I have been reading the Van’s Air Force website for about eight years now, always impressed by those that venture out of their local radius and into unknown places. I was always inspired by Vlad, the teacher that lives in southern California (his name escapes me), and others.
I married my wife three years ago and we had a distance challenge, she lived 735 miles away. As I drove down the freeway on one of the long trips, I thought this is crazy; I have driven 100,000 miles back and forth. I needed a plane and to finish my private pilot’s license. I pulled up Barnstormers and found a sexy little RV-4.
I started flight training in my home town and tailwheel training in her town. I was making great progress…. Then COVID hit. My tailwheel instructor was 83, she stopped training. At the same time, my private pilot training that I was taking on a military base came to a screeching halt as they shut down the flying club. Nine months later, I started my training again. Between trips, winter weather, and instructor availability, three more months passed and I took my exam passing with a 98, and passing my check ride the next week, the first week in February of this year.
My next challenge was finding an instructor to provide transition training in the RV-4. Found an awesome instructor who was an aerospace engineer and so we spoke the same language. I finished my tailwheel and transition training in June. Since I had only flown Cessna 152’s , 172’s, and a Citibria, I had quite the challenging flying the RV with the controls stick only moving in a one inch square.
Now with the proper endorsements, I headed to the airport every chance I had, particularly with when the winds were a strong crosswind. Breezes are generally light and down the runway in the summer. In my primary flight training, we were limited to 7 knot crosswinds and winds below 15 knots. Best crosswind I could find in the RV over the summer was 11 knots and I did not seem to have any challenges but I knew that I it would be a reasonable assumption that I would see stronger crosswinds on trips of any distance. At my local airport, we have buildings and trees on approach, so I had experienced the turbulence down low on final. I wondered what crosswinds I might encounter on the trip but planned to keep a watchful eye on the weather.
I planned a cross country trip from northern Alabama to Utah, Idaho, and Montana. The week before departure, a hurricane formed on the Gulf of Mexico and I can remember thinking that it would pass and I would probably have great weather on departure. As my work week began, I had no time to think about the trip or getting ready. As I arose on Friday morning to begin preparations, the clouds were heavy, low, and marginal VFR conditions existed. The weather forecast was for heavy rains for the next seven days. It turns out the hurricane had been downgraded to a tropical storm and it sat on the Louisiana coast for a week. The moisture had just started to migrate to north Alabama.
Unsure of my departure, I headed to the airport to prepare the plane. One of the items I wanted to do was to remove the back seat controls so that the supplies that I had planned on carrying could not interfere. About two months prior, Dale “Snort” Snodgrass Crashed and died in Lewiston ID. As he was a very experienced aviator, one theory was that there were items in the back seat that interfered with the controls. I do not know what the cause was, but it made me want to preclude flight control interference as a potential issue in my plane. I made an aluminum plate and covered the control mechanism after removal of the rear control stick. That worked really well and I think was a smart move. I installed it with pop rivets but long term I think I will add some nut plates so that it can be removed and reinstalled as needed. I do not think I would travel with items in the back seat and have the controls exposed. I performed a detailed preflight inspection and added full oil for the flight assuming that the weather would clear.
To be continued......
I married my wife three years ago and we had a distance challenge, she lived 735 miles away. As I drove down the freeway on one of the long trips, I thought this is crazy; I have driven 100,000 miles back and forth. I needed a plane and to finish my private pilot’s license. I pulled up Barnstormers and found a sexy little RV-4.
I started flight training in my home town and tailwheel training in her town. I was making great progress…. Then COVID hit. My tailwheel instructor was 83, she stopped training. At the same time, my private pilot training that I was taking on a military base came to a screeching halt as they shut down the flying club. Nine months later, I started my training again. Between trips, winter weather, and instructor availability, three more months passed and I took my exam passing with a 98, and passing my check ride the next week, the first week in February of this year.
My next challenge was finding an instructor to provide transition training in the RV-4. Found an awesome instructor who was an aerospace engineer and so we spoke the same language. I finished my tailwheel and transition training in June. Since I had only flown Cessna 152’s , 172’s, and a Citibria, I had quite the challenging flying the RV with the controls stick only moving in a one inch square.
Now with the proper endorsements, I headed to the airport every chance I had, particularly with when the winds were a strong crosswind. Breezes are generally light and down the runway in the summer. In my primary flight training, we were limited to 7 knot crosswinds and winds below 15 knots. Best crosswind I could find in the RV over the summer was 11 knots and I did not seem to have any challenges but I knew that I it would be a reasonable assumption that I would see stronger crosswinds on trips of any distance. At my local airport, we have buildings and trees on approach, so I had experienced the turbulence down low on final. I wondered what crosswinds I might encounter on the trip but planned to keep a watchful eye on the weather.
I planned a cross country trip from northern Alabama to Utah, Idaho, and Montana. The week before departure, a hurricane formed on the Gulf of Mexico and I can remember thinking that it would pass and I would probably have great weather on departure. As my work week began, I had no time to think about the trip or getting ready. As I arose on Friday morning to begin preparations, the clouds were heavy, low, and marginal VFR conditions existed. The weather forecast was for heavy rains for the next seven days. It turns out the hurricane had been downgraded to a tropical storm and it sat on the Louisiana coast for a week. The moisture had just started to migrate to north Alabama.
Unsure of my departure, I headed to the airport to prepare the plane. One of the items I wanted to do was to remove the back seat controls so that the supplies that I had planned on carrying could not interfere. About two months prior, Dale “Snort” Snodgrass Crashed and died in Lewiston ID. As he was a very experienced aviator, one theory was that there were items in the back seat that interfered with the controls. I do not know what the cause was, but it made me want to preclude flight control interference as a potential issue in my plane. I made an aluminum plate and covered the control mechanism after removal of the rear control stick. That worked really well and I think was a smart move. I installed it with pop rivets but long term I think I will add some nut plates so that it can be removed and reinstalled as needed. I do not think I would travel with items in the back seat and have the controls exposed. I performed a detailed preflight inspection and added full oil for the flight assuming that the weather would clear.
To be continued......