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.

Flying Destination Wish List #1

Gold Beach, OR

Gold Beach has a neat little airport right on the ocean beach in southern Oregon. The town of Gold Beach is located at the mouth of Rogue River, which is known for it's Jet Boat excursions and the Siskiyou National Forest.

There's a nice resort style hotel located within a mile of the airport (Gold Beach Resort).

Painting an RV-7 Fuselage Part 1

Caution being the best way to approach a complex task, I began painting my RV-7 on all of the small pieces, such as the gear fairings, the access covers, and then moving up to the elevators and ailerons and flaps. I'm almost done with the wings, and then I'll move on to the fuselage.

The wing gets an initial coat of primer, and then a full coat of "Idaho Snow" base color. The picture at right is the base color.

After a day or so of drying, the wing gets taped off, and then the trim colors are sprayed. I'm using a maroon and "Dawn Grey" for my trim colors. Well, those are the trim colors for the wing anyways. It will be just the opposite on the fuselage, where the main color will be maroon, with trim colors of Dawn Grey and Idaho Snow.

This picture is kind of dark, but you can see the trim scheme. The part of the wing that is missing is the fuel tank. It gets painted at the same time as the wing so that the colors tints match and the trim lines actually line up!

With the majority of the "small stuff" painted, now it's time to move on to the fuselage. Today, I used an acid etch to clean the fuselage skin. The acid actually removes a layer of very pure aluminum from the skin of the airplane and creates microscopic pits in the underlying layer. Primer is then sprayed onto the skins, where it mechanically bonds to the pits. The color coats are finally sprayed and bond to the primer. When the aluminum skin is etched, the fuselage looks like crap! But the primer will go on tomorrow and then it will begin to look presentable again!

My Dakota Hawk

I stated in my first blog entry that I had built a Fisher Flying Products Dakota Hawk. There's a little history to that plane.

I went to Oshkosh 1996 - the same year that I finished my enlistment in the Navy. Oshkosh is the home to the Experimental Aircraft Association's Airventure. This is a weeklong experience - camping on the airport grounds, thousands of experimental and "spam can" airplanes fly in, vendors and dealers trying to sell anything that can be even remotely tied to aviation! It's the "Las Vegas Sin City" for the flying crowd!

Airventure is known for several weather extremes - hot, humid, downpours, lightning storms, wind, etc. And 1996 was no exception. It was HOT!

I was interested in building a single seat homebuilt airplane called the Minimax. The dealer for the Minimax had their booth right next to the dealer for Fisher Flying Products. And Fisher Flying Products had a high wing airplane right there, that provided a LOT of shade! So while I was hanging out, checking out the Minimax, I spent a lot of time sitting under the wing of Fisher Flying Products Dakota Hawk airplane.

After getting home from Airventure, I had money in hand to purchase the Minimax kit and begin building my own experimental homebuilt airplane. The Minimax really appealed to me because of it's all-wood construction, it's 3 axis controls, and it's low cost of construction. But I kept thinking about that plane that provided the shade for me. Hmmm... All wood construction, 3 axis controls, low cost of construction... And can carry a passenger!!!

Well, Long story short... I decided to build the Dakota Hawk.

Steep Learning Curve (painting an RV-7)

I've been prepping my RV-7 for paint over the past couple of weeks. There is a lot of fiberglass work, pinholes, cleaning and acid-etching, etc before the first coat of primer goes on! I've gone through a couple of tubes of red glazing putty (two-part! not the one part crap!). After putting the glazing putty on, 98% of it gets sanded right back off. The putty is used to fill small imperfections and dings, as well as fill pinholes in fiberglass. Seems like there is about a gazillion pinholes in all of the fiberglass components that come with the Van's RV kits. (shhhhhhh! don't mention the word "gazillion" around Obama. He might decide to spend it!)

Anyways, after filling and sanding, and filling and sanding, and filling and sanding, I finally got the surface to a smoothness that I could be satisfied with. Time for some paint.

I'm using Stewart Systems Aero paint, which is a water based poly. Here's a (sideways) picture of my horizontal stab, elevators, and fiberglass empennage fairing. Just finished the silver streak last night. After untaping everything, I found a little area on the elevator tips that didn't get enough coverage. The elevators were hanging - tip down - and I just didn't get enough coats on the tips. No biggie. Easy enough to touch up next time I spray some maroon...

Flying destinations (wish list?)

I've been reading a lot of various blogs, and see a lot of places that look like a lot of fun to visit. Problem is, how do I remember all of these destinations - maybe bookmark every website or blog? But then I would have to revisit every one of those pages to refamiliarize myself.

Anyways, I thought that maybe I could simply keep a part of my own blog dedicated to a)places I'd like to travel, and b)places that I have traveled. Hmmmm. Sounds like an original idea!

Stay tuned for some of my flying destinations!

First Entry

I've been thinking about creating a blog for quite awhile now. I've got several things going on that I would like to chronical.

For example, I'm building an experimental airplane - an RV-7. If you're interested in the world of experimental aviation, you already know what an RV-7 is. For the uninitiated, an RV-7 is an all-metal (aluminum) low wing, two seat fast, aerobatic capable airplane. As I complete the process of building, I would like to begin keeping a travel and flying log.

I also built and currently fly another experimental airplane - a Fisher Flying Products Dakota Hawk. The Dakota Hawk is a wood airplane, built with high quality aircraft spruce and covered with aviation grade fabric. It's not a very fast airplane. It cruises at about 90 mph, and is great for low and slow scenic local flights. I plan to video tape or photograph more of my flights around the Puget Sound area, into the Cascades, and around Seattle.

In addition to flying, I enjoy riding quads. I own a Suzuki Eiger 400, and my son rides a Suzuki 250 Ozark. Most of the time, we ride at Walker Valley, but we're looking for excuses to get out to some other riding destinations.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I purchased a 28' travel trailer. We've camped locally, done the Oregon Coast, and spent some time in Central Washington. This summer, we're going to spend a couple of weeks in Northern Utah at a family reunion. Great excuse to bring the quads as well!