Prep for post-Pandemic EAA Airventure 2021

Getting ready for Airventure

Where have I been since March of 2018?

I know, I know, where the heck have I been March – certainly not working on an airplane much. Crappy weather, house falling apart – same old excuses and interruptions. I did mange to order some prefabbed fuel pick up lines, Proseal, and a few other things, which also went through their own adventure during shipment. Apparently Fedex decided to all but destroy the original packaging from Vans. Admittedly this was rather package to assemble, because I had ordered a big can of Proseal, and I also ordered a replacement .032 x 12 x 3.5 foot piece of sheet aluminum for the leading edge mod on the right wing, since I screwed up the other one that I had ordered an eternity ago.

Even so, all Fedex had to do was put it on plane, then put it on a truck, and deliver it. Easy – right? Yes, until you factor in the sorting equipment in between each of those phases of delivery. Somewhere  in the middle of all that, a sorting machine got hold  of it and destroyed the packing. Amazingly, they did not seem to damage the parts – just the packaging. I knew something was up because my package did not arrive when I expected it to. When it did finally show up, the cardboard was mangled with packing tape, did not look at all like a Vans package, and had obviously been mangled or torn apart somehow. The only damage was a minor bend on one corner of the sheet aluminum that I ordered, but I also noted that Vans had cut it with the grain running the wrong direction.  A call to Vans took care of that, and a few days later I had the replacement part.

Vans wanted me to take pics of the packaging, which I did, and they confirmed that was not the way that it left their facility. Moral to this story s don’t  trust Fedex with anything. I wanted to use UPS but Vans talked me out of it because “they get a better rate with Fedex.” Next time I will use UPS.

A couple of other things have occurred since I last posted. I had wanted to get a new travel trailer, and decided that this year was the year for that to happen. I wanted something a little newer and larger, with built in air conditioning and a nicer master bed. Not hard to find a better bed, since I had been sleeping on the couch for years. While I was pursuing a new trailer, my truck decided to start nickel and diming me. Time to make a decision – so I spent the past several months researching trucks and trailers, and ended up getting one of each.

Then, as if that was not enough, I decided with all the delays in the plane build that I needed to bite the bullet again and order a quickbuild fuselage for my RV-8 from Vans. So, in the past few months I have acquired a new trailer, truck, and 75% complete airplane fuselage.  Oh, and I also spent the past 2 months trying to sell my old trailer, which finally did sell about a week ago.

To top it all off, work has been a nightmare – that’s about all I am going to say about that. So here I am, several months later, a LOT poorer, completely exhausted, and oh yes, I am writing this in Oshkosh Wisconsin after making the maiden voyage in my new-found ground-based travel machines.  I have been running non-stop for months now and I am completely exhausted. I only had time to throw everything from the old trailer into the new one wherever it would fit – no time to organize. More about the shakeout of the new rig and all about the Airventure 2018 journey in the next posts.

Can you guess what this is?

Had a bit of a surprise this afternoon while I was outside going over some car-related info with my son Adam who recently received his Colorado Driver's license. (Way to go Adam!)

It looked something like this:

While I was busy going over the finer points of jumper cable operation with Adam, he suddenly looked up to see what the deep droning noise was coming from the north. He then said - Isn't that plane flying a little low? Not hearing the engines I looked up and for a split second I agreed, and I thought we were looking at an airplane in trouble, heading right for the house! But then my attention focused on what has become a familiar sound to me over the years, and I realized that this this had to be Aluminum Overcast - the EAA B-17 back once again on its annual pilgrimage around the country just before Airventure arrives on Oshkosh Wisconsin in July.

BTW, the above pic does not do the airplane justice, because it WAS flying very low almost directly over the house. I became less worried when I realized that I could hear all 4 of those wright-cyclone engines purring along just fine, and it was maintaining a constant altitude. I assume it was low to avoid the low overcast ceiling that has invaded the Denver area over the weekend.

I am blessed to live where I live, because the path directly over my house is a natural navigation point from south to north for everything from jets flying over mile high stadium before a Bronco game, to Aluminum Overcast and a whole host of other historic warbirds that occasionally fly almost directly over the house. The bird should be here for the next 2 weeks giving rides and promoting EAA. And all this on the heels of the 70th anniversary of D-Day. I certainly paid my respects, and I hope you all did as well. I will NEVER forget.

Now back to the airplane project.....
I spent time today getting the top skins of the left wing installed after deburring both sides of the rivet holes in the skins, as well as both sides of the holes in the top half of each wing rib. Deburring the back side of the rib flanges has to be one of my top 5 least liked things about building an airplane, because ready-made power tool can get into that location to do the job. I had to take my deburring bit and debur all the back side flange holes by hand.Getting in between all those inboard ribs that are very close together was  a pain.

Prior to re-installing the skins on the frame, I vacuumed out all the tiny remnants laying on the trailing edge from all the drilling. With the top skins back on I could now remove the bottom skins and begin the process of removing vinyl and deburring all those holes. Here are a couple of pics of the bottom skins after the vinyl was removed.

I removed the vinyl from the joggled areas for the inspection plates so that I can prime those areas continue to drill out the holes for the nut plates that will eventually need to be installed. I also deburred the edges and corners on the wing walk doubler since those were still pretty rough. Tomorrow I plan on removing the vinyl from the larger outboard bottom wing skin and beginning the deburring process. Then I'll get to do it all over gain for the right wing. (UGGHHH!).

If you missed Airventure, you missed...(Cont'd)

Continuing from the previous post. Just had a few more things I wanted to mention about the Airventure Experience this year.

- One of the challenges for folks with kids, especially older kids, is what they can do while attending Airventure. This has been identified in feedback received from those that attend AV. Turns out that our new EAA president also has teen-aged kids, and therefore wanted to focus on that concern a bit more this year. There were some neat changes this year. Part of the package of materials you receive when you enter the campground was a notice about a schedule of events for teens, and this included several meet and greet, Pizza parties, and Bon fires at the volley ball courts throughout the week. Unfortunately, the bon fires could not take place, because of a fire ban in Wisconsin due to drought conditions. (Something I know about all too well this year in Colorado) Regardless, they still met at the courts and had a good time.

My son met several new friends that were his age, which I was happy to see. I also learned something new about the association that EAA has with the YMCA in Oshkosh during the event. There is actually a shuttle bus that runs each day between Airventure and the YMCA. Kids less than 10 years old must be accompanied by an adult, but others can go to the Y without an escort. Bus leaves at 1230 each day and returns at about 3:30 or so. This service is free of charge, and the YMCA in Oshkosh is second to none. It even has a full ice skating rink. Adam took advantage of this a couple of times to go play basketball. I also learned from one of the grown ups that they also allow people flying into Airventure to camp on the soccer fields at the Y. campers have full access to allthe ammenities at the Y, including restrooms, showers, etc.

For the trip up and back, and the few times I saw my son during the event, being able to spend time with him was priceless. He is not an aviation enthusiast as I am, but he has enjoyed each of these past two trips. I am hoping I can share a couple more with him before adult life and work and money and girls take over.....

If you are looking for a way to bond with family, Airventure is an excellent way to do that.

- You missed catching up with old friends, or making new ones from all over the world. Mike Rettig introduced me to a group of RV 10 builders that were in the group camp area of Camp Scholler, which is much closer to the main grounds entrance then I am. These were great folks, and the meet and greet pot luck dinner was fantastic.

- Then there was the "after party" back at my trailer where Mike and I proceeded to do a little card playing and drinking. I was consuming some Batch 19 Pre-Prohibition beer from Coors that Scott Mills graciously provided for me as compensation for hauling his gear to OSH and back. Thanks Scott! Then I introduced Mike to a drink with an interesting history that I call the "El Supremo". Sorry, if you want to know more about that drink, you'll just have to travel to Airventure and meet up with me to find out! Needless to say that we were a little snockered by the end of the evening. After a rather tough journey, and some equally tough weather conditions after we arrived, I was in need of some "relief." Thanks Mike.

- I need to take some time to recognize Mike just a bit further. Other than being a great drinking buddy, MIke deserves honorable mention for a hst of other reasons. Earlier this year a series of events unfolded after he became acqainted with a young man by the name of Alex Cuellar, who had aspirations of becoming a pilot. His dreams were suddenly shattered when he was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor. After Alex had visited Mike's RV-10 project, Mike asked Alex if he had ever been to Airventure. A seed had been planted. Then, after hundreds of events and phone calls and inquiries later, this young man and his falther, Allejandro, were on their way to an all expense paid trip to Airventure.

While many folks became involved to make this all happen, Mike was the corner stone that started it, and then coordinated most of the efforts to make it all happen. The VAF community also came together for this young man, who is still recovering from chemo-therapy and fighting for his very life to this day. It was absolutely awe-inspiring to see what a group of people with different aviation-oriented interests and backgrounds could do in just a matter of a few months to make a young man's dream come true. I am very proud to be a member of an organization such as EAA and Vans Air Force, and to know the wonderful people that make up these organizations. Mike - you are tops in my book.

You can see more info about his trip by clicking here.

Just to give a glimpse of some of the things that Alex was able to experience:

1. Transported in RV style to and from Airventure by an RV-10. Thanks Dwight.
2. Interviewed on EAA radio. You can listen to that interview online here. (Note that as of this posting the 2012 AV interviews do not appear to be available quite yet. I am sure they are working on them, so just be patient.)
3. Was introduced and received a standing ovation at the Vans Banquet
4. Got to meet director George Lucas prior to the screening of the Red Tails movie at the Fly In Theater.
5. Got to ride in the B-29 Fifi (Something that I was seriously considering doing this year until vehicle repairs ate up the funds I had budgeted for that.)
6. Got to tour the Airventure grounds and the Museum in style with a golf cart and transportation arranged by EAA. Thanks Chad Jensen and others).

And that is just a taste of what they experienced...... I was blessed to meet Alex and his dad several times throughout the week. I truly wish the best for Alex and his family, and I pray for his full recovery so that he may continue to pursue his dream to be a pilot someday. Cancer sucks.

Mike, you are truly inspirational for your selfless devotion to making this happen. Thank you for all that you did for Alex and his family.

This was probably the highlight of my week - watching a young man get an experience of a lifetime.

- As a parting remeberance for this post, on the last day of the event, I also watched in amazement as a young girl at one of the concession stands proceeded to make the tallest soft serve ice cream cone I have ever seen. By the time she was done, tis thing was at least one foot tall. As she handed it to me, I kept wondering how in the heck I was going to eat this humungous thing. One thing about me, when it omes to ice cream, I will find a way. I managed to down that thing in a matter of minutes, without spilling a drop. This was followed almost immediately by a though from that oldTV commercial that goes something like "I can't believe I ate the whole thing!" Took some more walking to recover from this amazing feat, but that is never a problem when at Airventure, sinec the average person walks about 7 miles per day while they are here.

So, are you going to go to Airventure 2013, or are you going to keep dreaming about it? Make it happen!

If you did not attend Airventure this year, then you missed.....

Now that I have adequately vented about all the less-than-pleasant things that happened on this latest trip to Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, I need to be sure to point out to anyone reading these small slices of my life, that the good times still far outweighed any of the not so good times. Part of the process of going to Airventure is experiencing the journey along the way. Without the journey, the destination would never be reached. The process of building an airplane is no different.

So, to begin with, if you did not make it to Airventure this year, you missed.....

- A great opening day concert with the Steve Miller Band - absolutely awesome show.

- Quiet time to reflect in the Museum - On the hottest day of the week, I sat down in a chair in air conditioned comfort that faced a quiet wall with several pictures of nose art on some aircraft of pilots in WWII from around the region, each with a story about the pilot behind the art. Some survived, and some did not.... Thank you all for your sacrifice. The museum is one of my favorite places to go - hot or cold, rain or shine.

- Watching Team RV perform for the first time at Airventure to honor the founder of Vans Aircraft - Dick Van Grunsven - 20 or 30 some odd RV aircraft, all built by their owners, performing one of the best mass aerobatic performances I have ever seen - truly inspirational stuff.

- Re-enactments of the Pearl Harbor Invasion by the Tora Tora Tora flight from the CAF. I have not seen this re-enactment for many years, but it was still a haunting experience to see just how quickly the Japanese airplanes can turn and re-engage in the attack. The aircraft that are used were replicas built from original plans for the original 1970s movie called Tora Tora Tora.

-  or perhaps you missed the antitheses of that attack that occurred on August 6, 1945, over Hiroshima, as demonstrated here......

- You missed the Vans banquet on Tuesday evening. Admittedly I had a hard time finding this pavilliion which is cleaverly hidden behind several trees and slightly out of sight from the main roads, but once we got there, it was a fantastic experience. Members of Team RV, Vans Staff, and at least 3 hundred other RV-owners, builders, and enthusiasts all came together for food, drink, stories, and just good times had by all.

- You missed the introduction of the new RV-14. This airplane turned out to be a cross between the RV-10 and the RV-7, with a cabin area about 2 inches wider than the RV-7, and wings that hold larger fuel tanks for better cross country endurance. The airplane is also still fully rated for aerobatics. Finally, an RV-7 for big folks, like me. Gotta finish the RV-8 first though!

 - Or maybe you missed the movies at the Ford Fly-in Theater. I absolutely love this feature about Airventure. Drive In movies every night with out the cars - just you, your chairs, free popcorn, and perhaps a favorite beverage, all while sitting under the starsv-just beautiful. This year you missed 633 squadron, 30 seconds over Tokyo, Star Trek, The Rocketeer, Red Tails, and one other one that escapes me at the moment.

- Forums and seminars and workshops galore. If you have questions about how to do something, this is certainly the place to ask the questions and get the correct answers. Due to all the car adn trailer issues I was not able to attend all of the forums that I wanted to, but I did manage to attend the RV Composite Workshop, and part of the discussion about ForeFlight and its product offerings for EFB solutions in the cockpit, as well as one other forum that discussed the future of the unleaded fue movement that will invariably keep heading our way. (Stupid ass tree huggers) - there, now you know my unedited opinion about all that stuff. But I digress....

 - If you did not make it to the Saturday night Airshow, then maybe you missed the most awesome fireworks and night airshow on the planet. Here is a snippet of that to wet your appetite for next year.

- Or perhaps you missed the opportunity to walk amongst a literal sea of homebuild aircraft all over the grounds. I am happy to report that there were reportedly between 475 to 500 RV aircraft present at Airventure this year, once again breaking a record previously held by Cessna for the largest number of same - make aircraft that have landed at Airventure. RVs rule! There are currently about 7700 reported kits currently flying in all parts of the world.

Here are some pics that I took while roaming the grounds:

- Or you may have missed the Old and new flying together. Glacier Girl - a P-38 Lightening dug out of hundreds of feet of ice and fully restored and flying, teamed up with an A-10 Tunderbolt, aka Warthog.

And as if that is not enough..... To be continued......

Survived Another Airventure

Not a very thrilling title for a post about traveling to the worlds greatest aviation gathering, but as I sit here writing this I am still in recovery mode after returning to a busy work week for the past couple of days. This trip was a challenging one on many different fronts. The journey getting there always holds some interesting challenges, and this year was no exception. Not posting any pics on this post as I spent most of my time taking video. Will try to capture that and put some clips on at a later time.

Everything kind of broke down as follows:

1. Did not get underway until 10:00am due to the usual "must work till midnight the night before to save the world" syndrome, which did not leave me enough time to finish packing up the night before. Then, through no fault of his, after simoly following my instructions, my son opened up the water fill port to fill the water tanks in the trailer, but he opened up the wrong one - the one with absolutely nothing hooked to the other side. Why my trailer is configured like this I will never know - it came that way when I bought it. So that flooded the trailer from front to back before I finally saw what was happening. So not the best start I have ever had.

2. Rolled into Omaha at about 7;00PM after a 10 hour drive - stayed in a nice Motel 6 this time due the extreme heat and humidity in that region right now. It was 104 with an index at 109 degrees when we pulled up, only to find that the entire business side of the street that we were on had experienced a power outage only 15 minutes before I arrived. After a mad scramble to find a gas station that still had power, the other side of the street lit up again, and so we checked into the hotel with no further problems.

3. On I-80 the next day about 20 miles west of the I-380 North interchange, my left rear trailer tire completely blew out. In the process it severed all of my trailer brake wires leading to one side of the trailer (See my post from 2009 for a similar experience), and it also completely ripped out the handle of one of my dump valves for one of the water tanks. I have to say I was in fear for my life while changing that tire on the side of the higway while countless numbers of semi trucks moving at 80 mph just a few feet away. The tire had completely blown apart, and the tread had wrapped itself around the axle about 5 times while it proceeded to do the rest of the damage I have already described.

So I got the spare tire on and off we went again, but I was very nervous that we might experience another blowout, so I was a bit on edge for the rest of the trip. As a side note, after I arrived at Oshkosh, I learned how to determine when my tires were manufactured. When I found the DOT date stamp, it indicated that they were all made in June of 1995! IN other words, my trailer tires were about 7 years overdue for a change based on normal operation, and 4 of those 7 years had been spent traveling to Oshkosh and back. They also determined that the other 3 tires were starting to separate, indeed about ready to give way, so I consider myself a bit lucky there. Should have replaced the tires long ago...... live and learn I guess. I always check the tread before I depart but did not pay attention to too much else, like the conidtion of the tire skin in between the treads, etc. Normal life span is about 8-10 years.

4. Oshkosh was also HOT when we arrived, and it was also very humid. I had a real hard time with the weather this year. A couple of days were nice, but the remainder were either rainy, windy, or extremely hot. One storm that came through on Thursday last week had me personally fearing for my life for about 15 minutes, resulted in damage to at least 2 aircraft that I witnessed, and flooded out just about all tents in the homebuilt camping area. Luckily the strong part of the storm was over the Airventure grounds and not so much in the campground area, so the trailer survived that with no problems.

5. Had an episode where a cabinet door gave way and swung out so hard that it broke one of my windows. I had to get creative with Gorilla tape and carboard box and a plastic trash bag to board it all up for the trip home, since I was not successful finding a place that could fix my window up there in Oshkosh. I am still in the process of getting that repaired.

6. If you ever haul an RV up to Oshkosh, remember a company called Quent's Service Center. THis was the place that the EAA Check in folks referred me to when I walked up to them the day after my arrivial with no idea who to contact to try to get some things fixed while I was there. These guys were fantastic, and were able to get me 4 new tires and even came out on site to my location in Camp Scholler to fix the trailer break wires. Yeah I left there with a little less cash in my pcoket than I had originally planned, but they really helped me out quite a bit.

So, as far as the journey was concerned, were there some challenges with getting up there this year - you bet there were. Will that deter me from doing it all over again next year - probably not. There were so many really cool things going on at AV this year that I can hardly wait to see what is in store for next year. I'll recap some of the highlights in another post.

Preparing for Airventure 2012

As I anticipated, I have NOT been able to devote much time to the build over past couple of weeks because I needed to focus on preparing for the long 2000 mile road trip (1000 miles each way) to Airventure in Oshkosh Wisconsin. This will be year number 4 for me, and more importantly it is the fourth year in a row that I will make the pilgrimage and attend the entire event.  So many others are unable to attend the whole thing, and I feel truly blessed to be able to experience it each and every day of the week-long event. Even more important is that my son will be attending the event with me again this year.

I have had to spend some quality time taking care of my home away from home, and I am happy to say that the preparations are almost complete. I usually end up having to amke at least some kind of water system repair from the previous year to my trailer. Maybe one day I will learn how to properly winterize everything, but until then, water system repairs are just part of the norm for me. It was actually not too bad this time - my 23 year old bathroom faucet valves finally decided to stop working, I found another one at HD for 11 bucks to replace it. Then I had a plastic P-trap drain part that was leaking along the seam. My dad offered up a fantastic remedy by using some of that rubber - in - a - spray can stuff to stop the leak, and it seems to have actually worked. I may have to remember that if I ever develop a leak in the airplane someday.

So far the extended weather forecasts for the Wisconsin area look very promising, adn are reminiscent of every other year I have attended excet for 2010, with temps in the comfortable 70s and 80s. VAF has already organized a gathering after the opening day Steve Miller Band concert, and I can't wait to attend that. My week is already chalked full of activities, including banquets, forums, workshops, adn just walking around gawking at airplanes for hours. Truly heaven on earth as far as I am concerned. 

As for the build, I will probably be able to finish straightening and deburring the ribs, and might even be able to start match drilling some of them to the spar, but that will be about it before it is time to depart for Oshkosh. For those of you Attending, I will see you there. For those of you following my blog that have never been - you really have to do this at least once in your lifetime. It is probably the most positive experience I have ever had in my life, and I am almost to a point where I cannot imagine my life without it and the wonderful support from the EAA.

Tail Wheel Endorsement and Aluminum Overcast Visit

One of the things you are ocassionally reminded about during the build is the fact that you just can't stop flying all together while you are building and expect to be able to hop into your new RV aircraft and head for the skies. I have posted about this at various times in the past, and it bares repeating here. An RV is a hot rod high performance aircraft, regardless of how that is defined per the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs). I am constantly amazed by the folks that seem to think that just because you ahve the money and the time, that you will be ready for what is in store when the day finally comes to step into the cockpit and fly it. The most surprising one I encounter are individuals that either do not even have their pilot certificate yet, or low time private pilots with absolutely no experience or flight time in aircraft that are considered complex or high performance, or simply contain advanced flight and avionics systems.
The bottom line is that all of the RV line of aircraft fly very fast, and they are very hard to slow down, and in that respect their flight characteristics are very similar to a Mooney. I was fortunate enough to fly in a Mooney M20J during my commercial instrument training in college, and I have also experienced a multitude of other aircraft that have given me an appreciation for the term "high performance."

Anyway, the bottom line is that whatever you do, you cannot stop flying while you are building, so you have to find a balance. As such, I have decided that now is the time for me to pursue my tail wheel endorsement. I made this decision just about the same time that 2 days worth of absolutely severe weather hit the Denver area, with unGodly amounts if hail, wind, and tornadic activity, all taking their toll across the entire metro area.

I decided to join a local flying club at Centennial Airport, one that I had actually been a member and instructed at many years ago. Aspen Flying Club currently has a Citabria for rent, and I decided to take advantage of that. The bad news is that I always wanted to join to get access to several other Cessna and Piper aircraft, but as it turns out the airport got hit heavily by the hail, and several of the club aircraft, which are all tied down on the ramp, got damaged by the hail. The good news - the Citabria was under a covered parking area and did not get damaged. SO I am in luck as far as tail wheel training is concerned, and I am very happy about that.

Why am I doing this? Well, I am still at a point in the build where I can remain undecided about building a nose wheel or tail dragger airplane, which is an option for most the Vans RV aircraft designs. I do not ahve to commit to this until I am ready to order the fuselage kit. The main reason is that the landing gear location and design is different between the two types of aircraft, so once you start working on the fuselage you have to know which one you want.

I am using the tail wheel endorsement to help me decide which way I want to go. Here are some of the pluses and minuses of going either way:

Tailwheel

Pluses
Cool factor - looks neater and more nostalgic, especially if building a WWII look alike like me.
Clearance of the prop tips from the ground is exceptional = opens up landing at grass or other soft fields.
Allows different sizes and choices of prop and engine - moreso that nosewheel airplane.
Better ground handling
Easier to enter/exit the cabin and aircraft (No additional foot step weldment required)
More difficult to inspect under the wing at critical flight control attach points

Minuses
Requires constant stick and rudder skills to keep from groundlooping during landing
Forward visibility during initial takeoff and finl landing phase is almost nil
Difficult to tie the tail down securely
Nose over and flip over potential if breaking too hard or a brake locks up
Harder to take off and land in cross wind conditions
May be more difficult to start due to angular differences of fuel tanks, gravity working against you, and more dependence on fuel pumps working correctly.

Nose Wheel
Pluses
Forward visibility always during take off and landing
Better cross wind handling on take off and and landing due to shorter moment between center of gravity/lift and the location of the nose wheel compared to same with a tail wheel (longer moment)
Fuel tanks level - easier starting at all fuel levels in the tank
Forward CG forces nose to come down onto nose gear and angle of attack of wing to reduce, aiding in landing stability (tail wheel down forces the wing to go to a positive angle of attack).
Shorter moment of nose wheel results in less sensative steering control (can also be a minus)

Minuses
Less cool factor than for a taildragger RV, but in my opinion it will look cool either way
Harder to enter/exit the cabin. Big drop off the back wing, and must only load one person at a time or airplane tail will strike the ground hard.
Prop is much closer to the ground - limits prop sizes and choices, and potential for prop strike is increased.
Vans nose wheel design on their "A" model aircraft has been under some scrutiny, and is considered a weak point in their design by some. This is due to a number of accidents that appear to have involved a nosewheel collapse to one degree or another.

My personal thoughts on this go back to my opening paragraphs about level of skill and ability. Throughout my flight instructing career, I have yet find a private pilot with the takeoff and landing skill and precision experienced by those that continue their training for a commercial pilot certificate. Therefore, private pilots without the benefit of this additional level of skill and training are much more prone to performing bad landings where the nose gear can experience a large degree of punishment. I think that many of these nose gear failure incidents in RV airplanes can be at least partially, if not entirely attributed to improper landing technique by the pilot. Proper take off and landing technique should significantly reduce, if not entirely eliminate all nose gear failure episodes in RV airplanes IMHO.

So, I signed up at the club today, and it also turns out that the EAA-owned B-17 Flying Fortress, Aluminum Overcast, is in town this week to support the Rocky Mountain Aerospace Museum. Unfortunately, the folks on the ground really messed this one up as well, and did not put the aircraft in a hangar when the hail arrived either. The B-17 has cloth aileron, elevator, and rudder surfaces, and they were all damaged beyond reasonable repair. The aluminum skins were also damaged, but not nearly to the extent of the control surfaces. Here are some pics of the damage:

And I thought my ailerons were big - holy cow!

And here is the aluminum skin damage all over the airplane

Now if you are like me, this is just nothing less than very sad to see. Why did they leave it outside? As far as I am concerned, screw the business jets and protect the heritage of our past to the Nth degree. These eloquent pieces of machinery protected and served our country jsut as much as the service men and women did, and they deserve just as much care and attention again IMHO. Truly ashame that this happened, adn if this was due to decision or lack of decisions made by our own local FBOs, then shame on them.

Now, having said all that, the good news is that EAA knows how to ahndle these situations, and much to my surprise, when I arrived, I learned that EAAD had already transported two new ailerons and two new elevators all they way from Oshkosh to Denver by ground transport shown below, and they had already removed the damaged ones adn mounted the new ones in place. Truly spectacular!

Nice to see my annual EAA dues put to good use. SO the word is that they will have to finish installing some spacers and hardware and reconnect everything, get it inspected, and they expect to have this all done in time for flights to be conducted by next weekend. Ground tours are still being conducted, adn the min event is open to the public through tomorrow at Signature FLight Services Hangar on the south side of the airport. You can fly the B-17 on MS flight simulator (I crashed the first couple of times but eventually got the hang of it - very cool). Hangar Dance is this evening - wish I had someone to go with. SO the airplane will be here through next weekend - if you are local you should definitely come out and see it - maybe even sign up for a ride. There is much more to see and do, especially for the kids.

Here is a picture show of some of the other attractions:

I really like this next one. Don't forget to click on each of the pics to get a larger resolution image with much better detail. :)

As a final thought, at one point I was just standing under the nose of the B-17, when I noticed something odd. On the bottom of the clear nose cone, sitting in what appeared to be a puddle of water, I found a rubber ducky just sitting there looking, well, ducky I guess. Never expected to see that. Right at that same moment, a gentleman by the name of Mike Niles from Bomber group 490 that flew as a bombradier during WWII in the B-17, asked me if I knew anything about the Norden bombsight. (He thought I was staring at the bomb site, and I did not have the heart to tell him that I was staring at a rubber ducky sandwiched in between the plexiglass and the frame of the airplane.

 Can you see the duck?

Anyway, as I have written in previous posts about similar encounters I have had when speaking with several other veterans, I became absolutely fascinated by all ythe stories he was telling me. But before he started on those, he told me that the bomb sight that is installed on aluminum overcast is pretty close to the actual real thing. He explained how the course correction and other sight alignment knobs worked, adn explained to me in detail how the ahnd off between the pilot and bombradier was performed in preparation for and during the bomb run. Absolutely fascinating. We must have spoken for about 25 minutes before e begged off saying "I am sure I ahve bored you to death already," to which I replied - "Absolutely not!It is the details about how some of this was done that I have always yearned for, and evey opportunity I get to speak with someone that is willing to tell the stories and divulge some of that detail is what I long for." Then I thanked him for service, shook his hand, and we parted ways. As I walked away I could not help but get the same feeling that I have had many times before during similar moments, that this was probably the first and the last time I would ever get to speak with this gentleman, and how truly blessed I am for having had the opportunity to do so. God bless our servicemen and women.

I will divulge more of the stories from Mr. Niles in future posts, as they are quite fascinating. This one has become long enough that I should probably close for now and go get some dinner. More rib work scheduled for this evening hopefully.

Oshkosh Airventure 2011 Recap - 7-25-11 through 7-31-2011

Time for those happy photos I spoke of in my previous post. Day one for me was actually 7-21-11 - departed about 10:00 am with kid and trailer in tow. My RV 10 builder and friend Mike Rettig was the only one to take me up on hauling gear for them this year. Thought that was a bit strange, given how many took me up on it last year, but no sweat off my back. First shot is the kid trying to work the camera to get a shot of the water tank in the town of York, NE, which is a couple hundred miles west of Omaha, where I park for the day to rest. It is painted and shaped like a big hot air baloon.

Of particular concern for me on this trip was the flooding of the Missouri River near Omaha. It was 6 feet above flood stage, and had been that way since April, but the crossing on I-80 in Omaha was still clear. the only trouble I had on this trip was almost getting killed by an asshole truck driver hauling onions that kept playing cat and mouse with me for about 10 miles, and another one that was decidedly drunk or high and could not keep his rig on the road. We managed to survive both of those episodes. ON the lighter side, we also saw more Ag Cats spraying crops along the highway, but did not get any pics unfortunately.

Stayed in a KOA campground on the west side of Omaha. Nice campground - just can't stand the heat and the humdity. I always get a site with electical hookup so I can run the fans in the trailer. These are the times where I wish I had an AC unit. Day two on the road is always full of anticipation, cuz that's the day we finally get to Oshkosh. total trip length one way is 1,024 miles. I take I-25 to I-76 to I-80, then a short leg north in Iowa on I-380 until I hook up with I 151 for the remainder of the trip.

Arrived in KOSH and set up camp in Camp Scholler again. This year I was on 23rd St. between Lindbergh and Elm, in the same general location as in years past. Trailer was facing east so I could watch the afternoon airshows from under the sun shade on the front of my trailer. This is still a great location because it ends up being about a half mile from the runway, so most of the airshow planes end up flying right over the trailer from time to time, so can get some great close up photos.

I took Adam around the grounds on Saturday to get him familiar with everything. Had to run back to the trailer to avoid lightening storms that moved in late in the afternoon. Sunday was fishing day. got up at 3:00am to make the drive from Oshkosh south to Fon du Lac, and then East to Sheboygan where the boat was located on Lake Michigan. Drive time was about 1.5 hours, and the planned departure was about 5:00am. I was OK with the early nature of the trip, but I was not OK with making it in torrential flooding rain storms and lightening. Almost as soon  as we headed south toward Fon du Lac, it started coming down heavily. About 20 miles from Sheboygan Adam and I agreed that it was not looking real good, adn I was afraid that the roads were starting to flood, so we turned around and headed back to Fon du Lac to wait out the storm. Nothing like being on an unfamiliar country road in the middle of nowhere, wiht sheet rain and lightening coming down all around you. A cople of phone calls to the captain of the boat resulted in a change in plans for a delayed departure at 6:00am to allow the storms to pass, which they did.

Here is the kid on the boat as we depart, with his cookie monster hat and aviator sun glasses, ready for fishin...

On the flying bridge of the boat with the captain.....




Fish ON!

And the only catch of the day - a 10 pound Koho Salmon! Great catch son! Hard to believe we only caught one fish. We had no less than 12 lines out on this boat at one time. Problem was the weather had caused the fish to stop feeding. There were tons of fish in the harbor, but nothing would bite.

Fishin was slow. We were done for the day - heading back to the bay after being on the boat for about 5 hours. It was a fun day, even if we only caught one fish, and even though it wasn't one of those 25 pound King Salmons that I had hoped for. The crew cleaned and packaged the fish for us, and we were on our way back to Oshkosh.

Either later that same day, or perhaps on Monday morning, we went to the museum. Adam found the kidventure area and we had a ball playing on the simulators. I did not take a lot of pics or video on this trip. Focused mainly on forums and the museum, and events like listening to Bob Hoover and Chuck Yeager speak about their experiences, attending REO Speedwagon concert on Monday, and the Lt Dan Band with Gary Sinese on Friday, etc., etc. Main focus was just having a good time with my son. There is never a shortage of things to do in Oshkosh during Airventure.

Fifi, the only flying B-29, arrives at KOSH!

Next is an example of the price of hot doggin' and not paying attention to the details. From what I learned from eye witness accounts, this is an F-16 from the Alabama National Guard, which had run off the runway during an attempted landing, landed way too long, and subsequently departed the runway, caved in the nose gear, and ended up nose down in the infield. I was about 150 yards away at the time at the Van's tent. According to Mike and Aneta Rettig, this pilot was erratically flying his airplane during the flight, and so I guess the outcome is no suprise. I was concerned because by the time I took this pic, flames were coming out of the back of the engine, and the fire department seemed to take forever to get there. The aircraft remained in that position for the remainder of airventure, an eyesore to the rest of the event... Chuck Yeager, being the military man that he is, had some harsh words for that pilot - suggesting that he should quit. I guess I would be inclined to agree if pilot foolishness was the true cause of this accident.

the Boeing 787 arrives. Also a disappointing event. It was only there for a half day, and nobody but VIPs got a chance to look inside the airplane. Very pretty aircraft - and is the only composite-built airliner in the world.

And a photo gallery......

Shutter malfunction. More T-6s/SNJs than you could count

The amazing storey of Glacier girl...

Chatting with Bob Hoover. What an extraordinary life - - escaped from a POW camp at the end of WWII in a Focke Wolf 190, became airshow airboss at Reno, Stunning airshow performances in the Shrike and the Aerocommander, acquainted with Charles Lindbergh, just amazing....

A real one.....

And a half scale kit called the T-51 that you can build and fly....

Lt Dan band concert in Theater in the Woods

Celebrating 100 years of naval aviation - The only Curtiss SB2C Helldiver remaining in the world today, and a present day F-18 in formation, right over the trailer.... SWEET!

Me and the kid at the "Official" front gate of Airventure

Mike and Aneta Rettig, and the kid at the gate. This was Aneta's first trip to Oshkosh - famous quote - "Sure is a lot of walking!" Good times had by all. Smores at the campfire at the Raley camp site, home made pizza at the Rettig camp site, Movie nights at the fly in theater, attending the Lt Dan Band concert together, talking airplanes and such, all good times. Oh, and for the kid - he met some good friends at the DJ tent and I basically never saw him for about 3 days as he was having a blast hanging out with them.

Lots of good memories on this trip. Already looking forward to next year.  I have some video of the night Airshow on the final Saturday night that I will try to upload in the next post.

Oshkosh Airventure 2011 Interrupts the build!

At about 302 hours I had rolled the leading edge rudder skins and did my best to finish closing the skins and pop riveting them together. It became clear that my initial rudder bend had actually worked so well that I ended up over-bending the skins. This created some problems when I tried to insert pop rivets in the last couple of holes in the bottom section. The inside skin would cleco OK to the outerskin, since the shaft of the cleco is long enough to reach inside, but as soon as I let loose of the cleco to try to insert the pop rivets. the inside skin would tuck away from the outer skin to the point that the pop rivet would not be long enough to grab hold of the hole in the inner skin, no matter how hard I tried to push in on the outer skin to close up the gap.

At this point I had about 1.5 weeks remaining till Oshkosh, and it felt like I was in hell week trying out for the Navy Seals just so I could finally get head up to Airventure 2011. The trailer was in the shop for some needed brake repairs which I had to force them to make twice before the problem was finally resolved. I learned after I got back that the tech that supposedly worked on them the first time was fired after failing to properly fix my problem. Apparently he had done the same thing to two other customers before me, so the shop manager cut him loose. I have read some stories about aircraft mechanics doing essentially the same thing while working on some airplanes. Just one more reason why I only trust myself to work on MY airplane when the time comes.

Work was also making me insane, since I was finishing up a project that I had worked on for the last 10 months. I was also in the middle of refinancing my house after seeing that interest rates had finally fallen lower than my current rate, so I was going through all that crap as well. When I hit the problem with closing up the rolled leading edges of the rudder, I had had enough for a while. The "so-close-but-yet-so-far routine with the rudder, combined with all the other madness that was happening around me, was really wearing me down. So I suspended the build to give me enough time to deal with everything else and placed also focus on preparing for Oshkosh.

This trip to Airventure 2011 was special for me. My youngest son Adam decided to tag along. I sort of half bribed him to come along by offering to charter a fishing boat to do some fishing on Lake Michgan, since we would be "in the neighborhood." In the end he had a great time, and even voluntarily mentioned to me that he could not wait to go back next year. That was music to my ears, and it was the reaction that had hoped he would have.


Some pics of where I left off on the rudder
All covered up to prime the leading edge of the inside skin:

Top and middle sections rolled, bent into final pistion by hand, and clecoed into place. Right side of the lower half still needs to be rolled. Many others before me had siad to do this in sections and don't try to roll all three sections at the same time. Exactly what I did.

Close up showing that the skins seem to be  butted up against each other nicely. What you don't see is the extreme curvature of the inside skin. So at least the kerf seemed to do its job by allowing the skins to lay flat against each other.

This last shot starts to show how "over" bent the inside skin became after I coaxed the skin into the final position. so that the holes of both skins would line up more or less in along the center line of the spar. If you look back at some of the early photos takne right after I performed the bend with tube, you will notice that the flanges and holes are almost 90 degrees perpendicular to the rest of the rudder skin. IN this pic, you now see just how much further I had to bend the skins over just so that the holes of both skins would overlap so that you can apply the pop rivets to close them up. Not real happy at all with the turn out of this. In fact, this is where I stopped taking pictures. You can just see the curl of the edge of the skin, and how it is obviosly now more than 90 degrees opposed to the spar, or starting to tuck further inward. This is the problem I spoke of earlier. The combination of hand forcing the skin into position the rest of the way and the over bent edges that resulted, is what caused the difficulties with the pop rivets. I will take more pics showing the crappy but still acceptable result of attaching the leading edges with the pop rivets, adn then you will understand even better what I am talking about. I will do pics of Oshkosh next cuz rehashing this process is painful, and I need some "happy" photos to take my mind off of the crappy result I got.