...getting this weekend's thread started. Hope you're having a nice one.
v/r,dr
v/r,dr
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WDYDWYRTW? 2 / 1-2 / 2025.
- Thread starter DeltaRomeo
- Start date
Big day for me. I am building my -14A in my basement and have always been a little concerned that the complete fuselage (including the tail cone) would fit out the door. I have double pedestrian doors but it isn’t a straight shot, you have to go around a corner. I did the big join yesterday and today we did a trial extraction before we started to drive rivets. Success!! I can continue the build in my nice comfortable basement shop instead of needing to move to the garage. 
Very nice. Just hope you are not using the same square as the one used to build the house behind you.
pazmanyflyer
Well Known Member
The Aero Club at Manapouri had a BBQ lunch planned so my wife and I thought it would be rude not to go down and participate in a free lunch. 
The flight down was only 35 minutes so we took the scenic route home (1.1 hrs), flying northwest and up to Mount Aspiring and back home via Wanaka. This allowed us to avoid Queenstown's airspace. There's some spectacular countryside on our back door and the tourists pay dearly to see it. We're so lucky to be able to enjoy it in our own way, in our own machine.
The flight down was only 35 minutes so we took the scenic route home (1.1 hrs), flying northwest and up to Mount Aspiring and back home via Wanaka. This allowed us to avoid Queenstown's airspace. There's some spectacular countryside on our back door and the tourists pay dearly to see it. We're so lucky to be able to enjoy it in our own way, in our own machine.
Build,build,build. Panel Work with prop/throttle subpanel.
This is not a competition. We all win just by building/flying/maintaining an RV.Each time Vlad posts a picture it's like a checkmate by a Grandmaster. Brilliant, he probably doesn't think much of it, and likely I won't ever climb to that level of the game.
you are right this is not a contest. I just wanted to compliment.
Toobuilder
Well Known Member
Moving day. Took possession of our AZ house this weekend. Gave my wife a 5.5 hour head start in the car and she only beat me by 10 minutes.
I suspect that hangar is going to be too small for a man of your immense abilities... I hope this place has a huge Man Cave located alongside.
Won't you be needing a lathe, a mill, a TIG/MIG welding plant and a 100-tonne press-brake???
Toobuilder
Well Known Member
Yes. This is a trade off. I’m going from 2.5 acres, a 60x70 hangar, a 40 foot storage container and a 25x40 garage to this. In addition to the equipment you listed, I have a giant bead blaster, air compressor, a flying Taylorcraft, two biplane projects, a 63 Pontiac and a car trailer. It’s going to be tight, to say the least.
Competition? No. It was never meant to be. I am certain Vlad has no goal in his many AMAZING flying adventures of being thought of as The Competition. But what he does for me (speaking for myself only) is to inspire me to heighten my own game. To make me break out of my usual flying activities to go somewhere new. Go to places that are out-of-the-way; off the beaten track. My subscript to his photographs are something along the lines of Hey! Look at this! How cool is THIS??
I see him as similar to someone I admire watching them in the pattern: they are AT pattern altitude. Their turns are smooth, predictable, and well done. Their final approach puts them exactly where they wanted to be on the runway. Watching them fly in a 'professional' manner makes me want to up my own game. It's like the feeling I get watching Olympic skaters. Will I EVER be able to perform in the ice like they do? Not in this lifetime. But I can appreciate the precision in their skating that I can apply to the seemingly mundane aspects of my simple life. I can be at pattern altitude and this far away from the runway. I can turn here every time for my downwind to base and base to final and be spot on my approach speeds which will put me very close to where I wanted to be on the runway. Upping my own game which will improve my flying.
Competition? No. Inspiration to experience more of this magical art of flying in, perhaps, ways I might not have imagined myself? Absolutely.
SO: Thanks, Vlad! Thanks for making me a better pilot and making my flying more enjoyable by your example!
OK: now I need to go down in the basement and put some more thumbtacks on my wall chart for places I haven't been yet..........
Thanks Michael. Here are some interesting and verified landing spots in case you decide to check them out. From 400' to 4K' long all have strong phone signal. A rare oil rig service truck may show up to shoot a bull. Some have a turnout or a shoulder you can park, some not. Some have great takeoff visibility some require a spotter. Sheriff departments in all three counties are aware an airplane might be parked by a county road. As soon as there is no conflict with traffic, ranchers and livestock they are OK with it.
I see some Cub strips in there as well............
my father was in expeditions landing on drifting ice near the North pole in the 70s (not a pilot though). He would have liked Vlad's adventures. it's a dream..sorry, i just meant landing on a frozen river and meeting a cowboy fishing is just so out of the box.
