Got My Registration Number

I wrote a little script last week that searched the FAA website for available 3 character N numbers.  Most of the available ones were awkward to pronounce, but there were a few that I liked.  I just got notice today that my first choice (N4VR) has been reserved.

Tie-Down Brackets

This isn’t RV related, but I’m heading to Oshkosh in a couple of weeks and needed some tie-down brackets.  Never one to buy something I can make myself, I picked up some 3/16″ sheet steel and u bolts and whipped these puppies up.  They’ll be anchored to the ground with 3 12″ long spikes shown below driven in at various angles.


Here is the backside of the tie down.  After the sheet steel is painted, the nuts will be fastened with lock-tite and the bolts will be cut off and peened over to prevent them from ever coming apart.


Here are the finished tie down brackets.


And the backside showing how the bolts are peened over to lock everything together.

Heading to Oshkosh

It turns out that getting ready for the trip to Oshkosh took more time than I expected, so I wasn’t able to get the tanks sealed up.  We’re leaving tomorrow morning, so there won’t be any updates for the next week and a half or so.  I’ll be busy looking at other RVs for ideas for mine.

Back From Oshkosh

I got back from Oshkosh late last night.  I had two main goals for my trip to Oshkosh: decide on an engine and decide on an EFIS.

Engine: I had heard good things about the IO-375 from AeroSport Power.  Fundamentally, it is a parallel valve IO-360 with a redesigned crank that simultaneously lowers compression ratio (8:1) while moving the peak pressure to a point in the crank’s rotation that has more mechanical advantage.  The end result is an engine that weighs exactly the same as the parallel valve IO-360 but makes 195 hp.  I spoke at length with Bart LaLonde and am now convinced that this is the engine I’ll go with.

EFIS: I have been really impressed with the preliminary info about the Dynon SkyView system, but I wanted to take a close look at Dynon, Advanced Flight Systems, and Grand Rapids.  The Advanced and Grand Rapids systems are available now and look very nice, but I don’t need my avionics for a while, so that isn’t a big factor for me.  The Dynon system is not yet shipping, but it looks like it will be even nicer than Advanced or Grand Rapids by the time I need to buy anything.  I really like the modular aspect to the system which not only makes it easier to install and upgrade, it makes it easier to extend in the future.  Given that it still has a ways to go before it has all of the promised functionality, I want to wait before making a final decision, but at this point, I’m about 95% sure I will go with the Dynon SkyView system.

Kids First “Flight”

We watched our friend’s kids for the evening, and everyone wanted to play in the plane.  My two kids are on the left.  One of the other kids is in the pilot’s seat and the other was too busy drilling scrap aluminum to jump in the plane for the picture.  Needless to say, I didn’t get much work done on the plane tonight.

Picked Up Prop and Governor

I lucked out on the purchase of a propeller earlier this month.  Early last year, a number of builders organized a group buy through American Propeller Service for the Whirl Wind Aviation 200RV propellers.  I missed out on the group buy because it happened right around the time I started on the kit and I wasn’t looking for a prop yet.  Luckily another builder had a $1,000 deposit in this group buy that he needed to sell.  By the time that I saw his email though, at least four people had responded that they’d take it.  I sent him an email and offered him $1,500 for his deposit, and that was enough to put me at the top of the list.  I sent him the money and he transferred the slot to me.

I paid for the rest of the prop and ordered a PCU5000 governor at the same time.  Since American Propeller Service is based in Redding, CA and I’m in San Jose, CA, I decided to fly our Cardinal up to get the prop.  I got up at 4:50 and was wheels up by 6:50.

Here’s a shot of the north bay with the mothball fleet visible near the center of the picture and Napa, CA just beyond.

I got a tour of the propeller shop as well as the engine shop where we had our Cardinal’s cylinders overhauled last year.  They have a great shop and really do outstanding quality service.  If you need a prop, give Kevin Russell a call there and tell him I sent you.

Afterward, I loaded the prop, spinner and governor into the back of the plane and headed home.

Redding, CA is just south of Mt. Shasta, and it’s visible on a clear day for 100 miles in any direction.

The flight up was into heavy headwinds, so the 192nm flight took nearly 2 hours.  The return flight was quick though with 150+kt ground speeds for most of the flight and 170+kt ground speeds as I started a shallow descent out near the Travis Air Force Base.

Here’s a shot of one of the blades.  The 200RV is a hollow carbon fiber blade with a nickel leading edge erosion shield.

Here’s the tip of the blade using my hand as a reference so you can see just how short the chord is at the tip.

Here’s a shot of the widest part of the blade with my hand as a reference.

The Whirl Wind propellers all come with a spinner that is ready to bolt on.  With any other prop, I’d have to fit the Van’s spinner myself.

Here’s the aft mounting plate for the spinner.  The entire spinner is made of carbon fiber, so I should never have to worry about this cracking.

Here’s the governor that I picked up.  This will bolt on to the back of the engine and regulates oil pressure to the prop to vary blade pitch.

Parts Orders

I didn’t get any work done on the plane today, but I spent several hours putting together orders from Aircraft Spruce, Avery Tools, and Van’s for various bits of hardware, fluid fittings, firewall pass-throughs, pressure manifold, prop governor bracket and other miscellaneous parts.

I also got a Dymo Rhino Pro 3000 label maker today and ordered some heat shrink tubing cartridges for it.  I’m going to use these to label all of the wiring in the plane.

High Altitude Training

My buddy Dan and I flew up to Beale Air Force Base today to go through their high altitude training program.  The five painful hours we spent in ground classes was made up for by the one hour we got to spend in the altitude chamber.

They first took us up to 5k ft and back down to ensure everyone could clear their ears successfully.  We then spent 30 minutes at sea level breathing 100% oxygen to purge some of the nitrogen from our blood.  After a quick mask seal check (which one unfortunate person failed and had to be pulled from the chamber), we started our ascent.  We climbed at about 3k fpm to 8k ft and then leveled off briefly.  We then climbed at 10k fpm to FL180 where we removed our masks for a couple of minutes.  After replacing our masks, we climbed again at 3k fpm to FL250.  We took off our masks and they had us perform a quiz with a few simple questions and a maze.  They told us to start the quiz right after taking off our masks, but I completed it before I really felt anything, so it didn’t really show how your brain starts malfunctioning.  After a couple of minutes, I started having a couple of minor symptoms including euphoria and skin tingling, so I turned on the emergency oxygen and put the mask back on.  Finally, we dropped by to FL180 and took off the masks one last time to check our night vision.  I really didn’t notice much of a difference in my vision with and without the oxygen at this altitude, but most people did.  Finally, we dropped back to sea level and did a debrief.

Overall, I think the experience was worthwhile, but I was really hoping to experience more loss of mental ability.  No one in the chamber really did anything odd or even appeared to lose their ability to think clearly.  Some people did lose their color or get blue lips, but that was about it.

Toured NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and Edwards Air Force Base

I haven’t had a chance to work on the RV over the past few days, and today was no different, but at least I have a good excuse.  I woke up quite early and flew our Cardinal down to Mojave, CA with a couple of friends.  We arrived about 9 am and parked out in front of the Scaled Composites hangar.  White Knight Two was out on the ramp when we arrived.  The coordinator for our trip had arranged for a fleet of limos to drive us over to Edwards AFB, so we hopped in for the 20 minute drive over.  We boarded what looked like a retired prison transport bus for the last part of the trip.

First stop was the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.  They have a nice museum with many of the supersonic and hypersonic aircraft on display as well as a number of other research aircraft.  We got to tour the flightline and saw the apparatus that loads the space shuttle onto the back of the 747 for the trip to Florida when the shuttle lands at Edwards.

After lunch, we went to Edwards where we toured the base and then toured the flight line.  They have an enormous number of aircraft there that they use for a wide variety of flight tests.  We saw a huge number of F-16 and T-38 aircraft that they use for chase and flight currency.  They also have a number of KC-135 and C-17 aircraft stationed there.  We saw a B-1B on the flightline as well as a couple of F-22s and one F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.  There are a number of other aircraft based there including the Predator, but we didn’t get to see them.

The dry lake bed is pretty amazing.  40 square miles of basically perfectly flat surface that’s harder than concrete.  They’ve painted 18 runways out on the lake bed including one that’s 7 miles long.  There’s also the world’s largest compass rose painted on the lake bed that is 1 mile in diameter.