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RV-7 Takes Flight!

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:03:21 GMT

Mid-Morning on June 7, RV-7 303P finally levitated off the ground, 4 days short of 6 years, and 14000 rivets, since the empennage kit arrival. This first flight was conducted under 1800 broken/ overcast sky at Arlington, WA (AWO). The weather has been exceptionally cruddy recently so I was looking for enough airspace to go out and run circuits around the pattern to get the engine exercised. Dave Parsons was standing-by on ground crew this week after we called off the flight last weekend due to low clouds. The RV cranked on the 2^nd try (I really need to figure out the best way to start this)and I proceeded to the Three-Four hammerhead for run-up. All systems looked good an I started the data recorder for flight #1. There was a Cessna 140 in the pattern, but aside from that, I had the area to myself which was good. The plan was to remain in a high pattern and just make a couple laps to test the engine systems, slow down, come down to pattern altitude, make one low approach, go-around, then a final full-stop.

I took Runway 34 and slowly advanced the throttle. In what seemed about 100 feet, the RV levitated off the ground. I don’t recall having enough time to actually raise the tail and the departure angle seemed ridiculously steep. It really didn’t’ take long and I was at about 1700’ by crosswind and I just let it accelerate. The GRT was only seeing about 1800 RPM but the engine sure seemed to be doing it’s thing so I figured I had an indication problem. I raced around the circuit several times, then pulled the power back a bit to start a decent into the pattern. At that time I started hearing a faint thumping on the fuselage and I wondered what that was. I did see 197 MPH on one downwind, full throttle with no gear fairings or wheel pants, so I’m thinking this airplane is going to match Van’s numbers. Very cool.

Well I managed to get the airplane slowed down and extended the flaps 50% per Mike Seager’s training. So far no problem but on base leg, that thumping was more pronounced and I decided to put it on the ground. Full flaps, 85 MPH, and I had the runway made. Taxi back was a non-event and I shut it down. Total time was .5, just right for the first flight. Time for breakfast at the local airport café, as well as some well-needed time to relax.

On inspection, I found that the left rubber wing root seal had pulled free a bit (it was too long) on the bottom aft end, and was thumping in the wind stream so it was a good decision to cut it short. Dave and I pulled the cowl and found about two drops of oil in the bottom of the cowl which was attributed to a slightly loose #3 cylinder head oil return line at the case. This was tightened. As for the RPM, I dug through the GRT EIS manual and determined that the RPM config setting was incorrect. It was 0 and should have been a 1. I also lowered the idle RPM slightly as I thought it was a bit high (this has a knock-on effect). OK, that’s fixed. I cut the wing root seal a bit and got that reinstalled.

Dave had to head for home, but there was time for one more flight. Plan was basically the same but I wanted to validate the RPM fix. Once the engine started, it was evident that the RPM indication was fixed. Taxi and run-up were normal and it was time to fly again. Departure once again was a blast. With ½ tanks and no passenger, this really climbs. I spent about .5 running round the pattern again, this time at 2400’ as the ceiling had come up a bit. This time I had some time to relax and just watch the airplane and It really seems to fly nice. I thought the right wing was a little heavy, but it trimmed out with the ailerons still in line with the wing tips. I did get back down to pattern altitude and with a nice little cross wind on 34, about 7 kts or so, made a decent 3-point landing. Remember the bit about adjusting the idle? Well, on rollout, things got quiet, really quiet. And by the time my brain figured out the engine was winding down, it had quit, and I just missed the first turn-off. Bummer. Well, I shut down the avionics (which dumped my flight 2 data) and pushed it off the runway where we finally got it restarted. A couple RV guys from AWO helped get it going again.

Post flight inspection showed no oil leakage at all this time so I was pretty happy. We did pull the cowl and re-set the idle with the proper instrument indications. Other than the RPM indication and the left wing fairing seal, the flight went really well and I’m happy with the airplane. If the weather holds, I’m back up tomorrow. This is soooooo cool (and so worth it)!

Here's a link to the first flight video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=AcmQvlAcyGQ

Side note: Russ “Erbman” Erb, good friend and fellow founding cohort of EAA Chapter 1000 at Edwards AFB, CA, spent the last 11+ years building a very nice looking plans-built Bearhawk (http://eaa1000.av.org/pix/erbpix/erbpix.htm) . As luck would have it, we both had DAR inspections on the same date and as if it weren’t possible, both of our projects had first flights on the same day! Congrats Russ!

Flyin' with Mike

Sat, 17 May 2008 01:55:55 GMT

Well, it's time for an update. I've been pounding away at the final open squawks on the RV, a little at a time. It seems like I'm playing Whack-a-Mole though, just when I finish one, another pops up. The good thing is that there seems to be net progress. My DAR (Federali Appointed inspector, is due on May 27th, so I need to get things wrapped up. Weight and Balance was accomplished and I have an empty weight of 1108 without wheel pants, gear leg fairings, carpets and baggage interior. That does include both pilot and co-pilot seats, boosters, armrests and harness. With all that junk installed, it pops up to 1128, with 62 on the tail. Overall, it's a bit heavy, but with the constant speed prop, and full IFR avionics, most of the weight is on the nose, keeping it well within the CG range. My empty CG camp out at 79.2" at teh 1128 weight, which is pretty good. I can basically go almost 200 lbs over gross, with full baggage (100 lbs), and still be forward of the aft limit. Basically, that's two 250 pounders, full baggage, and full tanks. Not too bad.

I ended up in Scappoose, OR for a couple days this week for RV transition training with Mike Seager. Now Mike has literaly about 10,000 hours in RVs and makes his living doing nothing but transition training. Real nice guy and knows his stuff. I had scheduled several months in advance so we never know how the weather is going to behave at this time of the year. Below is the Scappoose Creek Inn, located just off the airport and a 3 minute walk.

Day 1 Flight1:

The morining was pretty cruddy weather-wise, but not un-flyable. First things first, we reviewed my flying to-date, then started in with the pattern and landing processes. I suppose he's not that concerned with the air work, but it's the pattern that's key. Mike drew out the proceedures on paper which ended up being fairly straight forward. In the pattern we're looking for 100 MPH on downwind, then slowing to 85 abeam touchdown. Flaps half, 1200 RPM, and then trim. That takes about 5 seconds, then it's time to turn base. Full flaps, more trim, stay at 85. Turn final, aim for the numbers in a fairly steep approach. I suppose that for a Cessna driver, this approach is going to be a little steep, but for my Boredom Fighter, the sight picture seemed about the same. With the runway made on short final, power to idle, level out about 10', let teh airspeed and begin the flare. That's about it.

So we pulled the RV-7 out, did the preflight and saddled up. Nothing really spectacular here and everything was fairly basic. This particular -7 has an O-320, fixed-pitch, with steam gages. Switches are generally arranged in the lower left of the panel, while the flap switch is just above the throttle.

We taxied out to the hammerhead and got ready to depart 15 at Scappoose, planning on hopping the west ridge and do some airwork in the next valley. Taxi was OK, but ther'e a big blind spot on the right side. I'm used to seeing good visibility out both sides, so this is a change. The O-320 powered RV accellerates nice and I was really surprised at the right rudder required for takeoff. I'm used to some in my biplane, but not this much. We were able to climb out to about 900' and worked out way over to the the next valley where the clouds opened up and we had a bunch of space to work.

We started with the basics of the airplane control, jsut feeling how the plane handled. Some rudder yaws, aileron rolls, and pitch pull and pitch. After that exercise, it was time for some turns. At about 2500', we did normal 360 degree turns left and right, then slowed to 85 for another set of 360's, left and right, and finally, slowed to 70 MPH (full flaps) for the final set. Cool, no problem. The airplane doesn't need too much elevator for the 30-degree turns, but we do need some rudder.

It was time to head back so we made our way back to the airport for pattern work. Using the numbers previously reviewed, I attempted to match the process. I didn't feel too far behind the airplane, expecially since I haven't flown in some time due the previously blogged knee work. In short we were able to accomplish two stop-and goes without killing the airplane so that's a good deal. Below is Mike's RV-7.

Day 1, Flight 2

It was 1:00 and time to fly again. When flying with Mike, he likes to do four sessions in a day, so a guy generally flies at 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM, giving a nice break in between. If the airplane is a serious challange, you might really need the break. I've been staying at the Scappoose Creek Inn, a B&B just off the airport, but only a 5 minute walk, so I decided to have lunch at the Hawaiian-themed resturaunt on-site. Owners have changed since I was here a couple years ago and the new owners have done the eatery in a Hawaiian theme, complete with Hawaiian music and lots of island stuff on the walls. The Hawaiian BBQ pork sandwich was pretty good but even on a nice sunny day, it seemed a little out of place. Oh well, the food was OK.

I showed up on time and we got right to the flying after putting some gas in the plane. This time around I was ready for the right rudder on takeoff so the departures are a lot smoother this time around. Weather was still a little cloudy but we did make it over the ridge to the practice area with no problems. After climbing to 2500, Mike had me warm up with some 360 turns again but since I'm also doing a BFR at the same time, he starts asking me airspace cloud clearance questions in the middle of manuevers. OK, 2500', 2350 RPM, a little aft stick, oh, let's see, we're in Class....um... pull a bit more, now too high....ummm, Class E. "Well how do you know?" OK, coming through heading 180, looking for 250, 50' low on altitude..... um...."We're over 1200' and below 18000', not in Class D or B....OK, here comes 250 degrees, roll out. Now to the right...OK, a bit more pull...."So what's cloud clearances where we are?...man, I have to think...and on it went. Doing the BFR Part 91 review while learning how to fly a new airplane. I love it!

We completed the interrogation and progressed to stalls, both power off, flaps up and down, as well as departure stalls. The RV has a slight buffet and a pronounced departure so I can see where a guy could get bit if he's not paying attention. I also learned that the recovery is just a gentle relaxiation of the stick. I was tending to let the stick go forward too much, resulting in a pretty good nose down. I suspect we'll do some more of those later.

It was on to McMinnville from the airwork so we departed the area and headed to McMinnville. It was really a nice day down there with just a little breeze and clear skies. Overall, I think I got the landings down with about 10 stop-n-goes. At first Mike handled the radios, but I was feeling a little more comfortable and started working those back in. No problem. Without pranging the plane too bad, we departed McMinnville and headed back to Scappoose where the clouds were still a little low. The coolest part was having to fly around a group of thee Bald Eagles on downwind for the first pattern, then miss another group of 4 on final for the last landing.

We finished up with a 1.7 for a total of 2.5 for the day. It was a good workout but good to be flying the RV. I can't wait to get my -7 flying! One thing I didn't even thing about until later in the day was the left hand stick in this airplane. With the exception of some sporatic C-172 and Piper time, most of my flying is right hand stick, left hand throttle. I had no problems with this airplane with the left hand stick/ right hand throttle. I didn't even think about it until later in the evening.

Day 2, Flight 1

Once again it's an 8:00 flight and Mike showed up on-time ready to go. This mornings weather was mid-60's and generally clear, but the wind was out of the north at 10G16 so it was going to be a little bumpy. The plan for the flight was to head over to Mike's airstrip and pick up his briefcase and while there, do a couple landings on grass. His airport (Vernonia) sits in a little valley and has a neat little dogleg final. It's a bit bumpy but no problem. We really didn't do too much airwork this time around, and after 3 landings at his home strip, we headed back to Scappoose. Once back in the pattern, we did a lot of landings including some no-flaps and smoothed out the takeoffs with the gusty winds. After we were done, I needed another hour, but Mike thought I was generally good-to-go. This afternoon's flight will be a little shorter and we're planning on going to find some crosswind. For the morning we logged another 1.7 with another 12 landings to a full stop. Pretty good use of time.

Day 2, Flight 2

The plan of for the afternoon is to keep it somewhat short but attempt to go find a good crosswind to practice x-wind landings. With the wind today, it shouldn't be too hard. We departed SPB and headed to the south towards Hillsboro for some work in the local Class D. Outside temp was starting to get a lot warmer, but the wind was also dying down so it wasn't as bumpy as the morning. By the time we got to Hillsboro, the pattern was kind of busy with a couple of us using 2 (the short runway), and a B-17 and corporate jet awaiting departure on the long runway. We did about 5 touch-and-goes, as well as had a tower-directed go-around to let a Beech land behind us. Well, we'd had enough and headed back to SPB for some more pattern work. As these things go, the SPB pattern was also busy with some spam-cans, a Stearman banner tow, and the local Pacer doing instruction. The Cessna's decided it was too busy and departed which made things a little easier on us. Finally, we accomplished a 1/2 flap landing, a couple no-flaps, then a couple more normal landings to round out a 1.0 for the afternoon.

at left is the training classroom, the Northwest Antique Airplane Association clubhouse, on the northeast corner of the the field.

Overall, we flew about 5.2 and had almost 40 landings in two days. I suspect, barring any mechanical issues with my RV, the first flight should go smoothly. During the drive back home, I stopped off at Auburn to go fly my Boredom Fighter, which was probably starting to feel neglected. At half the weight of the RV, 1/2 the horsepower, and a little wind, it does take a little more effort to land the BF well and after about 5 landings, they were finally getting decent in the BF again.

The Beast is Alive!

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:51:53 GMT

We finally had a really great day of weather here over the weekend with temps. in the mid-70's and not a cloud on Saturday. It's a big change from the previous couple of weekends. This big item on the list was to finally get the engine running on the RV. To get that far, the preservative needed to be drained, the oil filter changed, new oil filled, and the brake system filled. That took most of the morning and by early afternoon we were ready to run. We initially spun up the engine without lower plugs installed to test the starter and blow out as much remaining preservative as we could. The oil pressure line was also disconnected so we could prime that system. Next was a test of the fuel pump to ensure fuel was getting past the pump.

On start the engine ran nice at a higher RMP, but really ran rough at lower RPMs. That, combined with some backfires, indicated some sort of mixture problem but I wasn't sure. The engine was run about 4 or 5 times, and none were that smooth. One run seemed to have going well but the mixture cut-off wasn't working as it should.

Once back at the hangar, I noticed that the mixture arm on the fuel injector servo was hitting the aft side of the air inlet box, thus the mixture never went to cut off. While moving, the sniffle valve dumped about a cup and a half of fuel so something wasn't right. Well, I tweaked the adjustment on the mixture arm and pulled the plane out again for a run. This time, when it started, it ran nice for the entire run. All and all, I checked out the alternator, brought systems on-line, and made sure that the cut-off was working correctly.

Next weekend I'll try this again and maybe do a little taxing to check brakes and steering.

Is it Spring Yet?

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:29:58 GMT

Well, knee recovery is coming along well. I think I lost two weekends, then I was back at the hangar working on finishing the RV. After almost six weeks since MCL/ ACL reconstruction, the results are fairly encouraging. I'm amazed at how well this is going.

Winter just refuses to go away it seems. I was up at Arlington Airport (AWO) yesterday and there was 2-3" of snow on the ground, and temps in the mid-30's. This was shaping up to be a cold day in the hangar! I did manage to make some progress; connected pitot heat and autopilot roll servo wiring as well as torqued the rest of the wing attach bolts. Next on the list are fuel and vent lines, and the tank attach brackets. I might have another couple sessions, then I'm ready for the first engine run. Can't wait. It's getting a lot closer to first flight.

Recovery Mode

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:17:14 GMT

Early last week was my designated appointment with the knee doc at the local surgery shop. In short, after about 4 hours I hobbled out with a new MCL, a new ACL and a little meniscus trim, which is way too much fun for anyone. Luckily I can do the work from home thing (WFM - everything at MS has a TLA - Three letter acronym) . While in recovery mode, I noticed on the MS Pilots DL that one of the guys, Wade Hasbrouck, and another Aircoupe owner, Marty Duke, set up a monitor for the Renton (RNT) tower and made it available through www.liveATC.net. If you want a direct feed, it's located at http://audio.liveatc.net:8012/krnt.m3u. Very cool stuff to just run in the background.

A Little Winter Flying

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:09:59 GMT

Today was a a really nice day here in the Seattle area with a bit of morning fog, clearing off by late AM, and some cool temps. OK, it's pretty balmy for those stuck in the upper Mid-West, but for those here, it's chilly. By the time I made it out to the airport, the radio was reporting about 43 *F, which for an open cockpit, is somewhat nippy. Never mind that, time to go flying....

I was able to grab a couple pics with my handy smart phone so here's a couple shots of Eastern King County.

At left is the volcano, from just south of Cougar Mountain. The smartphone just doesn't do it justice. The haze to the south is from a lot of open burning. Appears Pierce County isn't as restrictive on the wood burning.

I was generally tooling around at 80 MPH which isn't too windy, but if you stick your hand out into the slipstream, it's going to get cold! With the nice weather, traffic to the east of Auburn was very busy, but I only saw a couple in the Lake Samm area. Then again, you really don't see most of the traffic out there.

At far left is the Snoqualmie River Valley, still covered with morning fog, and some of the Union Hill area with a lot of snow in the Cascade foothills. At right is Lake Sammamish, with Bellevue , Mercer Island, and Seattle in the distance.

I'm out for some knee work this week so I'm anticipating at least 6 weeks before I'm able to do some more flying. By then, the Winter should be about done and the Spring flying season will be here. Can't wait for that.

Maui Flying

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:22:54 GMT

This story isn't about that kind of Maui flying, but of finally taking a local flight in the islands. First off, Maui doesn't have a whole lot of choices when it comes to renting a plane. Basically, Maui Aviators is about the only fixed-wing game in town. Well, I had had some feedback that they were a good operation and those that went before gave good marks. It didn't hurt that the Feb edition of AOPA Pilot had a write-up as well. Good timing.

I reserved one of their newer C-172's, an "SP" model, equipped with IFR steam gauges, which the FAA says was certificated in 2006 with an IO-360 (180 HP). OK, cool. Should be nice. I haven't flown a spam-can, much less a nose-dragger in a very long time, but this should be fun. The flight was set up for Thursday AM, which turned out to be the best weather in weeks out there in the islands. Low pressure continued to sit over the islands and produce low clouds and rain, but Thursday ended up with minimal windward clouds, 75* F, and almost no wind, which was a huge change from the previous mornings 20kt trade winds.

Now Maui Aviators sits across the field on Kahului from the normal commercial terminal and is identified as OGG. Their offices occupy one of the hangars and seems to be a low-frills type operation. They have 3 full timers and 1 PT pilot, and keep several aircraft including the newer 172. Finding the general location is easy, but then there's the gate.

The trick here is to (a) either jump up and down and wave your arms to get their attention, or (b) call them on the cell when you're at the gate. One of the highly-paid crack security contractors will wander over and unlock the 3-pound padlock for you and let you through. He'll also repeat this when you leave. There's no electronic lock on this one, just a big chain and lock.

I met the CFI for the day, a guy named Mike. Sunglasses, tee-shirt, and flip-flops. This was no ordinary CFI, this was Mike the CFI Dude. Mike grew up on Maui, earned his ratings in Florida, and attended San Jose State to earn an Aviation Degree, then returned back to the islands to mass those pre-airline hours (which kind of showed). We did a short "here's what we're going to do" briefing and headed out to the 172 after collecting headsets. The plan was to depart Kahaluai, head along the northeast coast, cross to Molokai, head up that island, then cross to Lanai, down the east coast of Lanai, back to Maui, then around the southern half of Maui. Total, about 1.5 to 2 hours. Most of the flying they tend to do is just driving non-pilot tourists around the island so he really didn't have much interest in my background other than if I had a license and when was the last time I flew.

To the right is the ride for the day, Cessna 6009V. We did the obligatory pre-flight to make sure all the parts were there (good, they were). It had flown earlier in the AM so the engine was still warm (and I knew it would fly). The panel still looked good, but the seats seemed to be showing some wear already with about 510 hours total time. This was a new aircraft when delivered to Maui Aviators, but I was surprised at the level of corrosion visible through the inlets on the engine. The salt air really takes a toll on these machines.

We finished up the pre-flight, had 52 gallons of 100 octane (they don't use 100LL over there for some reason), so Carolina crawled into the backseat as the official expedition photog, and the CFI Dude and I took our seats.

After running through the pre-start items, we cranked up. The engine was still a bit warm, but I blew the first start attempt with the injected engine since I didn't get the mixture in quick enough. Every fuel injected engine starts a bit different but I managed to get started and all the switches on.

We taxied out for runway 2 at Kahului after collecting the latest ATIS information. Winds were still running about 4 kts from the North. Very nice. For this operation, we didn't have to call ground to taxi so the usual procedure was to taxi out to the run-up area, do all the checks, then call tower, which is about what we did. No big surprises. Commercial traffic was fairly light so we didn't have to wait long for departure.

Flying the islands seems to incur a lot of position reporting from what I can tell. Every 10 minutes or so we were talking with Departure/ Approach to report position/ altitude and I suspect it has to do with the number of helicopters doing the sight-seeing thing. Hemispherical altitude rules are different out there as well. For west-bound traffic, 1000/ 2000/ 3000 is the rule and for east-bound, use 500/1500/2500. OK, so far so good. Pretty simple.

We departed OGG, contacted departure, and turned left to head up the Maui coastline at 1000'. I recognized the blow-hole area (below right), which we'd visited on past trips by the lava field. This is one rugged area, but a lot of fun to poke around. The shot below is the north coast of Maui, with the Honolua Bay surfing area, the first bay to the left. During the Winter, this is prime surfing, but in the summer, it's awesome snorkeling and diving.

We left the Maui coast for a quick flight over the Pailolo Channel to round the east tip of Molokai and head west along the north coast. It's only about 10 miles across the channel, but looks much further when you're standing on the beach. Rounding the eastern tip, this is basically what you see for the north coast:

Water falls run down the cliffs every couple hundred yards is seemed as the valleys cut into the hills in jagged "v's". At this time we're cruising along at 1000", with about another 1000' of cliffs above us. If the engine quits, we're going to go for a swim but at least we'll hit the beach. I suppose it just wouldn't matter too much as a landing on the ground wasn't looking too good for an option either.

About half way along the north coast we crossed over the Kalaupapa National Historical Park, which is a broad flat spot at the base of the cliffs. Oceanside, is the Kalupapa Airport (LUP) which sits directly on the water. Also in this area is the infamous Molokai Leper Colony, thus the Kalaupapa Historical Park.

During the flight so far, the CFI Dude pretty much looked out his window at the ocean and tapped a foot. Every once in a while he'd indicate a climb or decent, or just point the way, but generally, I was free to fly as I wanted, which I did. We stuck to the island flight altitudes, which was a trick. Not so much just trimming and flying the 172, but just keeping an eye on the altimeter when we're gawking at the scenery out the left side.

To the left is the view departing Kalaupapa with the colony in the foreground. Not the greatest aerial photo but you get the picture. At this point we'd commenced a climb from 1000 up to 2500 to transition over Molokai.

At that altitude, we turned left to 170 and contacted Molokai (MKK) tower to transition their Class D enroute while enroute to Lanai. I'm not really sure why there's a tower at that airport as AirNav says there's a grand total of 4 aircraft based on the field, and a total of 111 daily operations. I suppose some of the airline service is driving the tower requirements.

So after4 transitioning MKK airspace, we descended back down to about 1500 to start the crossing of the Kalohi Channel between Molokai and Lanai. Again, the channel is only about 8-10 miles wide so there was really no nervousness about launching out over the water. Carolina got a nice pic of a tug pulling a large barge but no whales yet. Winds were still calm so the ride to this point was kind of smooth.

About half way across, the Dude indicated we ought to drop to 500' and head to the beach. OK, no problem We were heading just east of Keana Point where an old ship wreck is just off-shore. The flight path was to bisect the beach and the wreck to get a good view of the rusting hulk, then move just beyond the surf line heading east along the beach towards Shipwreck Beach.

Below on the left is the north coast of Lanai as we approached. Center is the first wreck which appears to be some late 19th or early 20th century freighter with a couple masts. I tried to find some details on this one but was unable to find much information. The second is what's left of a post-WWII beaching of a ferrous-concrete Liberty Ship. Evidently, a small number of these were build during WWII and assigned only an identification number, no names.

Once past the second wreck, we turned northeast and out across the Auau Channel to the west coast of Maui. Again, it's about 10 miles across the water, which was still calm. The good thing was that the calm water made it easy to spot the Humpbacks just below the surface. From our hotel on Maui, we could see the spouts and breeches easily, but from the air, you can spot the whales just under the surface and we saw a couple sets enroute back to Maui. I've seen California Gray whales in the muddy water off Pacifica, CA, but the clear Maui waters made it easy.

We hit feet-dry at Black Rock (another reporting point & photo below right), at the north end of Kaanapali Beach and made a left turn to make a circle around our condo rental (below left) . Approach advised us of a helo tour in the area so we kept our eyes open for that. Once heading southbound again over Kaanapali, the helo reported same altitude (1500), same direction. Hummm, better find him. Eventually we did see him at 4:00 o'clock and about 1/4 mile, just off shore, while we were hugging the beach.

From the Kaanapali area, we flew down the west Maui coast and took in the scenery. We've driven this area, I don't know how many times, but never saw it from the air. Approaching Maalaea Bay at 500', we needed angle to about 160 degrees, heading off shore towards Wailea area and remaining clear of the Kahului Class C. While over this bay we saw a fair number of whales. For some reason, they really like the area and with calm air, it was again easy to see a 35' animal under the surface. Although the trade winds seemed to have taken the day off, the area is normally the exit for a very large funnel as the Maui east and west mountains funnel the trade winds down the central Maui valley, then out over Maalaea Bay. To keep from beating up the rentals, most flights need to transition out over the water past Molokini Island to find some semblance of smooth air. In our case, winds were still light so we didn't need the detour.

We flew down the Maui coast line and by now the top of the volcano was covered in clouds. I was hoping to get a peak up into the crater from the south but that didn't work out. I'd never been south of Wailea and we passed the Makena cinder cone and then around the southwest tip of the island. This part of Maui looks, for the most part, like the moon. It's the location of the latest lave flows so there's still a lot of black lava showing. The whole coast from Makena towards Kipahula is pretty bare. Some scrub vegetation, but not much else. One thing you do see is the ruins of many coastal huts and burial areas. By the time you start reaching the southeast point, the vegetation picks up due to the rainfall on the windward side of the island.

Above left is a small church around Haou somewhere. Mike the CFI Dude indicated that it's where Charles Lindbergh was buried. Let's see, I did do the Hana drive and made the visit to his final resting place, and this isn't it. That church is a little closer to Hana and sits on the top of a sea cliff. The next two are just a couple of the hundreds of waterfalls along the coast, both of which are north of Hana. If you've ever made the 4-hour drive down to Hana, doing that by air is a welcome change. It's a fun drive....once.

Over Hana, and still at 500, we transitioned up to 1200' to cross the Hana Airport (HNM) and make the turn northwest for the final portion of the flight. The rain plaguing the area over the last couple weeks had let up for the day, but we did need to avoid a small rain cell. This was about the lowest ceiling of the trip (1500) but winds remained low and visibility was good.

At left is another scenic view (there were a lot) of Jurassic Rock, used as a shot in movie somewhere. Hana was behind us and there was just waterfall after waterfall.

Finally, we approached Opana Point, the inbound reporting point for Kahului Class C, picked up ATIS (still reporting north wind at 4), and attempted contact with Approach. They didn't want to talk so a right-360 was in order. The turn completed, Approach finally responded and we were cleared in for the right downwind for Runway 2, #3 behind a B717.

Finally, after a leisurely 1.7, we made it back to OGG. The Dude filled the tanks again and Carolina and I stretched our legs with a short walk back to the office. Flying is not the cheapest over there. Gas is going for between $5 and $6 a gallon and at 10 gallons and hour, that adds up quick. Then there's the cost of insurance and a high maintenance bill to offset the salt. So, the new Skyhawk was going for about $159/ hour, then add in the dual time. I don't get back to Maui but once a year so I chose not to get a full checkout. Maybe at some other time. We just wanted to go do a local flight and enjoy the sights without any major headaches. Mike handled the radios so all I had to do was fly the plane. No problem. Overall, it was a really nice flight, great weather, and a good time was had by all. Well, maybe not the CFI Dude who seemed pretty bored the whole time, but hey, Carolina and I had a great time.

Some Aviation Related Pics..

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:57:41 GMT

While we've been experiencing the usual rain/snow here in the Great NorthWest, I've been slowly adding in a couple additional photo albums from the past. Over the course of the years, I've had a chance to visit a number of interesting aviation museums, including Imperial War Museum's Duxford location, RAF Herndon, The Shuttleworth Collection, Seattle Museum of Flight, and the Evergreen Flight Museum, home of the Spruce Goose. Yea, these are pretty much travellog photos, but if you're interested in the winged-things they're a bit interesting. Hopefully, I can get some of my old digital pics from Oshkosh posted.

Mid-Winter Flying

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:06:25 GMT

Hummm, a first blog entry, this is going to be interesting!

As the new year starts once again, we're normally in the middle of the local flying off-season. That said, on the 6th, we ended up with a stunningly clear, and mild day, most perfect to go warm up the oil in the Boredom Fighter. So, instead of hanging around the house, we packed up and headed for Auburn. The plan was to just go out and do a half hour of touch and gos.

Alex and Carolina were just going to hang out and watch; it wasd a really nice day to just sit in the sun. Since Alex hasn't seen Dad fly, at least at the airport, this seemed like a good plan. The up side was that Dave Parson was out in his RV-7A and agreed to come down and give Carolina a ride since she hasn't flown in an RV yet. She's 50% owner in this so I suppose that she needs to see what she bought!. Dave's has the tipper, same seats, same harness, and basically the same engine/ prop configuration so aside from the tailwheel/ nose-dragger thing, they're very close. So back to the story, after about 4 laps around the circuit and some decent full stall and wheelie landings, Dave comes screaming into the pattern, so I cut short my flight a bit and met Dave for a Carolina Fam. flight.

We got Carolina situated, so off they went for a 30 minute flight. Good thing she enjoyed that! After departure, they headed off to circle Snoqualamie Falls then back to S50. After five and a half years of flying, we finally got Carolina a ride in an RV, and just happened to validate all the current design decisions so far. I really need to get my own RV flying!

Photo Album: Maui Flying

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:04:09 GMT

Maui Flying

The Gate. The first barrier to Maui Flying...

2006 172S. The choosen ride for the day.

Blow Hole around the NE tip of Maui.

The North coast of Maui, Honolua Bay on the left.

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North coast of Moloki

Moloki cliffs.

More Moloki Cliffs

View of Kalaupapa, the old lepper colony on Moloki.

Crossing the Kalohi Channel to Lanai.

More Photos...

Photo Album: Seattle Museum of Flight (June 05)

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:53:09 GMT

Seattle Museum of Flight (June 05)

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Photo Album: Evergreen Museum of Flight Aug 02

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:49:59 GMT

Evergreen Museum of Flight Aug 02

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Photo Album: Shuttleworth Collection (Mar 2001)

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:02:52 GMT

Shuttleworth Collection (Mar 2001)

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Photo Album: Duxford (Feb 2001)

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:55:32 GMT

Duxford (Feb 2001)

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Photo Album: Local WA Flying

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:06:25 GMT

Local WA Flying

April 06, Bellevue and Seattle in the distance.

April 07, Arlington

Spring 07, Harvey Field

July 07, South of Cougar Mt.

Jan 08. Finally had a nice day to take teh BF out for some exercise.

The boy is quickly learning the ropes around the airport!

More Photos...

Photo Album: Cave B

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:52:33 GMT

Cave B

The voew of the river from the rooms.

More views of the river gorge.

Some of the rooms...

Cave B Resort on the Columbia River

Moon over Cave B

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Main Lodge at Cave B.

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Photo Album: Whidbey Island 07

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 22:54:06 GMT

Whidbey Island 07

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Photo Album: Company Fun - Puget Sound Locks Tour

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:07:24 GMT

Company Fun - Puget Sound Locks Tour

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Custom List: Aviation Links

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:05:42 GMT

Aviation Links

Paul's FS Blog
Blog for one of the Lead MS FS Guys.
Dan's RV-7 Project
Dave's RV-7A Project
EAA Chapter 1000
Web for EAA Chapter 1000, Edwards AFB, CA.
EAA Chapter 1440
Local EAA 1440 Chapter for Redomond, WA
EAA National Organization
Main web site for the Experimental Aircraft Association
Vans Air Force
Home page for all thing RV.
Wolf Boredom Fighters
Vans Aircraft
Manufacturing company for the Van's RV-series aircraft
Jim's RV-7 Construction
Renton Live Tower Feed
Renton Tower live feed.

Custom List: Other Links

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:36:45 GMT