Today, instead of reporting the RV news over the last 24 hours that I've gathered, I'm just gonna walk you through how my Tuesday morning went. RV Community 101 and what you should expect if you’re still building (or thinking about it).
It was 33°F when I woke up, and other than the normal computer stuff, the thing I really needed to accomplish today was taking the battery out of one of our vehicles. It's a little over three years old and was struggling during this last cold spell so I'm gonna go get a new one. I need to take it out. That's pretty much the bullet point that had to get done, other than the usual computer time.
Showing up at the airport, the sky was nice and the wind 00000KT. New plan - take the RV-6 up for a quick spin. It’s been a few weeks. I have some side work coming up in a couple of days, last Saturday we were covered in snow and I spent Sunday in the sim. I've learned over the years to leave the RV ready to go because you never know really when you might get a couple of hours free.
The whole point of the flight at this point was to just shake the dust off during a good WX window and make sure I could still get up and down with a semblance of professionalism. Perishable skill.
Push the airplane out and pre-flight things, positioning the airplane on a reflective marker I use as a chock. Our taxiway has a slight incline. Took my phone out and got a picture of the tail wheel up against that reflector, thinking that would make a nice splash image for the next day’s VAF news edition. Nice patina and slung grease.
Spent seven or so minutes idling there on the taxiway warming the oil up and crossed the runway to taxi to 17. As I'm doing this I catch sight of my friend Ross’ Jeep up at the north end. Imagine that. Taxi up a little further and see his hangar door is open. A little more and there is the spinner of his airplane in view and…….no blades. Holy crap, his airplane is running.
Scorch, Duggy. Go. 22.75. Scorch is up. Just going up for a bit, you? Gainesville for gas - want some time on the wing? Yep.
New new plan. Short, concise, to the point briefing by my lead over the radio that we've done dozens of times, and then back over to CTAF. Climbing left turn off 17 for the join up and aboard before the 180 turn north. Lead drags me straight through the center of the Sun’s disc, and I have to squint down to narrow slits maintaining position. And I'm laughing. Hey dipshit, this is what you asked for. Complain and you bring dishonor on the Baylor University Hankamer School of Business.
Feel the rust falling off. Pushed out to root and get it trimmed up how I want it…..and the moment arrives again. All dialed in and in control with two fingers doing the fine work. Light touch. 100% focused and the other thoughts of the world can’t get in, at least for a bit.
Couple of steep turns and a minute or two in trail doing wingovers. Nope that's too much, settle down. A little slop in the stick. I need to take that out. That's better. Get oriented slightly left of the line where the tip of the spinner should be running through the tailwheel - I'm in a side by side. Starting to feel formation normal again. Morning Sun in the low eastern sky paints Ross' RV-6 as we come over the top in a right turning wingover, and as he slices down into a field of dark green south of Gainesville his plane looked absolutely fluorescent. I’m 20 feet behind it in the slot with a shit eating grin on my face. So much for not having a plan. The thought did occur as to how few people on planet Earth right now are lucky enough to be doing something as rare as this. It's one of the beauties of this hobby, at least for me. You meet people with sizable talent stacks and aviation histories, capable of precise flying. And you're lucky enough that they teach you some of it. You're grateful. You don't realize how fortunate you truly are that you fell into a good group of people that entertain to no end. They shrug it off as nothing special. I know I'm a complete fraud, but they haven't figured it out yet.
Overhead break and we meet up at the pump. Happy new year and fist bumps and all that. How the hell have you been? You've aged horribly. Me too. While we're gassing up, Johannes Kroll walks up. Introductions made. Turns out he’s in Gainesville for a few days finishing out an instrument rating in a 172. He lives in Stuttgart, Germany, and there you have to file a flight plan for every leg of every flight. He’s got a friend over here so he's visiting for a few days, knocking out a lot of IFR training without a lot of paperwork.
Did I mention he has an RV-9A back in Germany? Bought not built. Pictures exchanged via technology.
Got his picture standing in front of my airplane (always working) and that's one less thing I have to do to build tomorrow's edition
.
Standing there on the ramp by the gas pump in Gainesville, I get a text from Steve. He and Tony are doing a 2-ship over to Bridgeport for breakfast and they saw our launch. Come join us. The RV decision tree has many branches on this no plan morning. Politely declined as I did need to get back, get that battery out, and get on the computer. An RV-10 was tied down 40 feet away, its owner somewhere nearby.
Ross wanted to go do some acro, so we single shipped it back to 52F. In cruise I couldn't help but grin. Do you realize how lucky you are to get to occasionally do stuff like this? I take it for granted too often. Steve and Tony are on the radio, using the same CTAF freq a few towns over. They are about to land. Fairly respectable overhead break for me and 180° descending turn to final. Should've been in the groove a little longer than I was. Can work on that - should have broke right over the numbers. Waited a potato and a half too long. Put the plane away and pulled the battery from the vehicle. Drove over to Ross to touch base before leaving.
Chris Pratt taxied by in his beautiful RV-8 on his way to launch. It's what RV folk do.
Tuesday’s in the books. Typical RV morning, duplicated in dozens of cities around the world.
Reporting for VAF aboard USS Aero Valley, Buttcrack Squadron,
dr
PS: Returned home to a message in the inbox from the side gig sim that I needed to do an online training module on cybersecurity or workplace sexual harassment prevention or some other thing we all have to do every quarter. So and so has a memory stick full of pornography. Is it a good or bad idea to plug it into the corporate intranet? The reality of the modern world has re-arrived at my doorstep. There for a minute or two though, earlier, just by chance, I was hanging it out there on the wing, in position being a good wingman, flying into a rising sun over a field of green. Doing that pilot shit. And grateful.
RVs rule.
It was 33°F when I woke up, and other than the normal computer stuff, the thing I really needed to accomplish today was taking the battery out of one of our vehicles. It's a little over three years old and was struggling during this last cold spell so I'm gonna go get a new one. I need to take it out. That's pretty much the bullet point that had to get done, other than the usual computer time.
Showing up at the airport, the sky was nice and the wind 00000KT. New plan - take the RV-6 up for a quick spin. It’s been a few weeks. I have some side work coming up in a couple of days, last Saturday we were covered in snow and I spent Sunday in the sim. I've learned over the years to leave the RV ready to go because you never know really when you might get a couple of hours free.
The whole point of the flight at this point was to just shake the dust off during a good WX window and make sure I could still get up and down with a semblance of professionalism. Perishable skill.
Push the airplane out and pre-flight things, positioning the airplane on a reflective marker I use as a chock. Our taxiway has a slight incline. Took my phone out and got a picture of the tail wheel up against that reflector, thinking that would make a nice splash image for the next day’s VAF news edition. Nice patina and slung grease.
Spent seven or so minutes idling there on the taxiway warming the oil up and crossed the runway to taxi to 17. As I'm doing this I catch sight of my friend Ross’ Jeep up at the north end. Imagine that. Taxi up a little further and see his hangar door is open. A little more and there is the spinner of his airplane in view and…….no blades. Holy crap, his airplane is running.
Scorch, Duggy. Go. 22.75. Scorch is up. Just going up for a bit, you? Gainesville for gas - want some time on the wing? Yep.
New new plan. Short, concise, to the point briefing by my lead over the radio that we've done dozens of times, and then back over to CTAF. Climbing left turn off 17 for the join up and aboard before the 180 turn north. Lead drags me straight through the center of the Sun’s disc, and I have to squint down to narrow slits maintaining position. And I'm laughing. Hey dipshit, this is what you asked for. Complain and you bring dishonor on the Baylor University Hankamer School of Business.
Feel the rust falling off. Pushed out to root and get it trimmed up how I want it…..and the moment arrives again. All dialed in and in control with two fingers doing the fine work. Light touch. 100% focused and the other thoughts of the world can’t get in, at least for a bit.
Couple of steep turns and a minute or two in trail doing wingovers. Nope that's too much, settle down. A little slop in the stick. I need to take that out. That's better. Get oriented slightly left of the line where the tip of the spinner should be running through the tailwheel - I'm in a side by side. Starting to feel formation normal again. Morning Sun in the low eastern sky paints Ross' RV-6 as we come over the top in a right turning wingover, and as he slices down into a field of dark green south of Gainesville his plane looked absolutely fluorescent. I’m 20 feet behind it in the slot with a shit eating grin on my face. So much for not having a plan. The thought did occur as to how few people on planet Earth right now are lucky enough to be doing something as rare as this. It's one of the beauties of this hobby, at least for me. You meet people with sizable talent stacks and aviation histories, capable of precise flying. And you're lucky enough that they teach you some of it. You're grateful. You don't realize how fortunate you truly are that you fell into a good group of people that entertain to no end. They shrug it off as nothing special. I know I'm a complete fraud, but they haven't figured it out yet.
Overhead break and we meet up at the pump. Happy new year and fist bumps and all that. How the hell have you been? You've aged horribly. Me too. While we're gassing up, Johannes Kroll walks up. Introductions made. Turns out he’s in Gainesville for a few days finishing out an instrument rating in a 172. He lives in Stuttgart, Germany, and there you have to file a flight plan for every leg of every flight. He’s got a friend over here so he's visiting for a few days, knocking out a lot of IFR training without a lot of paperwork.
Did I mention he has an RV-9A back in Germany? Bought not built. Pictures exchanged via technology.
Got his picture standing in front of my airplane (always working) and that's one less thing I have to do to build tomorrow's edition
.Standing there on the ramp by the gas pump in Gainesville, I get a text from Steve. He and Tony are doing a 2-ship over to Bridgeport for breakfast and they saw our launch. Come join us. The RV decision tree has many branches on this no plan morning. Politely declined as I did need to get back, get that battery out, and get on the computer. An RV-10 was tied down 40 feet away, its owner somewhere nearby.
Ross wanted to go do some acro, so we single shipped it back to 52F. In cruise I couldn't help but grin. Do you realize how lucky you are to get to occasionally do stuff like this? I take it for granted too often. Steve and Tony are on the radio, using the same CTAF freq a few towns over. They are about to land. Fairly respectable overhead break for me and 180° descending turn to final. Should've been in the groove a little longer than I was. Can work on that - should have broke right over the numbers. Waited a potato and a half too long. Put the plane away and pulled the battery from the vehicle. Drove over to Ross to touch base before leaving.
Chris Pratt taxied by in his beautiful RV-8 on his way to launch. It's what RV folk do.
Tuesday’s in the books. Typical RV morning, duplicated in dozens of cities around the world.
Reporting for VAF aboard USS Aero Valley, Buttcrack Squadron,
dr
PS: Returned home to a message in the inbox from the side gig sim that I needed to do an online training module on cybersecurity or workplace sexual harassment prevention or some other thing we all have to do every quarter. So and so has a memory stick full of pornography. Is it a good or bad idea to plug it into the corporate intranet? The reality of the modern world has re-arrived at my doorstep. There for a minute or two though, earlier, just by chance, I was hanging it out there on the wing, in position being a good wingman, flying into a rising sun over a field of green. Doing that pilot shit. And grateful.
RVs rule.
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