Video contest

Santa brought me a new toy for Christmas. It's a Hero GoPro video camera. I want to be able to attach the camera to my plane and shoot some video.

I was able to take some basic video from inside the cockpit last week, just to see how the camera work. After downloading the file from the camera to my computer, I was trying to figure out "What next?"

Windows 7 has a really basic movie maker program, but I couldn't get it to work on my computer. I think my graphics card wasn't able to process the HD video. After attempting to work around this for a couple of evenings, I finally upgraded my video card. I also picked up Pinnacle Studio 14 for video editing. Casey and I decided to create two separate videos, using the same raw materials (photos and videos from the past year's flying activities).

Casey's video seems to be better than mine, but I'm happy with both of them.

First Flight

Kit number 72608 became N957RV on Dec 18, 2009. After finishing up a few items on the "to do" list, I couldn't find any more excuses, so I had to fly! My RV-7 has a rebuilt IO-360 and a constant speed Hartzell prop. I painted it with Stewart Systems waterborne paint.

First flight took place at the Arlington airport (KAWO) under 5000 ft ceilings, light mist, no wind, and cool temps.After dialing in the trim, she flew extremely sweet! I couldn't detect any bad habits during the short flight. Being the first flight, I flew 7RV in a NASCAR oval at 4000 ft above the airport. She turns left just fine! Haven't tried to turn right yet! We only got in a couple of laps around the airport before the weather started to become a factor.Landing was a non-event. Final approach at 85mph with flaps down, flare, and "chirp" - I had arrived back at home base! Total flight time - 29 minutes. RV Grin? Yep!
Special thanks to Brian Costello, who walked me through an engine overhaul, and to Frank Melder who bucked rivets, spouted wisdom, hatched some crazy opinions, and flew chase plane, and to Mike Seager who provided 2.7 hrs of transition training in the RV-6 in some of the crappiest weather I ever want to fly in.Thanks also to those who provided encouragement during the process - My wife Kimala, my son Casey, my Dad Norm, Doug Medina, Ken Westlund, Steve Rush, Bob Savage, David Mischke, George Dube and all of the great people in EAA Chap 818, Aircraft Spruce, Avery Tools, and Cleveland Tools.

Airworthiness Certificate Application

After all of the blood (yes, I have drawn blood - several times), sweat (of course), and tears (no, you must be thinking of someone else) I finally reached that milestone. All of the pieces are in place, the plane is essentially complete, and it's time to let the FAA take a look at the final product.

OK, let's get real about this. The FAA doesn't really look at the final product. They allow a Designated Airworthiness Representative (DAR) to charge me about $300 to come out and look at my plane. He'll inspect for general workmanship, look for any errors or omissions that are glaringly obvious. But it's not his job, nor do I expect him to find every mistake or error that I may have made. In the end, I built my RV. I'm the "manufacturer". And I'm responsible.

So really, the DAR is going to come out to my hangar, spend a half hour poking through the inspection ports, the engine compartment, the panel, the wiring, etc, and then he's going to make sure that I have completed my governmental duties. He's going to look at (drum roll please...) the paperwork!!!

Yes! We all know that there is not an airplane out there that can't possibly fly unless the associated paperwork results in three chopped down trees, and weighs more than the airplane that the paperwork represents. So I've done my best to comply. I've documented the major steps involved in building. I've established logbooks to track maintenance and repairs to the airframe, the engine, and the propeller. Yes, three separate logbooks that will follow their respective equipment forever! I've filled out FAA forms in triplicate. I've had forms notarized. I've written notes to myself on paper napkins. I've written notes to myself on my hand (but the FAA won't allow me to submit those notes - something about chopping down trees.)

So now it's all been completed, notarized, and faxed off to the FAA for their approval. After the Beast has been satisfied, they will send the information along to the DAR, who will finish the inspection at my hangar. The DAR will issue two very important documents. First is my Airworthiness Certificate. This document is the FAA's admission that my little project is actually permitted to have air underneath the wheels. The second document is called "operating limitations", and spells out the limitations that the FAA puts on flight of each aircraft. My Op Limits will have two phases.

Phase I will cover the first 40 hours of flight, and require me to fly in a specific geographic area while testing the flight envelope, proving the reliability of the airframe and the engine, etc. Phase II will begin at 40.1 hours, and will allow me to carry passengers, fly VFR day or night, perform aerobatics, and fly anywhere and land at (almost) any airport.

Weight and Balance complete

Last week, I was finally able to get just about everything attached, bolted, screwed, installed, or just placed in it's proper position and location on my RV-7. Time to do the weight and balance. This is the final step, after everything is completed, to make sure that the airplane comes in at a proper weight, and that it balances at a point that will make it safe to fly.

The plane is leveled by raising the tailwheel until the fuselage is exactly level from front to tail. It is also leveled side-to-side by letting air out of one tire until the fuselage is absolutely level.

I borrowed a set of aviation grade scales from my local EAA chapter (EAA Chap 818), and with a little help from Marlin, I was able to get excellent results. My RV-7 came in with an empty weight of 1050 lbs, and the Center of Gravity came in about 1/4" behind where the factory recommends. That's good! I built light, installed lightweight instruments (Dynon), lightweight starter, and didn't go overboard with the interior seats and upholstery.

West Yellowstone Airport and Campsite

Here's another location that looked like fun to fly to. It's a campground that is on the West Yellowstone airport and maintained by the Montana Dept of Transportation. Looks like a fun place to pitch a tent and enjoy a campfire! Several RVers have commented on this camping area - nice place for an RV gathering.

How's it look now?

I've gone through a very steep learning curve, but I think that I've almost figured out how to paint an airplane. Too bad I've already (almost) finished painting before I figured it out!:D

This is a picture of my airplane taken at dusk this evening - sorry about the poor light but I really only did it so you can't see all of the mistakes and flaws!

The wings are done and hiding in a corner of the shop. Just need to finish off a couple of small items, and then start moving to the airport!

APRS is up and running (What's this?)

OK, My APRS is now up and running. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to "Track Scott" to see where I am. Click on the vehicle to get current location information, speed, and altitude (in case I'm flying).

What is APRS? It stands for Automatic Packet Reporting System. It's a Ham Radio application that takes a GPS signal, converts it into a Ham Radio signal which is then transmitted real-time. The transmitted signal is then received by multiple stations called "I-Gates". These are simply Ham Radio receivers that send the signal directly to the sound card on a computer, which then decodes the signal and sends it (as a packet) onto the internet. Hence, anyone with access to the internet can track someone who is using APRS by simply looking up that person's call sign.

The map at the bottom of my blog is not very powerful. You can get more information by going to http://www.aprs.fi/ where you can search for all APRS activity in an area, search for a specific user, etc. My callsign is "N957RV-7" - which is the N Number for my airplane.