Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

Been a long time since the last update. I’ve been busy with many things including: the annual condition inspection, getting the plane ready for a big trip to Tucson, and flying to Tucson for a week to visit my folks with my daughter.

The condition inspection went great. It took a lot longer than I expected, but I didn’t find anything major. I did a few other minor tasks while I was doing the inspection including installing the interior (finally) and putting some primer on the wheel pants and leg fairings. I was also trying out the Bruce’s Custom Cover in this picture.

Now for the interesting stuff. The trip to Tucson.

Here we are before launch in Renton.

We didn’t really take many pictures on the way down. It was pretty marginal weather through Oregon. We waited out a storm in Roseburg, and then forged on through the Siskiyous following I-5 all the way. Here’s all we saw of Mount Shasta.

This was a funky little hill to the west of Shasta.

Once we got through to Redding, it was clear skies the rest of the way. We overnighted in Bakersfield as we burned up too much time in Oregon. From Bakersfield to Tucson was a particularly boring stretch of flying. Lots of desert and not much else.

After some restful days in sunny Tucson, it was too quickly time to return home.

I’m glad I’m based out of a fairly sleepy airport. I’m not sure I’d want to deal with these commercial and Air National Guard guys on a regular basis.

We had to wait for about 8 F-16s to take off before crossing to the right runway. I was also a little worried the Southwest jet was going to light ‘em up while turning onto the runway, but thankfully he didn’t blast us. It was cool to see the afterburners light up as these guys made their noisy launch into the sky.

Again the stretch from Tucson to Bakersfield was long and boring and this time with a 30 knot headwind instead of tailwind. Lovely. Not much to see from 8500′. This was somewhere SW of Phoenix. Even though we were out in the middle of nowhere, there was usually always some sign of mankind on the horizon.

This was a weird little development SE of Blythe, CA. Not sure why these people want to be hours from civilization and yet right next to their neighbors.

These were some mountains in the San Bernardio National Forest.

We stopped in Lancaster, CA for comparatively cheap fuel and lunch. They have a couple of really nice covered picnic tables set up in the grass near the transient parking area. We watched a Caravan do several land-and-taxi-backs with a huge pattern in between. They got in about 3 in 20 minutes. That must be an expensive way to learn landings.

Hills outside of Bakersfield.

Mountains east of Fresno, and Fresno itself. After miles and miles of nothing, it was cool whenever we’d fly over a city.

One thing I noticed all along the route was the relatively low levels in the reservoirs. Hopefully that was just a seasonal thing. Here’s the New Don Pedro Reservoir.

On the ground, you never really notice mines. They sure are ugly from the sky. This is a mine outside of (appropriately named) Copperopolis.

Lake Oroville.

We stopped again in Redding for (more expensive) fuel and a snack. Temp was in the upper 80s and the OAT read 108°F before take off. The take off roll was certainly longer than I’m used to because of the density altitude.

From this point on it was like the tour of the mountains. Mount Shasta put on a spectacular show as we flew right by it.

The Sisters.

Here’s my co-pilot taking a break from the charts to play some Game Boy. She really did a great job comparing our progress on the charts to the GPS and I even taught her how to find ATIS and tower frequencies on the chart and plug them into the SL-40.

Mount Hood was a particularly welcoming sight, as it’s right outside Portland. Of course now I can’t remember which is Hood and which is Jefferson.

Flew directly over the Portland airport with a great view of downtown on the river.

Mount Rainier on the left and Mount Saint Helens on the right. The second picture adds Mount Adams on the far right. Not many days when you can see the entire chain of volcanoes from Rainier down to Shasta.

And finally our hometown volcano, Rainier.

We were on Flight Following for the entire trip from Tucson up to Renton. Joshua Approach dropped us, but it otherwise worked great all the way up.

It certainly felt great to fly into my home airport and make the final landing of the day. All in all, a fun trip. 8+ hours in a small plane makes for a long day. Not sure I’d do it again in one stretch, but I’m glad the whole trip went off without a hitch.

Yesterday was my lucky day. Renton airport called and informed me that a hangar became available. I was actually #7 on the list, but the hangar is in a tight spot, so the first 6 people passed. The apron is only about 32′ wide out front. A little tight, but doable for an RV. I went and looked at it today, and wrote a check for the first month’s rent. Renton is much closer to my house than Auburn, and will make it much easier to get the plane finished down at the hangar.

Now I just need to sell the hangar at Auburn (S50). Anybody need a nice condo hangar?

John Adams asked if I wanted to ride down with him to Van’s Homecoming in his RV-7. Of course! I thought about going down on my own, but it would take forever in a 172.

We flew in loose formation with Mike Robbins in his RV-8 with his friend Terry. John’s got a fixed pitch prop (for now), so Terry was rubbing it in that he caught up in about a minute eventhough he took off after us.

It was an extremely hazy day. This is downtown Seattle with Mount Rainier barely visible in the background. I can’t remember a day that was so clear overhead and yet so hazy looking toward the horizon.

The trip down was just over an hour, but it felt like 15 minutes. I’ve driven many times between Seattle and Portland and it is a boring drive. Flying on the other hand, especially in an RV, is the only way to go. Here we are on final to Aurora.

There were several RV’s departing. How often do you see an RV traffic jam?

Quite a few planes showed up. I’d guess there were many 50. Hard to capture in a few photos as the planes were spread out all over.

Vans had the factory doors wide open for everyone to wander around. AFS and Trutrak had their products on display. The first picture is the screen I hope to be getting soon. The second shows the Trutrak product. It’s definitely a different display.

Lots of quickbuilds on the shelves ready to go. I visited the factory a few years ago, but they have many more QBs on the shelf now. The wings are 3 deep up there!

I snapped some paint jobs that I liked. I’m leaning toward white with a simple stripe or two down the side.

After lunch, we were back on our way home. This gaggle of 3 RV’s pulled in right behind us and there were 5 more behind them.

We flew over East Bremerton and Poulsbo on the way home. Lots of people out in boats enjoying the day.

And here’s the trusty steed that got us there and back.

Awesome flight. Thanks John. Now I’m really motivated get my bird finished up.

Went up to the NWEAA fly-in at Arlington with my friend Jeff today. It was much the same as last year. I was able to see the Advanced Flight Systems EFIS. It looks great. One vendor also had a Grand Rapids EFIS in a panel. I’m happy with my decision to go with the AFS-3400.

I stopped by the Cleaveland display and picked up a couple of tools and took a look at their fuel selector handle. It indeed looks very nice, so I bought one. Mike said he’s also working on some sort of elevated plate to go underneath the handle to take up the gap. Here’s the before and after picture.

After the show, we went out for a little cruise on my friend Steve’s newly acquired boat. It was an absolutely perfect day to be out on the water. While we were out, a train went by on shore carrying four 737 fuselages. Looked very cool.

I also borrowed the big crimper from Steve. I’m going to use this to make the battery, alternator, and starter cables.

No actual work done on the plane today, but had a blast!

I rented a 172 and took the family up to Friday Harbor for lunch. Fun flight, but warm. Adele was snapping pictures like crazy from the back seat. Here are a few of the better ones. The first few pictures are of Mt. Baker.

The next is the Cascades over Lake Washington and Puget Sound.

Tail of the plane with Mt. Rainier visible in the background. And another shot of Mt Rainier over the skyline (with a little window glare).

Tons of sailboats outside of Shilshole Marina. (There were tons of sailboats outside of Shilshole, but as my buddy Steve pointed out, this is actually Elliott Bay Marina. Doh!)

Space Needle and skyline. The approach to KBFI is a very cool flight by downtown.

And Home, Sweet Home, KBFI.

I did a little tinkering on the panel attach angles, but just didn’t feel well. I think I got too dehydrated on the flight up and back. I ended up taking a rare afternoon nap.

I took the day off from work and went with my friends Jeff and Keith to the Northwest EAA Fly-in at Arlington. It was drizzly and the first day of the fly-in, so it was fairly quiet. However, that’s the best time to talk with vendors. I picked up a couple of tools (a chip chaser, and a narrow bucking bar) from Clear Air Tools. Clear Air is also making their own adjustable set for squeezers that looks 300% better than the current standard for amount the same price. Too bad I’m almost done squeezing rivets.

I talked with Mahlon Russel from Mattituck for a while. They had a TMX-360 on display that looked very cool. I excited about getting the engine delivered later in the year.

I also checked out Aircraft Extras exhaust systems. The 4-into-1 exhaust looks really slick and claims to increase power by 4-5 hp. I think it was about $1200. Compared to the Van’s crossover exahust for $800, I’m not sure it’s worth that much extra expense.

The highlight of the show was seeing the first public appearance of Dynon’s new big screen flight instrument. They’ll be making a big splash with it at Osh Kosh, taking orders in a few weeks, and delivering soon after that. These guys take a great product and make it even better. It’s the same basic display as the smaller cousin, but everything is spread out more and the text is even more clear. I didn’t measure the unit, but it’s at least twice as big in a wider format. The depth of the unit is also much, much less than the original–maybe 4 inches. It won’t be available at first delivery, but eventually the software will be updated to be able to bring over the engine monitoring information onto 1/3 of the flight display. They are also working on a wide-screen version of the engine monitor. They also have thoughts about adding some GPS-based information, such as ground track but nothing like a moving map. Overall the unit looks awesome.

I rented a 172 and flew down to the Home Wing Fly-in down in Scappoose, Oregon. It was fairly cloudy and bumpy all the way down and back, but otherwise a nice flight. We would have gotten nice views of Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens if it had been clear. Oh well.

Julie and Adele flew with me, although I think they were quickly bored of looking at RVs.

Adele took a ton of pictures from the back seat. Here’s just a couple.

This is a picture of an RV squandron that did some formation flying overhead. They’re difficult to see, but they’re landing one after another in this shot.

This RV had a cool paint job. Kind of like an old Corvette.

I guess it was a day for spending big money. In addition to confirming my engine order, I put money down on a condo hangar. Ideally, I would like to keep my plane at Boeing Field (KBFI) or Renton (KRNT). They’re both within 30 minutes of my house. However, hangar availability at either one is very limited. I’ve been on the waiting list at Renton for 1.5 years, and they’re no indication one will be available any time soon.

The next closest airport is Auburn (KS50), about 45 minutes from my house in clear traffic (a rarity around here). They have pretty good availability on rental hangars and a condo hangar project is just finishing up. I don’t really need a hangar quite yet, but there are only 5 T-hangars left in the condo project. The ability to finish out the hangar with insulation, drywall, plumbing, electrical and even a loft is very appealing. I decided to take the plunge and buy one. Take a look at Andy Karmy’s hangar pictures to see an example of what can be done with them. The company building the hangars is called Aviation Properties.

Adele and I spent the weekend at Camp Orkila for a Y Princesses camp out. Since this is our last year in the program, I decided to make it special and fly up in a rented Cessna. Lots of other dads flew up in sea planes as you can see here:

Adele took some pictures on the flight “home”. The first is a look back at Eastsound on Orcas Island. The second picture is us landing at Skagit Regional on the way home.

The “Volt” annunciator illuminated on the way home. The ammeter and voltmeter confirmed that there was something wrong with the electrical system. I flipped the alternator main off and on a few times with no affect. At that point, I turned off the second radio and the ADF and found a place to land. Once on the ground, I consulted the owners manual, which suggested checking the alternator circuit breaker. It was not tripped. The battery may have lasted long enough to get to Boeing Field, but I decided I did not want the possibility of flying in there without a radio and transponder. Galvin (where I rented the plane) was nice enough to send someone up to fetch us, eventually.

I used WishZone.com to give some hints for good presents for my birthday this year. My parents sprang for the Emergency Locator Transponder, and my in-laws bought the com and transponder antenna. Very nice.

Julie (with a little guidance from me) found a great present. There’s a local guy, Bruce Williams, that owns an Extra 300L and does aerobatic training. Julie bought me a spin & recovery training package. Bruce has his plane up here in Seattle only during the summers. In May I’ll be able to do the training. I’m really looking forward to it.

I also ordered the Airflow Performance fuel pump and filter kit from Van’s a few days ago, which coincidentally arrived today. This pump is only required for a fuel injected engine, which is what I’m planning on using. It looks like a pretty straight-forward assembly (as with most of Van’s stuff) with some tricky tube bending. It wasn’t absolutely necessary to get this kit right now, but I wanted the parts to finish the cabin covers. The pump and filter look very cool. I guess they should for how much the things cost.