I got my RV back together in the last couple of weeks and completed the flight testing. Just waiting to get the permit back from the LAA now.
Panel before:
And after:
The previous arrangement was pretty good for a steam gauge panel, given that some RVs look like the builder sneezed the gauges in position. However once I decided to get rid of the vacuum system I realised I’d have to replace the old wiring, which by this point had been botched and modified so many times it wasn’t really usable.
Naturally the project snowballed so it has a constant speed prop now too. The difference in performance compared to my old fixed pitch is absolutely insane. With me on board and 100L fuel, It’s off the ground in 90 metres. Just need to get the fairings back on so I can get cruise numbers, then sort out the colour scheme.
Airborne_Again wrote:
This weekend I spent a couple of hours doing much needed airwork and landing practice after not having flown enough in the last few months. Then a coffee run to another airport. I also managed to fix a radio problem with the aircraft. A perhaps not very exciting but most satisfying day.
Tried to do the same, with an instructor saying something in the lines of “- OK, let’s start from the beginning: that thing in front of you is called yoke. – That bad? – Yep.”. :)
I was very rusty…
Airborne_Again, how do you regain your flying capabilities after not flying for a few months? Do you fly with an instructor first?
Did a short weekend hop with the family to Tuscany. Very nice indeed :)
Still making only awful pictures…
dutch_flyer wrote:
There was no altitude in the clearance. It was just a VFR departure direct Whiskey with nothing else specified.
Then your clearance limit was Whiskey. The VFR plate says MAX 2000’, so in this case it wasn’t relevant whether or not the higher class D was the same airspace.
arj1 wrote:
Airborne_Again, how do you regain your flying capabilities after not flying for a few months?
In this case it was two months since my previous flight and then some more when I had flown less frequently that I wanted to.
Do you fly with an instructor first?
For a two month break, no. I know myself well enough to be sure that I can still make a safe flight if conditions are good. (I’ve got some 1100 hours.) But a couple of years ago I had a 5 month break, mostly because I had no medical for a while and then I did do the first flight with an instructor.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Then your clearance limit was Whiskey. The VFR plate says MAX 2000’, so in this case it wasn’t relevant whether or not the higher class D was the same airspace.
The AIP says the vertical limit is 2500’, which I failed to check in advance. I also only had the SkyDemon charts which don’t make this clear.
Good work IO390 👍🏻
The difference in performance compared to my old fixed pitch is absolutely insane
Yep, on my field 2 RV-7 did go fixed → CS last year reporting the same. I always considered a CSP as “mandatory” on most of the RVs with speed ratios close 4.
dutch_flyer wrote:
The AIP says the vertical limit is 2500’, which I failed to check in advance. I also only had the SkyDemon charts which don’t make this clear.
The vertical limit of the control zone is indeed 2500’, but the max altitude for arriving and departing VFR is 2000’.
In Germany you really need the VFR AIP plates. To get them in Skydemon you have to pay a fee, but they are also available online for free from the DFS web site.
A tough Saturday for me, starting by a hot session of mountain flying from Cannes to Banon altisurface. A few circuits there (2 runways), then my co-trainer takes the seat to fly to Faucon (near LFJE and the city of Die) with its impressive 20% rated runway. I took the plane back to Colombes D’Eyguians for another landing/takeoff (south of Gap LFNA), and we flew back to Cannes in the convective bright sun… That Rally (T180 light cell version) is impressive, can take heavy treatment from unprepared runway, and fly with ease in the turbulence.
After these dehydrating flights, I had to go in the C525 sim for my checkride, 4 hours of sim… Exhausted I was after these 6 hours of flight in the day, but I got my QT renewed despite very few flights in the citation, and so my IR-SE.
On Saturday I helped some kids from neighborhood filming video for their album. Actually I was just flying the aircraft the way camera guy told me.
On Sunday I flew to LJPZ for some lunch in Piran.
Today I picked up a friend at LDZD and flew him home to LOWG.
Pretty busy weekend.
