Saturday, October 22, 2011

Looking at Falls Colors from Above... Again?

The weather was so beautiful, we could not resist heading back to Appalachian Mountains for a last look at the Fall colors. Now I can't go to West Jefferson without paying a visit to KGEV, and what do I find there?
My fellow builder Kim Mitchell's yellow bird, always ready for a spin (just a metaphor!)


Here we are "Ashe county, experimental RV12 980 Kilo Mike, departing runway 10, Ashe county"


... and a couple of minutes later:

We are on our way to Grand Father mountain (the tall mountain at 1 O'clock) in smooth air with a fantastic view; we literally own the class Echo airspace at 6500 feet while the poor souls on the roads under us are queued on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Rotax is humming, the bird as steady as an airliner, Kim says: it does not get any better than that and I believe him!
I could have taken more pictures but Kim gave me the plane to fly, hey, it really got better for me!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Section 32: Flight Controls on the way

Here is what was covered over the last weeks:









The work at the bottom of the cockpit becomes more and more cramped: the installation of the control sticks pushrod assemblies as described  in page 32-05 is a challenge!
One pushrod on its way:
Note that I had to disassemble the control stick to attach the pushrod.
Here the two assemblies are in place after a long struggle!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Watching Appalachian Falls Colors From Above

... like a canary!
Here I am with fellow RV-12 builder Kim Mitchell from Jefferson, NC, on a nice Fall afternoon on the tarmac of KGEV. The story of my meeting with Kim is worth telling. I have a log cabin in West Jefferson, just a stone throw from KGEV. As I was having trouble finding a hangar in the Raleigh area, I decided to see what the situation was at KGEV. After all, spending a couple of months in the mountain to finish my plane did not feel quite like an exile from my current workshop. While talking to the airport manager and explaining that I was looking to flight test an RV-12, he told me, to my great surprise (and delight) that a gentleman had just built an RV-12 which was now flying and was kept in a hangar at the airport. Needless to say, it did not take me long to find Kim! That was a month ago and last weekend as I was back to watch the Fall colors, Kim kindly invited me for a ride which turned out to be quite a treat.
I was the first passenger in Kim's RV-12. Kim used to fly a Waco that he also built as a wooden kit. His Waco was cruising at 180 Knots and he finds the speed of the RV-12 a bit lacking for his trips between North Carolina and Texas where he spends part of his time. In his search for more speed he is trying to extract any additional knot he can, going to the length of removing the steps of his RV-12 as you can see (or rather not see!) on the pictures. After climbing in this step less -12, it dawned on me why I was the first passenger! (but I will climb again anytime!).
So, how are the Fall colors seen from 4,500 ft high? I have no idea, I was too much focused on how this yellow bird flies and looking at the airport environment and approach, all which might, will, be useful one day, hopefully soon!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Section 31 - Wiring is finished

Well, kind of as the upcoming changes due to the introduction of Skyview avionics led me to drop some of the steps that were clearly intended to the old Dynon glass cockpit. Overall it was a slow summer, I was distracted by a number of events, including the unusual heat. Section 31 spread from August 10 to today. Here is what I have done during the month of September (interrupted lately by a 10 days train trip to New-York, Boston and Maine to visit family and friends).