It's been about four months since I last posted and it's been a busy four months. With all I had to face after my return from OSH, I didn't get a chance to visit the plane again until two weeks later. Since then I've done a lot more flying than expected; 29 flights and two taxis that has added up to 31.2 hours. Lots of video was captured, so in addition to photos I'll be including numerous video links in this post.
The first post-OSH flight in August was a short rust removal loop to Marlette and Tuscola before returning to PTK and washing the plane in preparation for displaying it at the Open House and Air Show a few days later. That was another milestone event. EAA Chapter 194 set up a tent with five aircraft parked around it in an ideal location on the ramp. It was a long and glorious day of greeting old friends and meeting new ones in a setting I'd been dreaming about for many years. The weather was less than ideal but the rain stayed away and we didn't have to worry about sunburns. It was an honor to be parked close to the Yankee Air Museum warbirds, accepting compliments and congratulations and answering many questions about building and flying my plane. When it was all over I was tired but happy. Maybe too tired; during the post-show taxi back to the hangar I made a couple of boneheaded directional mistakes that almost got me in trouble but I caught myself just in time. August ended with a couple more recurrency flights that included my first takeoff on Runway 36.
Recurrency Compilation 2208
September started with yet another milestone: Amy and I made our first destination flight to St. Ignace, MI. I will admit to being nervous when we began the journey. It was only the second flight with Amy on board; it was the first time doing a long cross-country flight together; it would include an overwater flight across the Straits of Mackinac and I was getting some anomalous error indications from the avionics. But the airframe and engine were working perfectly and despite the panel errors I could navigate, so we kept going and had no problems getting to the Mackinac County Airport (83D). We had a stiff wind but it was right down the runway. I was pleasantly surprised by the landing; I had forgotten that it would feel quite a bit different at full gross with an aft CG but I timed the flare just right and we plopped down on the runway and stayed there. I got Amy out of the plane and she retired to the terminal while I refueled, pushed the plane over to a tie down spot, offloaded and secured the aircraft for the overnight stay. Airport manager Paul Fullerton greeted me on the ramp and offered the use of his old Chevy Suburban courtesy car overnight, which was greatly appreciated. We checked into the Baymont-Wyndham Hotel and relaxed a bit before heading to the Galley for a great dinner. Returning to the hotel, Amy retired early while I watched the sunset (and Battlebots) before retiring. The next morning we had a continental breakfast at the hotel before heading back to the airport. We thanked Paul again for his hospitality and launched into a gusty headwind that shortened our takeoff roll significantly. The flight home was uneventful, aside from some minor issues with the old David Clark headset Amy was using. I'll definitely get her a new Bose headset before our next trip together.
Journey to St. Ignace 2209
It was time to do an oil and filter change after the St. Ignace trip; a quick flight was made to warm up the oil before draining. The dipstick tube was removed, rewired and retorqued. Again. Avionics databases were updated and the engine was run and checked for leaks.
While the cowling was off the bottom cowl nose bowl was sanded and touched up again. I removed the aft baggage panels so that Thomas Smith of Beacon Avionics could troubleshoot the remaining gremlins in the avionics. It was worth every penny to have him squeeze in and reach way back to check the magnetometer D-Sub connectors and fix a few issues. A test flight over my old Island Lake stomping grounds revealed that everything was finally stable and reliable.
For a long time I'd been planning to regain my night currency. It had been 31 years since I'd last made a real night flight and I'd built the airplane to be capable. I considered flying with an instructor but to be honest I didn't see much point in that because I had to learn to fly and land my plane at night and an instructor wouldn't be much use in that scenario. One of my early Phase 1 flights ended just after sunset but that really didn't qualify as night flight. I decided to sneak up on the process some more by departing on a dawn flight that would start in the dark and finish in daylight. It would get me used to night cockpit work and I'd still land in my comfort zone. I knew from the earlier dusk flight that my Garmin Virb camera became useless in low light so I concentrated on flying the airplane and took a few photos as the sky grew brighter in the east with the waxing crescent moon rising.
The last flight of September was a recon run up to Romeo (D98) to scout out a good location for a video production I've been planning for years. I got some cockpit clips I can use; my videographer was unavailable to capture anything from the ground but it was still a fun flight.
The first two flights of October were test flights to check out new camera mount angles. I wasn't happy with the video captured during the first flight so I didn't save it, but I did get some beautiful cell phone photos. The second flight clips were worthy of time lapse treatment so I'll share that link.
Camera Mount Test 221004
The next flight was another one I'd been planning for a while: a trip to Battle Creek to visit the WACO factory and have lunch at the WACO Kitchen. The flight there was uneventful, but my landing may have been my worst to date in an RV-8; so much so that I joked with the tower about it. Lunch was excellent and the factory tour was brief but interesting. When I departed I did one circuit in the pattern because after that first landing, I couldn't just leave without trying again. The second landing wasn't much better but at least I could make it a touch-and-go. As I departed the area I was inundated with ghost TCAS alerts for nonexistent traffic; that will happen in some places at certain times. The landing at PTK was also boingy. I attributed all the weird landings to the fact that this was the lightest I'd ever flown my airplane and it has shown that it likes to fly (and land) heavy.
The next flight was yet another milestone. My old high school buddy Jim lives in Cranesville, PA. I mentioned him in the May 2018 blog entry (Little Steps, Big Steps) when I picked up my prop from Whirl Wind in Austinburg, OH. We usually get together once a year up in Empire, MI in a rented cottage on Lake Michigan. I've tried to get him to visit my place so I could show him the airplane but he never got the chance. So I decided to bring the plane to him and planned a trip to Erie, PA to meet up, hang out and maybe go flying. This was my first long cross-country flight heading southeast and I'd have to deal with the Class B airspace over Detroit and Cleveland. I did my homework and talked to other pilots who had flown in that direction and planned my flight carefully, preparing for different routes and scenarios. The plane was prepped and packed early in the morning and I requested flight following before departing to the southwest. I expected to be routed around the west side of the DTW Class B airspace, but to my surprise ATC cleared me through and vectored me to the southeast. They took me all the way across the river and into Canadian airspace before clearing me to turn southwest and begin following the Lake Erie shoreline. Cleaveland Approach is used to VFR traffic along the shoreline and cleared me through their airspace at my requested altitude. The rest of the journey to Erie was uneventful and enjoyable. The wind was picking up as I approached the airport; ERI tower cleared me to land on Runway 20 to reduce the crosswind component and the landing was no problem. I taxied over to North Coast Aviation; they topped off the tanks and helped me push the plane into their hangar. Jim arrived as I was unloading the plane and we headed off to have lunch at the Avonia Tavern.
I wasn't really planning to take Jim flying because I knew he was nervous about it and I wasn't sure how strong the winds would get. To my surprise, he insisted that he definitely wanted to fly; I hedged my bet by saying we'd see what the winds looked like. After lunch he took me to the Avonia Beach Park, where the Trout Run flows into Lake Erie. It was a beautiful Saturday; the stream was packed with fish and the shore was packed with fisherman. The Fairview State Fish Hatchery had the spawning dam blocked off, so the frustrated fish were gathered in the thousands in the mouth of the Trout Run. Fishermen are not allowed to fish in the stream so they lined up along the shoreline and caught as many as they could. Jim commented that there was no way he'd try to fish in a crowd like that; nothing but tangled lines all day... but it was fascinating to watch.
We headed back to the airport and I checked the winds. They turned out to be manageable so I had the plane pulled out of the hangar and I prepared for flight. After giving Jim the passenger briefing I got him strapped in; I strapped in and we launched to the southwest. Jim was hoping we'd be able to circle his home. Although I'd been there before, I had no idea how to spot it from the air. But I found the nearby town of Albion and from there, Jim was able to direct me until we found it and circled a few times before heading back to ERI. Jim took some photos during the flight but I don't have any copies. I do have photos of the plane before and after the flight, some video freeze frames and the ForeFlight track log. Normally at this point, Jim and I would retire safely to my hotel room, drink some beers and enjoy talking about the old days. But I knew I couldn't drink much because I needed to fly the next day, so we said our goodbyes; Jim headed for home and I put the plane away again.
The rental car company was supposed to deliver my car to the FBO but they were short-staffed so I ended up getting a ride over to the terminal and waiting in line before picking up my car, which turned to be a Honda Accord Hybrid It was my first experience with a hybrid and it took a bit of getting used to, but once I got used to it I realized it was a really nice car with a lot of cool features. My first venture was to the Hampton Inn Waterfront, which was also very impressive; the newest and most luxurious Hampton Inn I've ever experienced. I was booked into a seventh floor waterfront view room and I loved it. I settled into my room and captured a great sunset before heading up to the eighth floor to Oliver's Rooftop for some excellent cuisine. After dessert I retired to my room, processing photos and talking on the phone to fellow RV-8 builder Bob Sultzbach, who is preparing for his first wing fitting. I settled in for the night and got some decent sleep before the sun rose.
The nice thing about fall trips is that you can wake up in time to get ready to depart, partake in the comfort of a Hampton Inn breakfast buffet and be out the door long before the sun rises. That was important to me because I wanted to catch the sunrise from Presque Isle, which I did with ease. I won't share all the photos I took during and after the sunrise (they're included in the video) but I enjoyed a great morning, greeting the dawn looking back over Erie PA and exploring Presque Isle and all it had to offer. I thought about returning to the hotel to explore the local attractions but decided to save that for another trip. Eventually I made my way back to ERI; I was able to leave the rental car at North Coast Air, pack up the airplane and be on my way home. The flight back was smooth; airspace transitions were seamless and I turned down the chance to fly direct through the DTW Class B in order to follow the river up to Belle Isle before following vectors toward PTK. It was a great ending to a great trip; I'll include the title and link to the trip video.
I arrived back in PTK around midday and texted Amy to let her know I was back. There was a tentative plan to give my daughter Naomi a flight that afternoon. As it turned out she was busy but another family friend wanted to accept my offer. I took care of unpacking the plane and logging the flight while Amy brought our friend to the airport. I gave her the passenger briefing, got her strapped in and we taxied for takeoff. The winds were forecast to die down that afternoon but we faced some blustery conditions when we took off on 9R. We bounced our way north while I listened to wind shear reports from the tower. This wasn't going to be a fun ride, and my passenger had no problem with us turning back to land. I was lucky that the tower was able to offer us a landing on runway 18, which would mitigate the crosswind component somewhat. It would be my first landing on that runway and I may have been a bit nervous, but the landing went very well and it left me feeling elated. It was a great way to end a great day of flying after a great trip. Life was very good indeed.
Anja and the Blustery Day
During my post-flight inspection I noticed what appeared to be grass dangling from the aft edge of the right wheel fairing opening. It wasn't grass, it was fiberglass shards. It appeared that my attempts to relieve the aft wheel opening edges were insufficient; at some point the tire sidewalls had rubbed against the aft side edges enough to flex them upward, causing longitudinal and aft fractures and knocking a chunk out of the back right aft wheel opening. I removed the wheel and lower intersection fairings; the airplane could fly without them while I came up with a plan for repair or replacement.
It was also time to replace the ELT, alarm and remote batteries. Might as well get that done, I thought, wishing I had gotten it done when Thomas had taken care of the magnetometer issues. Having to remove the aft baggage panels will always be one of the major maintenance pains with this aircraft, but as with all other maintenance items, you do what you gotta do. After reviewing the installation instructions (which is something I should have done prior to now) I was reminded that there were three batteries in the system. Swapping the ELT battery wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but I was surprised to find out that the aft retaining strap had popped off. I guess I should have taken that safety wiring suggestion more seriously. The new battery was installed, the unit reassembled and remounted with the strap releases properly safety wired.
There were two smaller batteries installed in the audio alert indicator and the remote switch. Of course they were two different sizes, but at least the were easier to get to. The ELT battery has a lifespan of five years. The other two batteries have lifespans of ten years, so technically I didn't have to change them yet. But I thought it wise to get all the batteries on the same starting timeline, so I went ahead and replaced them. Another issue I chose to address at this time was the battery charging lead. The one I had installed was serviceable but short. After using the airplane for awhile I realized it would be beneficial to have a longer charging lead so that I could plug the battery into a charger without having to swing the aft seatback forward and struggle to reach the plug. I had purchased a longer lead online and this was the right time to install it. The wire gauge of the new lead was bigger than the old one but it could still work with the original panel notch and grommet; the length was nominal. Since it would be exposed in the baggage compartment I took extra care to prevent damage. The hardware store was out of the correct size split conduit so I bought some Teflon lined hose, slit it lengthwise and used it to shield the wires. Cable tie anchors were strategically attached so that the routing would allow me to reach the charging plug by moving the aft seatback forward an inch and pulling the plug out for access. It took a couple tries to make sure that there was no strain in the system that would pull the anchors loose, but I'm happy with the current result. (Heh heh heh... "current"... get it?)
While the plane was down for maintenance, it was time to another dreaded task: retorquing the landing gear bolts. I must confess that I deferred this task past the recommended intervals of ten and fifty hours because I knew just how ridiculously difficult it would be. But to ignore it was perilous and I knew it. Better to face a pain in the ass now than to end up with my ass in a sling, or even in the dirt. So I mustered my courage, my tools and my friends, and with the help of Harry Manvel and Dave Pohl I got the job done in less time than I thought it would take. Sure, I had bruises and cuts on my hands and wrists and my body ached for days afterward... but in doing so it became (literally) painfully obvious that it was a very good thing that I got it done. Most of the bolts didn't take much torque, but the hardest and most important bolts - the outer bracket bolts - took a significant bit of travel to cinch up and get to proper torque spec. Like so many jobs associated with the building and maintenance of this airplane, I dreaded having to do it, and I was so glad that I finally did it. All the maintenance boxes were now checked; after reassembly I could fly again. The wheel fairings could stay off for now; all I had to do was make a note in the airframe log and it was legal to fly. The cockpit was reassembled, the gear leg pockets and upper intersections were reinstalled, and I was ready to go.
There were still a few good flying days left before winter set in and I made the most of it. The first post-maintenance trip was a local hop over to Willow Run (YIP). As a member of the Yankee Air Museum, I've visited the airport often and flown in and out aboard YAM aircraft, but I hadn't yet flown in by myself. Now was as good a time as any, so off I went. The funny thing about this flight was that one of my main goals was to get a good view of the airport from the air. But many pilots were also taking advantage of the good weather and the airport was very busy. As a result, I was concentrating so much on traffic and procedures that I barely glanced down at the airport. Watching the video helped.
It was time to get serious about regaining my night recurrency. I had recently done a workshop on tubing fabrication for the last Chapter 113 homebuilders meeting at Plymouth/Mettetal Airport (1D2). Two of the attendees had flown in to attend the meeting and I'd always dreamed of flying in to attend a meeting, then fly back to PTK; such a great way to commute. It was time to see if I could pull that off. I flight planned to depart at dusk; arrive at 1D2 and sit on the ground until it was an hour after sunset, then take off and fly around a bit before returning to PTK for three full stop night landings. As it turned out I underestimated how quickly it would get dark; by the time I took off any unlit ground was black. I navigated over to the Salem VOR before turning toward 1D2; I heard a Cirrus on the UNICOM announce his intention to land on runway 36 which was also my intended runway. I didn't want my first full night landing to be on such a small runway, so I elected to continue the approach, do a low pass then depart to the northwest before heading back to PTK. Usually there isn't much traffic at night but conditions were ideal and a lot of pilots had the same idea. The Cirrus that had landed at 1D2 had taken off after my low pass and was also heading to PTK. My original plan was to overfly the airport before heading toward Romeo Airport (D98) to perform an airport lighting test by clicking on the UNICOM frequency five times to activate the lighting. From there I would overfly Lake Orion before returning to PTK for the full stop landings. There was a lot of traffic converging on PTK at the time so I maneuvered to the southwest a bit before timing my approach to the PTK airspace. It turned out to be no problem and I overflew the airport at or above 3000' before turning northeast to head toward Romeo. I got within about seven miles of the airport and clicked on the UNICOM five times; the lights came on just as they should. In all the years I've been flying, this was the first time I ever keyed up the lights at an airport and it was magically satisfying. The pattern work at PTK turned to be no big deal. By then traffic had died down a bit and as I exited the runway I told the controller it was my first night currency in over thirty years. He congratulated me and since there was no other radio traffic I replied "And I thought tonight would be slow!" He laughed and said "I guess a lot of other pilots thought the same thing, but it all worked out." Well, now I'm night current again... so I got that going for me. After landing I called for fuel and experienced my first night refueling; had to take a photo of that. I did attempt to capture some of the flight on video; I knew the Garmin Virb doesn't have low light settings but I thought the audio might be worth keeping. As it turns out I hadn't fully plugged in the com link, so the video and audio were both garbage. At least I got a few cell phone photos and the track log.
The next flight wasn't really planned, at first. It was one of those mornings when I got up long before sunrise and thought about what to do that day. After checking the weather I realized it would be another good day to fly. I'd been thinking about flying to Oscoda and Iosco for quite a while and this would be a good day for it. I planned out the flight and got to the airport before sunrise. I split my time between preparing the airplane, capturing another excellent sunrise and taking toy photos before launching around 8:00. There was lousy weather to the northwest and the southeast but a big swath of beauty surrounded my route. The flight following approach frequencies were mostly silent and it seemed I had the sky to myself as I ducked around Saginaw Bay and headed toward Oscoda/Wurtsmith Airport (OSC). It was easy to spot the 11800' runway of the former Air Force SAC base in the distance, and I marveled at the aerial view as I entered the left downwind leg and overflew the Kalitta Air Maintenance facilities before turning and landing on that giant strip. I could have done five touch-and-goes in one pass if I had wanted to, but with the gusty wind conditions I kept it safe and did a normal departure toward Iosco Community Airport (6D9), eight miles to the south. It took me two tries to get on the ground in the stiff quartering crosswind but soon I was parked on the ramp. I climbed out, stretched my legs, visited the terminal and took some photos. As I prepared to depart I was greeted by the airport manager, J. Samuels, who took some photos as I started up. We knew each other from Facebook and he shared his photos on the airport Facebook page; I returned the favor and shared my video link there. I departed southwest and followed the Bayshore to the narrowest crossing route toward Sand Point on the northwest shore of the Thumb. Normally I would have climbed to a high altitude but I wanted to stay below the the Steelhead MOA before contacting Great Lakes Approach for flight following back to PTK. I crossed at 5500' and took one very blurry and unusable photo of Charity Island before making landfall and following the shoreline past Sebewaing Airport (98G). I contacted ATC and headed direct to PTK. The view to the south appeared hazy and I checked the visibility at PTK to make sure I wasn't flying into unexpected fog. The wind had lessened by the time I reached the airport and I marveled that I had taken that whole trip and still gotten back by 10:30 a.m. It was tempting to taxi back to the runway and fly to another destination, but I chose to resist. Mike Hull took a few more toy photos for me before I tucked the airplane away, did the post-flight bookkeeping and took the long way home in the Mustang. While processing the photos and video I created two different title slides; I used the second one but I'll share both here.
After a small taste of winter weather we had a few days of good flying conditions again. I got the opportunity for a short flight and decided to practice some short field landings. The wind was calm and it was an ideal day to go out and do some slow flight before returning to the pattern. Every approach was flown slow with full flaps, dragging it in and touching down as close to the edge of the runway as I safely could. I was trying (in theory) to make the second turn off onto taxiway Juliet; a landing distance of about 1260'. I did five landings; on the first one I could have made the turn off safely but elected to make it a touch-and-go rather than taxi back into ramp traffic. The next three weren't all that pretty, but on my last landing I made it off at Juliet and rolled the short jog right toward my hangar at November row. The plane was tucked away and covered and I did the bookkeeping at home. The nature of the flight precluded taking any cell phone photos but I did get the flight on video and isolated some freeze frames. You can't tell just by looking, but in all the freeze frames that show me at the end of the runway, I wasn't taking off; I was landing. I need a lot more practice on short and soft field takeoffs and landings, but this got me inspired. Now I'm looking forward to seeking out some grass strips next summer. Before I do that I'll want to go through my G3X settings and optimize them for angle of attack indications and stall warning alerts which are conspicuous in their absence.
Slow Flight, Short Landings 221114
Bob Sultzbach had assisted in the final wing assembly of my RV-8 which was documented in this blog and on my YouTube channel. I welcomed the chance to return the favor and help him do the initial wing fitting on his RV-8A. We had many experienced hands: Bob, Bill Simpson, Tyler Dences, Eric Gettel, Terry and Thomas McCann and myself, so it made for quick work. Bob even got his angle of incidence set and the critical aft spar bolt hole drilled. Afterwards, Bob treated those who could make it to a fine meal at Buddy's Pizza in Ann Arbor. Good times!
Winter made a tentative appearance in November but not enough to cause any problems. My winter plan is to keep the plane active enough that I won't have to resort to building an engine dehydrator and tucking it away for winter as I do for the Mustang. Whenever I get the chance and the conditions are favorable, I intend to fly. Another opportunity presented itself and the weather patterns suggested a destination to the southwest would be optimal. So I was off to two more new airports: Brooks Field (BKY) in Marshall and nearby Flint International (FNT). Brooks Field looked like an interesting destination with a new terminal, older maintenance hangar and an old Beech 18 freight dog residing on the ramp. It was a busy flying day and it took a while to launch from PTK but the journey over to BKY was smooth and the landing uneventful. I couldn't resist parking by the Beech for some photo ops before exploring the terminal and grounds. As I prepared to depart I watched a motorglider land before heading northeast to Flint for some pattern work. Although I'd flown in and out of Flint commercially and with friends, this was the first time I flew in myself. Their pattern was busy but manageable, as well as educational. After a few circuits I returned to PTK, two hours and five landings richer.
One thing I forgot to do during those two cross-country flights was to check my Angle Of Attack display on the G3X. I had enabled it during a previous database update but didn't see it working during the Slow Flight Short Field test. I set up an elongated camera mount to capture the EFIS screen, waited for the winds to calm down and departed at sunset, heading northeast. I went into slow flight to try to activate the AOA display but nothing came up. That's when I noticed the small indication on the right side of the EFIS screen that said "AOA UNCAL". Oh, ok. The AOA needs calibration. It occurred to me that the indication had been showing on the EFIS ever since I activated the AOA display; I just never noticed it. (D'OH!) Learn from my mistakes: if you have an avionics company assemble your Garmin panel and an expert calibrate it, you still have a lot of work to do yourself. Read the installation manual and make sure ALL calibration operations are done, especially the ones that must be done in flight. That's ok; it was still a great evening to fly so I danced around the sky a bit before returning to the pattern and making five of the best landings I've ever made. The video turned out to be pretty interesting, too. The long mount was a bit jiggly but I enjoyed seeing all the screen activity I usually miss while keeping my eyes outside the cockpit. I readjusted the mount for a right forward view for the approach and landings and liked also seeing the reflection of the screen off the plexiglass.
I flew into December, taking advantage of another good weather window to attend an EAA Chapter 113 homebuilder's meeting with the plane. I preheated the engine all day, uploaded another Garmin database update and took the opportunity to test a new chest harness camera mount for the Garmin Virb. This would be my first venture to another location at night with cold temperatures; I brought an extension cord and cowling blanket along and made sure my flashlight was working. I launched at sunset and got over Plymouth-Mettetal Airport (1D2) before it got dark. It's a very short flight; the common flight path is to go direct to the Salem VOR to avoid the DTW Class B Airspace and approach the airport from the northwest. Flying time is only about 15 minutes compared to a 50 minute drive. With the preflight and postflight chores I didn't really save time, but it was nice to fly over the traffic jam that I would have faced in the car. I was happy with my approach and happier with the landing; off at midfield and rolled over to the front of the Chapter hangar. I offloaded my gear, plugged in the preheater and ate a deli sandwich for dinner before the meeting started. It was below freezing when I prepared for departure at 9:00 p.m. but there was no frost accumulation and the plane started right up. The short flight back was uneventful, aside from having to apologize for sloppy radio work from being a bit tired. I was glad I did it, and look forward to flying to more meetings at Chapter 113 and others. As for the camera mount test, the results were less than ideal. I'm sure I'll use the chest harness for other applications but I think I'll work on a better mounting setup to capture panel video. My plan was to merely archive the results, but (of course) I couldn't resist the urge to edit and share it. It is crude and even rude in some parts; it contains explicit language, no music, garbled time lapse sections and some sarcastic text insertions put in for my own amusement. Sometimes I make weird videos; this is one.
Two days later there were two more flights in quick succession. I affixed a camera mount shoe to the right base of the windscreen support hoop and set up for another test flight to see if I had a better angle on capturing video of the EFIS screen. The video was fairly stable but I didn't like the angle; more configuration tests are warranted. It was still a great evening for flying; another beautiful sunset and I caught a couple nice photos of Pine Knob from the air.
That evening I received a text from Joe Kirik, ex-president and current vice president of EAA Chapter 113 and a good friend who has assisted me during the building of my plane. He asked if he could borrow my dehydrator plugs for his rebuilt engine for the winter. We arranged a time to meet at my hangar the next morning; since the weather was going to be good I offered him a ride in the plane. Joe currently owns a Taylorcraft and just bought a share of a Stinson; I knew he would appreciate the experience of an RV-8. It was also another chance to try out another camera angle; this time focusing on a passenger. It was one of those flights that had me wishing I had two cameras so I could cut back and forth between us. The video is a bit long but I found our conversation so interesting that I wanted to keep it all. It was also great flying with an experienced pilot in back to help with spotting aircraft and comparing notes on different situations. I gave him a little bit of stick time and it was fun coordinating the rudder as someone else banked the aircraft. We returned to a very busy PTK to do some pattern work, mixing in with training aircraft and corporate jets. One go-around, one bounce and several good landings later, we rolled back to the hangar and hung out for a while as I waited for the fuel truck. Joe really enjoyed the flight and so did I; a good time on a good day.
There will probably be a few more flights this month; I'd like to get the AOA calibration done before more snow shows up. Garmin has a software update I should upload soon. I still have to get to work on repairing and modifying the wheel fairings, which I've been putting off. December is a busy month in any case, with all the usual holiday plans and gatherings. Speaking of plans, I've been working on planning the Tour Of Gratitude cross-country odyssey that I want to do next year. So far, it looks something like this. There are a few waypoints shown that won't be stops, and there will be fuel and rest stops that aren't shown, but this will be the general routing:
Looking at this overview, it seems a bit insane, doesn't it? As I started to plan the routing it became evident that one tour couldn't possibly include all the locations I had written down. There will probably have to be a TOG 2 that will head east and south, and as much as I'd love to include Mike Patey's home airport in Spanish Fork, Utah (SPK), it's just too far away from anything else on my route. That might just have to be a trip of it's own someday. And of course there are the trips Amy and I have planned. So many people; so many places; so many miles; so little time and not enough money... but enough of my uptown problems. There are a lot of great things in our future if we can manage to make them happen. T'was ever thus, and that's what makes life worth living. I got this dream crate in the air and it seems happy there; I intend to keep it that way as long as I can. Happy Plane, Happy Life, right? Not quite as important as Happy Wife, Happy Life... but if you ignore either you might end up extremely dead. If I've learned anything in life, it's that you never know what's going to happen next. The winds will blow, the waves will rise and fall, all you can do is stay the on course as well as possible.
So... thank you all, and Stay Tuned! Happy and Safe Holidays, and I'll see you all next year!
