to a four knot crosswind at the start of the flare, so judging the approach was a guessing game. With power all the way back and full flaps (and constant speed prop), the RV-9A did come down at a reasonably steep flight path angle. At 65 knots till just before touchdown, we had plenty of airspeed to flare and we still floated four seconds or so. Bottom line is that the -9A is not your best spot landing airplane, unless you do something tacky like lower the nose just enough to kill the lift and try not to hit the nosewheel.
So I'm learning more about the airplane -- never had a checkout in it, no CFI available -- and she's seeing things that were never discussed in her training.
Fun!
Today was another hand flown ILS that went really well until we hit the mixing layer at 700' AGL and were treated to updrafts and downdrafts, lions and tigers, oh my. Lesson learned was a really good instrument scan in smooth air doesn't necessarily hold up with all the distractions of turbulence.
The CFII dinged me once on a previous flight, appropriately, for turning too aggressively in the pattern. At altitude, we did steep climbing and descending turns at low airspeed. The RV-9A didn't care, flew nice.
She also wanted to see slow flight, and that went really well, with the altimeter not even budging, the airframe buffeting gently, and a chance to watch the AOA for amusement -- the airplane already told me everything I needed to know. I'd done a gazillion stalls of all sorts, but somehow never done slow flight in the -9A and was surprised to see the gentle buffet while holding altitude.
Last were power off approaches from a long straight in, just to see how much the plane would float. The first one was final at 70 knots, full flaps, the second at 65. It didn't help that at 800 feet we had a ten knot tailwind, tapering off to a four knot crosswind at the start of the flare, so judging the approach was a guessing game. With power all the way back and full flaps (and constant speed prop), the RV-9A did come down at a reasonably steep flight path angle. At 65 knots till just before touchdown, we had plenty of airspeed to flare and we still floated four seconds or so. Bottom line is that the -9A is not your best spot landing airplane, unless you do something tacky like lower the nose just enough to kill the lift and try not to hit the nosewheel.
So I'm learning more about the airplane -- never had a checkout in it, no CFI available -- and she's seeing things that were never discussed in her training.
Fun!
