Oshkosh 2015I

As promised here is my Oshkosh 2015 story.  Keep in mind that this has been a bucket list item for my for as long as I can remember.  The idea of building my own airplane and then flying it half way across the country to spend a week camping under its wing was a dream come true this year.

Jeff, his son Lane, Mark, and I took off last thursday the 16th of July and headed east on our two day journey.  We had planned on leaving Friday morning but weather concerns prompted us to leave as soon as Jeff and Mark could get off of work on Thursday.  The first leg of the flight took us to Coeur d'alene Idaho were we spent the night at my brother Jim's house.  Jim was kind enough to pick us up on short notice and take us back to the airport early Friday morning.

Friday morning was a beautiful clear day and we got off the ground shortly after day break.  We had a nice smooth ride over to Townsend MT where we stopped for our first fuel stop.  The airport is very nice and had an old custom van that we borrowed to drive into town and get some breakfast.  A plate of biscuits and gravy later we were saddled up and launching for Pierre SD.   Our original goal was to go to Dickinson ND and spend the night with my sister but the weather forced us to cancel that plan.  Too bad too...Samone had made some fresh caramel rolls for us....

Anyway, we had and awesome tailwind as we flew across Montana and into South Dakota.  In fact the tail wind was so nice that we decided to push on to Oshkosh after a short stop in Pierre for fuel.  Turns out we had a great flight on into Oshkosh and I got my first "rock your wings and land on the orange dot"!  Jeff nailed the dot of course and I don't know how far off I was but 60 minutes later we had camp set up in "Homebuilt Camping" and was out looking for some food!

We had six days of walking 20,000+ steps a day looking at airplanes, seminars, forums, airplanes, warbirds, and did I mention airplanes?  I took a few pictures and should get a few more from others that took pictures.

Finally we were starting to get tired of the food, heat, humidity, and dehydration so we decided to pack up and leave on Thursday the 23rd.  The plan was to fly to Dickinson and spend the night but I think the Thunderstorm gods were conspiring against us because once again we had to deviate due to severe thunderstorm warnings in the Dickinson area....we never did get those caramel rolls....

With weather getting a little dicey in Montana later in the day we decided to push for home.  We had one bout of rain to deal with, a little turbulence around Missoula and a little head wind but come Thursday evening we were safely on the ground back in Puyallup.  We had made the entire trip in one day...about 12 hours after we launched from Oshkosh.  What a trip!

Mark getting ready to saddle up.

All packed up and ready to go.

On the Ramp tied down for the night in Coeur d'Alene.

First fuel stop in Townsend Montana.

A B-52 sitting on the ramp in Oshkosh.

Another picture of the B-52.

Our campsite in Oshkosh.  This is Jeff's airplane and mine side by side.

Sitting back enjoying the evening.  Somebody forgot their razor....

Another picture of our camp site.

F-4U Corsair in the setting sun.

Jeff standing on a sign base trying to get a picture of the area.

Hard to see but there are a bunch of white specs in this picture.  It was a group of 120 sky divers attempting to set a world record during the air show.

Panorama of the Homebuilt camping area.

Last day as we were preparing to leave Oshkosh.  This is Jeff doing his preflight as we wait for the field to open up so we can fly out.

A big apology and a major update

Well, its been well over a month since I last posted and I have to apologize to the remaining 3 people that still read this blog.  I have been very busy flying and taking very few pictures so I haven't felt like I had much to post but having just returned from Oshkosh I figured I better post something if for nothing more than something to read when I get too old to fly...

So, that said I think my blog posts will be more topic based from now on.  I do plan on building another airplane in the not too distant future so who knows I might pick up the pace once again some day.

What has the summer been like since my last post?  Well its been a whirlwind of aviation activity.  So far I have put just over 160 hours of time on the airplane which is really a huge number.  Most people barely fly 100 hours a year let alone 160 hours in four months.  The airplane is so much fun to fly and I still make minute changes to it in hopes of one day actually finishing it.  I have a list of at least 10 items that still need to be done including paint, a few fairings, some electrical modifications, and some interior work.  All in good time.  Now that the airplane is at the hangar which is about a 45 minute drive with no traffic (and we all know there is always traffic in the Seattle area) it's much harder to get any major work done without endless driving.  Staying home and doing nothing is not an option either so I figure I might as well start building another airplane.  Granted it will be at a much slower pace than the first one.  Still not 100% certain which plane I will build but I am leaning strongly toward the RV-8 which is a two seat tandem airplane with the look and feel of a fighter.

My IFR lessons are coming to a close and I am getting close to doing my final check ride.  This will allow me to fly in the clouds which is something I feel is very important if I want to fly in the PNW.  I have a big cross country flight planned for this coming week and then its just getting comfortable with the entire process before my checkride.

I finally got to do some airplane camping as well this month.  The Arlington airshow was the first time and the Oshkosh this past week.  Arlington was fun and the tent/sleeping arrangement was very good.  The weather was a bit cool but overall I enjoyed the show.

Oshkosh really deserves a post of its own so I will do that next.  In the mean time here are a few pictures of some of the things I've enjoyed the past month or so....

Here is a picture of the Spruce Goose as it sits in the McMinnville museum.  Jeff, Harry, Chad and Jeffs dad and me flew down to this museum on father's day.

Another picture of the Spruce Goose from below.  Hard to believe those are actually full sized planes under its wing.

Chad H, Harry N, Jeff B and his father...the McMinnville trip group.  Here we are standing in a missile silo replica.

This is an odd picture but it shows the "coking" of oil buildup on the vacuum valve in my exhaust tap.  I expected this but I am amazed at how quickly it built up.  This was taken at about 140 hours on the airplane.

I tried to clean out the coking and this is what it looked like when I was done.  Not perfect but at least its open and clear.

Dad and I sitting at the airport watching airplanes and drinking cold beverages.  Couldn't resist the chance to take this picture.

Ah yes, the PBY.  This airplane is a WWII relic that was being restored here at Thun field.  Jeff and I got a unique opportunity to fly chase as it flew its last major flight.  It was destroyed a week after this picture was taken.  Long sad story but as I heard it the PBY started taking on water after a hard landing and the salvage crew basically broke it into pieces as they were attempting to lift it onto a barge.

Here is my RV-9A sitting under the wing of the PBY as it was being fueled for its final voyage.  We didn't know it was its final voyage at this time.

This is a rather fun picture for me to post.  I have been doing some formation flying with the Cascade flight group out of Thun.  In this picture we (Marv, Andy, Randy, me) were flying over a cub scout camp (aviation related) as the "Grand Finale".  The significance of this flight is it was my first actual event.  The red arrow points to my airplane as we flew over in Fingertip formation.

And here we are again this time in diamond formation.

Jeff, Lane, Chad and me setting up camp at Arlington.

A panorama of the Arlington camp site.  This was early on Thursday so not a lot of airplanes had arrived yet.

A few items off of the list

This past week I sat down and did something I shouldn't have...I calculated how much money I have spent on fuel since my first flight....108 hours ago.....

Ok, so now that I am back from my Emergency Room visit (just kidding) I have decided to spend a little more time working on the airplane and a little less time flying.  Not much less but a little.  So in order to keep up with things I thought I would do a little show and tell about what has changed recently and a couple of items that are still on the "list".

It seems I am never happy with the layout of my instrument panel.  So hopefully this latest revision will be the last major change.  I moved the GRT Mini-X over to the left side of the panel.  I found that doing partial panel flight during my IFR training was a bit challenging with the backup instrument so far away from my normal line of site.  Now not only is it in a better location but I also have room to put a "glove box" in on the right side of the panel.  Thats one item on the list.

Not the best picture.  One of these days I am going to figure out how to take a good picture of the panel but at least you can see where the Mini is now and also the hole where it used to be.  As part of this project I had to re-cut the left side instrument panel to move the G3X Touch screen over to the right.  This also necessitated the repositioning of the ELT indicator and the CO Monitor to the right side panel.

I addition I have been working on a bunch of smaller projects.  For example I installed a spring on my canopy latch that makes closing much easier.  Not a big thing but very handy.

Speaking of canopies, I also installed a thumb screw that I can use to lock the canopy partially open for taxiing.  I will get a picture of that up here soon but it's really a simple change.

I also found that my Kroger sun shade was rubbing up against the center slide and occasionally causing the canopy to slide harder than it should.  I fixed that issue with a new low height screw.  No more binding.

And today I am working on the aux fuel pump cover.  I will get some pictures of that up as soon as it is fitted.

Oh, one more task that I finished yesterday was the tie-wrapping of the Aileron pushrod boots under the seat pans.  I told myself I was going to wait on this one because I didn't want to pull the seat pans but I finally gave in and pulled them to not only install the tie-wraps but to inspect the control linkages.  Everything looks good down there so I did a quick clean up with the vacuum, installed the tie-wraps and then buttoned it all back up.

Finally on my list for this weeks post is the real fun stuff.  I got to take a good friend up for a ride in the airplane this past friday.  Since Fridays are my IFR training days we decided to meet up a couple of hours before the lesson was scheduled.  This was Kerry's first ride in the airplane and I am pretty sure she liked it!

Las Vegas

Wow, I just realized its the first of June and I haven't posted in a while.  (Sorry Harry!)  So lets start with a recent trip Amy and I made.  Last week Amy and I took our first long cross country trip in the airplane.  We flew from Pierce County Airport to Reno-Stead (where the Reno air races are held) and then on down to Henderson Airport on the south end of the strip in Las Vegas.  The trip was a challenging one from the weather perspective.  We planned to leave by 5am on Friday morning to beat the fog but when we arrived there was already a low layer of clouds/fog.  It wasn't until about noon before we got off the ground with enough blue sky to head south.  The clouds and rain plagued us the whole way down and we had to deviate twice around thunderstorms.  But after about 5 hours of flying we landed safely in a pretty strong headwind.  The FBO at Henderson was awesome, met us at parking, tied the plane down, gave us each a bottle of water and the keys to our rental car.

We didn't do a lot at Vegas but we did get to see a new show LaReve which was pretty awesome. There are a few pictures of the set below.  I will say that it was much more pleasant in Vegas this time with far fewer smokers and the hotel we stayed at was entirely smoke free!

The return trip was with a headwind so it took us a bit longer and we again had to deal with the weather.  The worst of the trip was getting into the Seattle area and we ended up deviating west and coming up through the Portland area.  We got home safely and we had a good trip.

We learned a few things about travel that I will have to address.  First, its cold at altitude!  When we were at 14,500' the outside air temp was 22 degrees and the sidewalls of the airplane were cold!  Some sort of interior insulation is going to be required so I guess its time to order the cockpit interior pieces.

Second, the airplane needs more storage.  No place to put small items such as cell phones, snacks, sunglasses, etc.  I think I am going to re-do the right side panel to include a glove box type of storage.  The interior panels that I am ordering will have a few pockets as well.

We did find that the canopy does have a small water leak when I fly through rain.  At the back where the slider track enters the cockpit there is an area where the interior is open to the outside.  Not much of an area but it is visible.  I didn't think it would be a problem because of the air flow over the canopy but it turns out that there is a low pressure area there that allows rain to wick back into the airplane.  I did a little research and found that this is normal for a slider and that I can use the soft side of velcro to help plug the gap.

Finally I found out what people mean when they say the RV-9 wing loves altitude.  I was cruising at 10,500' leaned back to just lean of peak EGT and I was burning about 8 gph doing just above 150 kts TAS.  When I climbed up to 14,500' the engine was only burning 7 gph and I was still doing 150+ kts!  I didn't have oxygen on board for Amy so I couldn't try any higher but I will soon.

Ok here are a few pictures.

Amy saddled up and ready for the trip.

The Nevada desert

All buttoned up for the stay at Henderson.

Dark and grainy selfie with Amy at the set of LaReve

Another view of the set.  There is a pool of water under that blue mist and the seating is a huge bowl around the stage.

The set at the completion of the show.

Red Canyon as we are climbing out of the Vegas area.

A parting shot of the west side of Vegas.  The strip can be seen in the distance.

This was pretty much our view the whole way.  Clouds in puffy groups all around.

You can see the mountains under those clouds.

My baby's first "outdoor" adventure

It's been awhile since I posted but I haven't actually been in a position to post; I've been in Montana visiting my dad.  Last Friday I flew out to KCOE in northern Idaho (Coeur d'Alene) enroute to my dad's place in western Montana.  I spent the night at my brother's house (after the obligatory airplane ride).  As I probably mentioned in the past Jim (my brother) is also a pilot and is also somewhat responsible for getting me back into aviation.

Saturday morning I loaded up and flew on in to Superior Montana where my dad met me.  Of course we had to go for a ride around the mountains and there are a few pictures below for your viewing pleasure.  Sunday I flew on in to Missoula to visit some family and the poor controller was probably getting tired of me landing, loading a new passenger and then heading out again.  All in all I gave three rides that day and so far everybody has enjoyed to trip.

Besides all the rides, the significance of this trip is that it was my baby's first night outdoors...no hangar to sleep in.  I guess she didn't mind because she flew great the whole time, including on my trip home.

As usual once I got her home I had to make some changes so the entire instrument panel has been removed for a couple of new additions;  an audio panel and an autopilot controller.  The Audio panel will allow me to use both radios in the airplane which is important when I start flying IFR.  The autopilot controller is just a physical controller that will allow me to control the autopilot without having to shift to a different screen on my PFD (Primary Flight Display).  Again this will be helpful while flying IFR.

This is the VOR at Lookout Pass on the Idaho Montana border where I-90 crosses.

This is my dad with his first turn at flying the airplane.  Dad has never flown an airplane before and I didn't give him much of a tutorial so it was kind of amusing when his snowmobile riding habits kicked in and he was trying to lean with the turns.  

Nice valley picture.  This is near Plains Montana.

Another picture of the river but this time you can see where two rivers merge and the color difference.

Look, there is an airport down there in the haze.  This is the Ellensburg airport...I think.

This should be Fairchild air force base in Spokane Washington.

This is Spokane International airport.  Interesting thing about this airport is that it seems to share class C airspace with Fairchild.  They are only about a mile apart.

Felts Field in the Spokane area.

Nice view of the mountains as I start my adventure into Idaho and Montana.

Its hard to see in this picture but there is an airport down there.  This is one of two options I have for landing near my dad's place and its still 40 minutes away by car.  This is Shoshone County airport in Idaho.

Getting close!  This is a picture of DeBorgia Montana. 

See that little valley just aft of my wing where the aileron and the flap split?  Thats the valley I grew up in.

Another picture of the mountains as I start my descent into Superior Montana.

St. Regis Montana, where I went to school.

And here she was as I started to pull stuff out of the panel for the upgrade. Stay tuned for more updates on this project!

Short hop to Yakima

Been busy flying these past couple of weeks.  I find it hard to take good pictures with my iPhone in the cockpit so I am going to start carrying my Canon SLR and see if that helps at all.  I have flown with both Travis and Mariah now and got some interesting responses.  Both loved the airplane and how it flew.  Travis flew us around the Seattle area for a while including buzzing his mom in Issaquah, and Mariah flew us back from Yakima (we flew over for lunch) on Saturday.  I think Travis's new call sign will be "Ice" since I don't think his pulse moved off of 40 beats per minute the whole time!  Mariah on the other hand has another "call sign" but I can't decided between "Giggles" and "Nelly" for nervous Nelly.  During our trip to Yakima whenever we hit a small bump she would get excited (nervous excitement) and then giggle.

I have also had a couple other passenger firsts this past couple of weeks, most notably Harry.  Harry finally had enough time off to join me for a short flight Saturday evening.

Finally, I started my IFR training last week with Howard Wolvington.  I am going to like training with him for a couple of reasons.  He was awarded CFI of the year for AOPA last year which is a big deal and I can see why.  He has a good training manner and he obviously knows flying inside and out.  For those that don't know what IFR is, its just an additional rating (certification) that will allow me to fly through clouds on strict flight plans that are monitored and routed using Air Traffic Control.

Here is "Ice" flying the airplane.  I think thats a smile but I'm not 100% sure.  :-)

Mariah taking "selfies" while I do the run-up checks.

Can we call this one "Cyclops"?

Hmmm,  yep, thats correct.

Ok, this is one of Mariah doing the flying while I took the pictures.

I don't know why I keep taking these pictures but this type of view is just stunning to me.  This was on our way back from Yakima.

A view of our neighborhood.  Big change from last year.

I finally got a picture of Jeff flying next to me today!

Jeff doing his startup checklist as we prepared to leave Scappoose Oregon this afternoon for the 30 minute flight home.