No Flying?

corey    Flying, News     Flying, rv

I just realized that it’s been almost a year since I’ve written anything in the Flying category on this site. Just goes to show how much flying I’ve done in awhile!

But that’s not completely true. Just earlier this year (after the Spring semester at Metro) I took it upon myself to find a new school in order to complete my instrument rating and commercial license .. McAir is just too focused on primary students that I figured getting training somewhere else (and in something other than a Cessna 172) would be a good idea. (Not to mention that the little animated guy on the McAir website is freakin’ annoying).

First, I ended up at Journey’s Aviation to check out their Diamond DA40. Since it’s a low-wing, tip-up canopy, side-by-side, stick controlled, free castering nosewheel airplane, I figured it would be a good way to get training in a certified airplane that was at least somewhat like the airplane I’m building (the Van’s RV-7A). My instructor for the flight (Joe) was great, and the flight was fun. Since it had been, what, 8 months? since I last flew a real airplane (vs 20 some hours in a flight simulator at Metro) we just tooled around and let me get a feel for the airplane. I will say I think the visibility is awesome out of the bubble canopy – much much better than what you get from a high wing Cessna. Having a G1000 didn’t hurt either (what a crappy website for such as sweet avionics system).
I wanted to try something a bit more .. upscale? .. than your standard training planes (the Diamond is a step up for sure, but still pretty cramped).

I headed over to Daedalus Aviation over at Front Range Airport and did a flight in their Piper Arrow. I really liked the plane, as it’s a bit nicer and has more room. I need retractable gear time anyways to get my commerical license, so having some extra time in this plane isn’t a bad idea. This particular plane has the Avidyne glass avionics suite, which is pretty nice (though not as big or capable as the G1000), so I still get the glass cockpit experience which a lot of airlines apparently like to see – not that I’m looking for an airline job, yuck. I liked that fact that FTG is a towered airport but really doesn’t have a lot of traffic; it’s also where all the other RV guys I know have their airplanes. I’ve talked to the chief instructor at the school and expressed my interest in doing Scenario Based Training, which he is also looking to do. Scenario Based Training is what the airlines use for all of their training and usually entails an actual flight (usually for 4 hours or more) that incorporate all training objectives as part of the flight – rather than planned “let’s do X, ok now Y, now Z” that you typically find for non-airline training. Because of that and the Arrow, Daedalus is my first choice to get my secondary training done.

Now I’m just waiting for the VA to approve my flight training funding request .. it’s only been 2 months, how much longer can they take? (not holding my breath!)

Jeremy and I are heading to Oshkosh, WI this coming Wednesday to partake in the Air Venture thingy that goes down every year. Should be fun (and hot), I’m looking forward to talking with some of the vendors (like the guys at Aerotronics and SteinAir who might be putting together my avionics for me).

I’ll need to fix my now-broken photo gallery when we get back so I can upload any pictures or video.

Pictures Uploaded

corey    Flying, News, Vacation    

Hello!

I’ve uploaded a ton of photos from our trip(s) this summer. I’ll be writing a post about Oshkosh sometime soon, but for now I will let you browse the (mostly not that great) photos. You can find the photos here:

Rocky Mountain EAA Fly-in 2006

Pagosa Springs vacation

Oshkosh 2006

Here’s some of my favorites from Oshkosh:

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I’ve started Active Duty here in Colorado. I’m doing backfill for the guys that have gone overseas, which is nice for me because I get to go home after my shift! My schedule is a 24 hour shift with 48 hours off. So every three days I’m on base and on duty for 24 hours. Because I get so many days off (5 usually) a week it gives me plenty of time to work on my plane. I except to be done with the tail in a week or so.. if I keep working on it.

I start my 3rd Semester at Metro August 21st. I’ll be taking the Commercial/Instrument course (book work, no simulator time) and English 102(0) (yay). The aviation class should be fun, but I’m not looking forward to the english class since it’s the research paper class. Ah well, that’s college I guess.

Flordia 2006

corey    Books, Flying, Media, News, Projects, Vacation    

We had headed down to Flordia earlier in April to visit with some friends (Hi Jeannie and Tony!) and check out the area (I’ve never been there except to hop on the cruise ship). We had a great time and got to enjoy the nice warm Flordian weather. Sea kayaking was pretty fun, but we need to practice our coordination in a 2 person kayak. I couldn’t tell if we were fighting each other or the current.

The day before we left (a Monday) we headed to the Sun N Fun fly-in at Lakeland, FL. It’s not too far from St Petersburg and since it was mid-day there was hardly any traffic. Unfortunately, it was the very last day of the show and all of the vendors/displays were itching to pack up and go home. We did get to browse around and see most of the vendors I was interesting in seeing. I was a little bummed there was nothing going on at the Van’s Aircraft booth but I did get to meet Jan of Eggenfellner Aircraft.

We took some pictures, but as there wasn’t much going on (though the airshow was still cool, even if it was shorter than the other airshows during the previous week) we didn’t get very many. I will say, it’s hard to get a nice crisp shot when you are zoomed in at 300mm. Now I know I need to increase my shutter speed a bit to make them crisper – I was trying to blur the prop (instead of having the photo freeze the prop) and had adjusted my shutter speed down. That works great for airplanes that are closer but not for ones that require full zoom.

Here’s a couple OK ones, there’s more (maybe not OK but alright) photos in the gallery:

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Since then we’ve been busy getting the garage ready. I finally got some shelves up and have started organizing. We got a couple nifty organizer items from a line of products called Gladiator GarageWorks – we picked these up at Sears. I’d really like to start working on my airplane again, and I’m really close. We’ve got two benches built (thanks Ross!) and now just need to finish up our shelving.

I’m also finishing up school for the semester, so I’ve got to study this week for my finals. I have my flight sim class final on Thursday the 4th, but it shouldn’t be too rough – I just need to finish my preflight planning and make sure all the t’s are crossed and the i’s dotted. My weather class (which is an online class) has it’s final exam on the 12th and 13th so I’ll be studying for that most of the coming week. I’ve enjoyed my flight class as I’ve been able to do some more advanced stuff (things I haven’t learned through my Flight Instructor yet) but the weather class is boring me to tears. Weather theory is just a buncha random variables all thrown into the wind and seeing how they fall.. voi la! There’s your weather.

Speaking of instructors, I’ve got (again) a new instructor. Ryan will be starting me on my instrument training shortly, so hopefully he’ll be around to finish it! My previous instructor, Kyle, has gotten a job flying turbo-props – so congrats to him and good luck!

Letsee, what else can I talk about. Oh, I finally finished Fallen Dragon by Peter F Hamilton. It’s a pretty good sci-fi book even if he does ramble on quite a bit in his flashbacks. Now I’m reading The Assassins by Oliver North which my mother gave me for Christmas (or my birthday, one of those).

That’s all I got, for now. I should get back to work.

Japan: No Go! Airplane: Go!

corey    Flying, Military, News, RV Project    

I’m a little bummed. Ok, maybe more than a little. I swear (I swear!) I put my name down for a 2 month tour in Okinawa, Japan. Somehow I got passed over (as did all but 2 Traditional Air National Guardsmen – what the heck!) and won’t be going on that trip.

Sigh.

But, I was worried about it because it falls right at the beginning and at the end of a school semester. This would have made it hard to go to school this summer and next fall (though I was willing to sacrafice half a year to go to japan for a couple months – I mean, come on!). I guess I don’t have to worry about that now.

But! Good news! Today submitted my order for the next two kits for my airplane kit. I ordered the slowbuild (non-preassembled) fuselage kit and the quickbuild (preassembled) wing kit, for a grand total of $16,113 and 50 cents. Yikes.

Thankfully, they only need a 25% deposit to start getting the kits together for me. I expect the fuselage to ship in about 3 months, while the wing kit will take at least 7 months if not 9 months – they have to send the unassembled kit overseas (to Czech Republic I think) to be assembled and then sent back. For an additional $4000 I think it’s a pretty good deal to save me a year’s worth of work.

I’m starting to think about what avionics I want in my plane and coming up with a basic mockup of the panel I want. I’m pretty sure I’ve settled on the GRT EFIS dual display system, which will couple with their EIS (which will be preprogrammed for a Subaru engine). I haven’t settled on much else (TruTrak autopilot or a EZ-Pilot autopilot?) but I think I have the basics.

Here’s one of the panels I made using epanelbuilder.com :

I was thinking of going with a large map display in the middle (like you see here), with something like the VistaNav system. But, instead, I think I will just get a Garmin GPS 396 – much cheaper and you can get XM Weather for it.

I was hoping to get a used Garmin GNS430 (which is a comm radio, gps, and moving map all in one) which can also get XM Weather, but to get XM you have to buy a $5000 add-on module! The price for the 396 with everything is only $3000, so that’s silly.

I’m keeping my eyes open for other used systems: Garmin SL30 (comm/nav radio), Garmin GTX327 (transponder), electronic fuel gauge, one of PMA’s audo panels, and a few other things. I know I don’t have to buy them now, but I might feel cheated if I let a good deal go!

Man and Machine

corey    Flying, News, RV Project    

This weekend was filled with airplane related activities.

First, a fella I conversed with on one of the (many) RV related websites stopped by to check out my newly opened (and inventoried) empennage kit. I showed him the tools I had purchased, how the kit came in the box, and how small (and cold) my garage is.

I’ll be so happy once we get our new garage built – looks like we’ll be starting on it in January! This is great, though it comes at a pretty hefty price tag. While I couldn’t justify the cost if it was purely for building this airplane, it sure helps my motivation to spend that kinda dough. I’d really like to install a heating system, but I am reluctant to do so since I do not plan on using the garage as a workshop beyond the time needed to get the kit to a point where I’d need a hangar to work in (2 years max! Really! Well, maybe..).

Speaking of hangars and heated work spaces, Jeff (the guy that came to visit) and I headed over to Front Range Airport to meet up with Jerry B. Jerry has a very nice hangar there at FTG, heated with a propane reflective heat pipe dealy which works very nicely. Since he bought the hangar, he has had insulation installed and the concrete floor sealed with an epoxy coat. It very nice, well lit, and has plenty of room to work on his RV-7A. If it only had a bathroom you could live there.

Jerry got a Subaru H6 engine from Eggenfellner Aircraft. He was able to start it up for us, and yep, it sounds just like a Subaru. We grilled him on how hard it was to get attached and setup, and he told that it was no problem at all. Less than an hour from taking it off the crate to mounting it to the airframe. Another few minutes to hookup a temporary fuel pump and filter and voi la: the engine runs.

One of the major problems with traditional Lycoming/Continental engines in aircraft is vibration and noise. The Subaru engine has neither. It’s very quiet and hardly vibrates at all. (You can’t run a Lycoming in an enclosed area due to noise, and apparently if you don’t have the wings attached the vibration could cause damage to the airframe!)

I haven’t decided on my engine choice yet, but I will be watching Jerry’s project closely for the next year or so. There are a few concerns when using an “alternate” engine like the Subaru, so I may not go that route. One of the reasons I’m building this plane is so that I can allocate some of that time towards an A&P license. I figured experience with a “traditional” aircraft engine would be more beneficial in that regard, but in a year there might be enough data to convince me otherwise.

After Jerry showed us around and we oo’ed and ahh’ed at his bird, we took a look at his neighbor’s finished RV-7A. It seemed a little bit smaller than I had thought (though it’s wider than a current Cessna 172), but it certainly looked like a lot of fun to fly. I’ll have to get someone to let me fly around in one once I get to know the folks around here better.

That evening I headed over to Jeffco for the EAA 43 chapter meeting. I met a few folks and got to see most of the Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-in video, which was pretty cool. I didn’t stay at the air show very long, so it was nice to see footage of all the cool stuff I missed.

Then, on Sunday afternoon Cheryl had her first flight in a small airplane! The wind was a bit breezy out of the north, but didn’t cause any problems as we flew around and did a touch-n-go at Longmont. I landed a little flat, so it wasn’t as smooth as it could have been – I’m just a little bit rusty from not flying very much this last month or so.

All in all it was a good flight and she said that she’d fly with me again, so that’s a good thing!

I hope to start my IFR training (and my high performance, complex aircraft, and maybe the G1000 glass cockpit sign offs) here in January. Since I won’t be able to work on the kit anyway, I won’t have any excuses for delaying.