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!

Another victim

Slowly but surely I am working my way through a list of 'victims' that are willing to ride with me.  This past week my victim was Shelia.  We had a nice flight up to Friday Harbor and back.  I didn't take any pictures but Shelia was nice enough to send me the selfie she took of us.

On an unrelated note you may have noticed that the title of my blog has changed....  All three of you readers are probably wondering why...  Well, let me tell you why.  I'm bored. Thats the truth of it.  I can't keep driving all the way down to Puyallup and back every day just to work on the airplane.  And in truth the amount of work I need to do on the airplane is severely limited.  So......wait for it.....here it comes....you knew it was coming.....I'm going to start building another airplane!  This time it will be an RV-10.  Amy is enjoying the time we fly together but she wants to be able to bring friends/family on our little outings, and truth be told I like the idea too.  So, since the RV-10 is a 4 seat airplane that flies a little faster than the 9A on a much bigger engine I can't say no to the little devil sitting on my shoulder saying "do it" "DO IT"!

Ok, now that that is off of my chest I will update you on the little work I did with the 9A this past couple of weeks.  Not much but I did get the main gear intersection fairings installed and I'm almost done with the nose gear intersection fairing.  No pictures yet but I will post them as soon as I take one.

One more update before the massive list of photo's.  My IFR lessons are almost done.  I hope to pass my check-ride in the next two weeks.  Look out clouds, you won't stop me as often as you used to!

Days of '85

I just got back from another trip in the airplane and got a chance to try some new things that I thought I would share with you.  First and probably the most exciting is I got a chance to take the airplane up to 17,500' for the first time.  On the trip to Oshkosh I got it up to 15,500' but I didn't stay up there very long.  This time I was alone, had oxygen on and the winds looked a little better up there so I took it on up.  All I can say is WOW!  That wing loves the altitude.  I was doing 155 knots TAS burning 6.2 gallons per hour and had a 50 knot tailwind!  I took a picture of it which you will find below.  You will also see a pretty spectacular picture I took on descent from that trip....

I also got a chance to do a few family member flights and I also got to land in the town where I was born.  That doesn't sound too exciting on its own but to me it was a big deal because I also met up with a childhood friend who was part of the reason I love to fly so much.  I remember sitting in class (grade school) drawing airplanes with my friend Bob whose dad would occasionally fly his bright orange nosed Cessna overhead.

Oh, I also got the rest of the interior installed in the airplane.  I am getting very close to calling it done, interior wise anyway.  :-)

Finally I have to say that this summer has been a summer of dreams.  I've got almost 200 hours on the airplane at this time which is a ridiculously large number.  I've checked many items off of my bucket list and now I need to add a few more.  I am very close to getting my IFR rating which will allow me to safely fly in the clouds.  So many exciting events, but it's now coming to point where I am ready to shift gears a little.  I'm officially unemployed now and ready to start on my next big adventure.  I've seen a few interesting possibilities and am really excited about getting back into a more normal groove of life.

Anyway, on with the show....

Here is the interior after I finished the pilot side panels.  I really like the look and the added storage pockets is really nice.

I took this picture as I was headed East to Ekalaka.  Beautiful day to fly above the clouds.

Ok, this is the picture I mentioned above.  I was near Helena Montana headed east.  203 knots ground speed is awesome but wait until the next picture...

225 knots Ground speed!!!  Obviously I was in a descent at this time and I actually had to be careful not to go too fast as you can see by the red markings on my airspeed tape.  I actually did go a little faster but didn't get a picture of it.  This is pretty darn awesome at 225 knots though!  Look at the wind speed!  60 knots of tailwind!

Here she is, all tied down and unpacked in Ekalaka.

I took this picture on the return flight home for my Aunt who packed me a lunch.  :-)

The fires in the area were causing a lot of haze as you can see from this picture taken on my return trip near the Montana Idaho border.

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.