FLYING STORY
Yellowstone by RV
by Larry Bowen
What an adventure! On June 7th, I met nine other RVs at Statesville, NC for an 8 a.m. departure. Destination: Cody, WY, almost 1,400 NM away. Most of us were from the Carolinas, but two flew up from Florida the night before and we were joining up with another couple from Virginia and another from Maine while enroute. Last but not least, Pam was going to meet us in Cody via a commercial flight in a couple days. All together, 11 RVs and 17 people!
[BowenAero.com] (More)
Related Link(s):
Lots more pictures of the trip
RV from Texas to New Hampshire
Boone RV Fly-in
Despite the fact the RV-7 builders numbers may "roll over" and pass my builder number (70240) again before I'm likely to be flying, I've never been to an RV fly-in. I've patrolled the RV corral at Oshkosh, of course, but I've never been to one of the many grassroots fly-ins around the country.
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Related Link(s):
Bob Collins' and Warren Starkebaum's slideshow
Thread: Date change for SWRFI 2008 conflicts with LOE fly-in
More pictures from W&C Aircraft Works
Preventing nose gear shimmy and failure
The flip-over of an RV-7A in the UK has reignited the nose-gear debate on several lists. Nothing usually comes of the flames that ultimately emanate from these threads. But in browsing the well-hidden tidbits of good information, I was made aware of one article on the RV Wiki, regarding an elongating of the bolt hole, causing the nose gear strut to come loose. A fix that is described calls for replacing the AN5-20A bolt that holds the strut in the socket with a taper pin.
[Jim Ellis ] (More)
Related Link(s):
Thread: A message to the "A" team (Read this!) (RVSQN)
Hotline archive: The nose gear debate
Thread: It's time to fix the A's (VAF)
Thread archive: The new nosegear fork (VAF)
Assembling an ECI 360 engine
RVer Tim Ribble wrote the instructions after consulting the Lycoming Overhaul manual for the O360, the parts manual for the O360, viewing the engine assembly video from Mattituck for the O360 and numerous questions from friends.
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Related Link(s):
ECI engines Web site
VAF thread: Engine run-in etc.
Van's RV toolbox #5
Here's a charming little story from Jean Roberts, who helped her husband and brother-in-law build an RV-7A. She signed up for aluminum building class that James Clark of EAA 242 (South Carolina) was offering and she was the only one who showed up to learn how to make a Van's toolbox. She found out it can be useful for more than aircraft tools. Let's just say it could be the next "big thing."
[EAA 242] (More)
What would you have done?
Clearance was obtained with an initial climb to 6,000 feet MSL. Approximately two minutes after leveling off at 6,000 feet MSL, began to notice fine oil mist on front windshields. Advised Approach of situation and requested immediate return to [departure airport]. Clearance received and executed 180-degree turn to right. Situation rapidly deteriorated, as both front windshields became fully obscured in oil. Aircraft engine oil pressure and temperature gauges [were] normal. [ASRS Callback] (More)Podcast: How a PDA, some quick thinking, and training saved a pilot
Non RV but instructive nonetheless. AVweb's Russ Niles spoke with Chicago Mooney pilot Vince Scott how about how a little electronic wizardry was on his side when his engine ate an exhaust valve at 7,000 feet in IMC. [AVweb] (More)Homebuilt visitor is news in one town
For one Georgia family, going to visit family doesn’t mean spending hours in a car, getting stuck in traffic and dealing with bad drivers. Instead, they simply load up their RV-9, two-seater airplane and take off.
[Minden Press Herald] (More)
TIPS/Q&A
Connector for co-pilot stick grip
On the RV List, Grant Nielsen of British Columbia asked, "I'm setting up dual trim and dual PTT in my RV9A using RAC pistol grips on both pilot & copilot sides, but would still like to remove the copilot stick once in a while when the wife stays home and I want to carry extra baggage on the passenger side. I'm wondering what others have done to allow quick disconnect and removal of the copilot stick. The inside diameter of the stick is about 3/4 inch, and I would need a six pin (circular?) connector." Bill Schlatterer of Arkansas had an answer: "Simple DB9 connection above the slip joint. With the seat pans in, connection does not hit anything and works in the open area u-shaped area of the seats.I have a four-way hat switch, PTT, and CWS for the AP." [RV List] (More)
Edge-distance issues on the rear canopy frame
This week, I posted a thread on the RV Builders YGroup about edge distance issues I've seen -- and now experienced -- when drilling the W-725 side frame to the 631 rear canopy channel. Specifically, there's a tooling hole there that can interfere with things, in that there are two holes to be drilled (per the plans) in the 725's angle for the latch. But the tooling hole can often create an edge-distance issue. Is it a problem? Not according to Bruce Reynolds at Van's Aircraft. "The tooling hole is not important in this application. You can just ignore it. All the force on the canopy latch bracket is in the down direction. The four rivets hold the assembly together and the bolts only hold the WD-622 in place," he wrote.
