Saturday, March 31, 2012
Skyview on the way!
Well, kind of... I received yesterday notification by VANs that shipping is 3 to 4 weeks from now. That would put it in my shop by the end of April. Glad I did not receive VANs letter on April 1st!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Useful Aviation weekend despite bad weather
It started on Friday, on my way to West Jefferson. Stop at Salisbury/Rowan Cty- KROC Airport for a transition training session on Sportcruiser with Davey Amos. My plan was to fly to Jefferson (Ashe Cty -KGEV) airport and back after a few touch & go at GEV. The weather was quite interesting with several layers of cloud up to 9500ft. Thanks to Davey's experience, we found our way between the clouds while checking the METARS live from the satellite weather receiver which is part of the Sportcruiser equipment (It is the same Garmin 496 GPS that equips current RV-12 glass panel before the Skyview upgrade). As the weather was becoming more and more questionable for VFR flight, we headed back right after landing at GEV. Flew at 9500ft on the way back, close to my Sport Pilot limit of 10K ft!
In West Jefferson it was rain and T-Storms all over the weekend. I spent most of Saturday and part of Sunday in the GEV hangar of Kim, assisting him building the first RV-12 Super Rack based on my prototype. It went pretty well considering that it was the first built on the plans I had just finalized from the prototype that's visible in the You Tube Videos. After shopping at Lowe's for all the needed parts (total bill about $100) we spent 3 hours cutting lumber and a total of 6 hours building the Super Rack. We only had a circular saw and drills for tools. I think that with a well equipped workshop (with Miter Saw, Table Saw and Drill Press), the job could be done in a total of 8 hours including one hour of shopping for parts.
Once finished Kim put the Super Rack to task, removing and mounting back a wing in about 30 minutes. I believe that with practice this can be halved. I also believe that the Super Rack is a valuable tool even for those who have space in their hangar. The reason Kim was interested in having one if for his yearly inspection that require removing both wings. Not depending on anybody to do the job is an important freedom specially at small airports like GEV. An additional benefit of the Super Rack is that once the wings are on the rack, being stowed vertically is safer and takes much less room in the hangar than having them horizontal on stands. While at Salisbury Friday, I dropped at the airport paint shop where an RV-12 was being painted. What I saw was a painted RV-12 except for one wing that had only half the skins painted. The other half was made of brand new skins. The wing had been bumped into while laying on stands and fell on the ground. An expensive paint job for the shop owner who showed some interest in my Super Rack!
In West Jefferson it was rain and T-Storms all over the weekend. I spent most of Saturday and part of Sunday in the GEV hangar of Kim, assisting him building the first RV-12 Super Rack based on my prototype. It went pretty well considering that it was the first built on the plans I had just finalized from the prototype that's visible in the You Tube Videos. After shopping at Lowe's for all the needed parts (total bill about $100) we spent 3 hours cutting lumber and a total of 6 hours building the Super Rack. We only had a circular saw and drills for tools. I think that with a well equipped workshop (with Miter Saw, Table Saw and Drill Press), the job could be done in a total of 8 hours including one hour of shopping for parts.
Once finished Kim put the Super Rack to task, removing and mounting back a wing in about 30 minutes. I believe that with practice this can be halved. I also believe that the Super Rack is a valuable tool even for those who have space in their hangar. The reason Kim was interested in having one if for his yearly inspection that require removing both wings. Not depending on anybody to do the job is an important freedom specially at small airports like GEV. An additional benefit of the Super Rack is that once the wings are on the rack, being stowed vertically is safer and takes much less room in the hangar than having them horizontal on stands. While at Salisbury Friday, I dropped at the airport paint shop where an RV-12 was being painted. What I saw was a painted RV-12 except for one wing that had only half the skins painted. The other half was made of brand new skins. The wing had been bumped into while laying on stands and fell on the ground. An expensive paint job for the shop owner who showed some interest in my Super Rack!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
RV-12 Super Rack: More Demos
After some more tweaking, I have the final version of my Super Rack, ready for prime time!
Here I am moving the wing on the Super Rack out of the workshop:
(Also visible on YouTube @ http://youtu.be/lCOvtYj08mk)
This is the wing-in phase:
(Also visible on YouTube @ http://youtu.be/Z9MnJzHHnDM )
And the wing-out operation:
(Also visible on YouTube @ http://youtu.be/oMVRRUdbq0Q )
Here I am moving the wing on the Super Rack out of the workshop:
(Also visible on YouTube @ http://youtu.be/lCOvtYj08mk)
(Also visible on YouTube @ http://youtu.be/Z9MnJzHHnDM )
And the wing-out operation:
(Also visible on YouTube @ http://youtu.be/oMVRRUdbq0Q )
Monday, March 19, 2012
Successful test of my " RV-12 Super Rack"
I spent some time doing R&D on a contraption that would allow me to put and remove the wings solo. This is a challenging project but also potentially very rewarding. I have currently two opportunities to share an airport hangar at a very attractive price with the following string attached: my plane will fit only if I remove the wings. While developing what I came to call my "Super Rack", I found out that the contraption was also fit to be used as a wing rack. I figure that the cost to build it is about $60 in material plus some labor... but after all we are all builders. Here is an unedited video showing my first test. Although I show only the removal of the wing, I also did the install solo but it took a bit longer due to my lack of experience with both tool and process. The video although crude shows that my concept works and will be ready for prime time with little more tweaking.
The following video shows the wing and Super Rack stowed in my workshop:
The following video shows the wing and Super Rack stowed in my workshop:
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Transition training started on SportCruiser
This is the SportCruiser, a plane similar to the RV-12 on which I am doing transition training. In front is my instructor Davey Amos. Today we did 7 take-off/landings with a 10 knots crosswind component. I was impressed by how well behaved the SportCruiser is in these conditions. The good news: I was told by a pilot who has experience flying both SportCruiser and RV-12 that the RV-12 is even easier to fly! — at Salisbury (Rohan County airport), NC.
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