Reno Air Races

This past week I got a chance to make a trip to Reno for the air races.  It was my first trip down and I really enjoyed the venue.  Lots of airplanes (very fast airplanes), lots of friends, and something a little different.  Dad was kind enough to let me borrow his motor home so I drove my car over to Montana last Wednesday, helped Dad move a couple of loads of wood, and then drove the motor home back to Seattle that afternoon.  Driving that beast was an experience all in and of itself!  The next day Jeff, his son Lane and two of Lane's friends (Gibson and  ) all loaded up and headed out for Reno.  We stopped in Grants Pass Oregon at the Walmart for the night and finished up the trip the next day.  We arrived just in time to catch the last couple of heats of the race from the roof of the RV.  It was very hot during the day and pretty darn cold at night but overall it was a fun time.

Not much happened with the RV-10 this week due to the Reno trip and prepping for my return to work next week.  Like I said before, not much of a hurry to get this one done.  :-)

Jeff driving and the kids .... well doing what kids do today.

Mt Shasta in the background during a short pitstop.

Another mountain that I forgot the name of at the same pit stop.

Our chariot of choice!

Selfie of Jeff and I sitting on top of the RV shortly after arrival.

A view of the Breitling jet formation team performance from the top of the RV.

This is the hot air cooling configuration that one of the RV racers had on his airplane.  I liked it so much I decided to take a picture so I could study and possibly adopt it on my 9.

Another view of the creativity of the split oil cooler heating and the ramp that controls the flow of air in the lower cowling.

Ok, one more picture....

Fun day with Travis

Today Travis and I joined Jeff, Chad and Becca on a trip to the Grand Coulee dam.  We got out of Puyallup around 8:45am flew at 9500' over the Cascade mountain range and landed in Electric City an hour later.  The flight was nice, a bit warm, but nice and smooth.  After a trip into town for some breakfast we returned to the airport and launched for home.  Travis did most of the flying coming home at 10,500' and we had a small fuel pressure issue that I need to look into but overall it was a nice flight home.  It's been a long time since Travis and I flew together and it was a lot of fun.

Travis and I on after landing roll out.  Picture taken by Chad.

Another picture of us taxiing to parking.

Chad took this picture of the smoke still in the valley.

Preparing for engine start at Grand Coulee Dam airport.

Today's performers...from left to right...My RV-9A, Jeff's RV-7A and Chad and Becca's RV-7.

Another mandatory selfie with Travis doing the flying.

Slowly making a start

I can tell already that this build will take me much longer than the 9 did.  Here it is about a week into the build and I still don't have the first piece complete.  :-)  That's ok, I have lots of things competing with the 10 for my time.  For example, I was offered and accepted a new position here in Seattle.  I still can't discuss the company but the process has taken a big chunk of my free time.  Obviously flying has taken a chunk as well, darn that...  ;-)

Speaking of tasks, I got my DRDT2 dimpling tool today.  Took a little time to get it set up and I still need to build the supports for it but I'm excited to give it a try.  You will see some pictures of it coming up in the next week or so.

That all said here is what I managed to get done so far....

This is the aft spar for the vertical stabilizer.  The RV-10 plans have you starting with the VS instead of the HS.  You can see in this picture the doubler and some countersinking that I completed.

This would be the forward side of the same spar.

The "skeleton" of the VS cleco'd together for final drilling.

And finally here it is all cleco'd together and final drilled.  Next up, some deburring, dimpling, priming and then finally assembly.

Take two...or is that TEN?

So today should mark the beginning of the next phase of airplane building for me.  As I mentioned in my last post I am going to build an RV-10 and last week Dad and I drove down to Van's to pick up the Empennage kit.  This kit is much larger than the 9A kit was.  Not only is the tail much larger but this kit also includes the tail cone which is essentially the aft half of the fuselage.  So, yesterday and today I am cleaning and reorganizing the garage to once again become an aircraft building sanctuary. Turns out that is a little harder than anticipated since the garage has collected a few extra items (kids home from college).

Here it is, the tail of an RV-10 piled on the floor of the soon to be reawakened airplane factory.

And this is my first RV-10 cut...didn't even make it out of Van's factory before I snagged my hand on some aluminum....

Oh God!  Where do I start.....I think I have a workbench and tools buried in there somewhere....

Ok, first I had to find my way to my work bench...that required moving a lot of stuff.  Then I spent a little time building this new jig for straightening flanges on ribs.  Came out looking pretty good I think.  You will see more of this later when I actually start working on the airplane.

And at the end of the day not only could I see my bench but I also managed to build the parts bin holder that you see below the table top.  Oh, I got two cars into the garage as well.  Maybe I will get to start working on the airplane soon!