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Maintenance
Car
vs. airplane. Why the two oils are different (mp3 podcast
from AvWeb)
Service
Bulletin
Lycoming issues reprint of Precision Airmotive mandatory service
bulletin No. MSA13
Reliability
centered maintenance
Forty-six slides from a recent Mike Busch presentation. The science
of achieving safety & dispatch reliability by doing less maintenance.
(EAA 393)
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Didn't get the hotline in your mailbox this
week? Please let me know.
And check
here.
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FEATURED STORY |
Leap of faith

What's that old saying? If you wait to have kids until you can afford them, you'll never have them. In many ways, building an RV is like that. A lot of dreams go by the wayside waiting for the cash to suddenly appear. For some builders, it's a leap of faith. They start on faith that the money will somehow appear, that providence dictates a finished airplane. This is one such story.
"People
die waiting for the right moment to enjoy the life they
want to live," Jack Beck says. "We have chosen
to put ourselves somewhat at risk by enjoying that life
now. Temerity that sometimes becomes a boundary for living,
becomes a boundary that must be stepped over." (More)
By the way, big points to Jeff Point for
determining the sound in the background of the audio was
the Tuesday Falcon Flight at Oshkosh.
Related thread:
The down side of pay-as-you-go (VAF) |
Motopod:
Next best thing to a flying car?
Instead
of a roadable aircraft, how about using your aircraft to carry
a roadable motorcycle? MotoPOD has been fitted to a four-seat
Van's Aircraft RV-10 kitbuilt experimental aircraft for testing
at a cost of 9 knots airspeed during cruise -- time the company
says you can sometimes more than erase on the destination end
of the trip by virtue of having brought your own ground transportation.
(AvWeb)
Related video:
See
the YouTube video
Related thread:
VAF
thread
Tripping
the RV way
In
EAA Chapter 242's monthly newsletter (South Carolina), Tom and
Don Roberts provide a detailed glimpse of their RV flight (RV-7A)
up the coast to western Massachusetts. Good motivation. (More)
Other trip reports:
Pete
Howell's trip to Kansas City for baseball (VAF)
Give
it up for French Lick (PapaGolf Chronicles)
Trip
to Monument Valley (VAF)
My
last 24 hours, RV style (VAF)
Madeline
Island (semi-RV)
One killed
in Oklahoma RV-6 crash
According to the Federal Aviation Registry the airplane was a
fixed wing, single-engine RV-6A model manufactured in 1997 and
registered to Ron S. Dickey, of Williston, Tenn. (NewsOK.com)
Related link:
Muskogee
plane crash kills man (Tulsa World)
Experimental
plane is popular among pilots (Tulsa World)
NTSB
preliminary report
APRS Web
Page
Interest
in the automatic position reporting system continues to grow.
Now, Michael Stewart has set up a Web page to further document
how to set the system up in your RV airplane. (More)
Related link:
Archive:APRS
tracking for dummies...and geniuses.
| HOTLINE
NEWS |
The
publishing schedule of the Hotline is going to be
a little sporadic over the next few weeks. I'm leaving
for Denver Saturday (any RVers?) to cover the Democratic
National Convention, returning Friday, and then
jumping in to cover the GOP convention in St. Paul.
I'll do the best I can to keep things coming. But
any help
you can provide in the way of threads, tips,
or pictures would be most appreciated. |
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| ACCIDENT REPORTS |
| TX:
Probable caused released in the 10/13/07 RV-8 collision
with a car. Finding: The automobile driver's failure
to yield right-a-way to the airplane before crossing
an active runway. (Data
| Background) |
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| OTHER NEWS |
Importing
a foreign-built plane into Canada
The procedures for bringing in a homebuilt to Canada, capably explained.
The
real cost of flying
Take my RV-10. Sure, building it has been a drain on the checkbook in a steady, significant way over the past four years, but until that engine fired up and the aircraft took to the air those costs were predictable. Then we got the first fuel bills had to replace the electrical components that did not work and a tire. And — well, you know where I am going with this.
(AvWeb)
Alan
Henley's fight
Please visit the Caring Bridge site for this AeroShell
team aviator, and contribute to his fight.
Big
sky. Little airplanes
The theory that wide open spaces generally preclude
two aircraft from swapping paint or worse was put
to the test this past weekend when a Cessna 172
collided in VFR conditions with a Cirrus SR22. (Bruce
Landsberg)
Learning
about RVs: How did I start?
Another good introduction to the world of RVs (Golfsierra.org)
Why
you should just fly the plane and leave the demonstrations
to someone else
A homebuilder is killed while "demonstrating
the capabilities" of his plane. (Tri City Herald)
Experimental
doesn't mean exotic
Profile of an RVer and another example of how you can easily get favorable GA coverage from your local media... if you try. (Lake County Leader)
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Slider
rear skirt
The
slider rear skirt work on an RV7A (or 9A) has come up in a couple
of areas in the last week. First on the RV Yahoogroup, Ralph Capen
provides guidance on how to make the skirt and maintain your sanity.
Here's his post in
this thread:
Mask
off where you don't want resin to stick to. Mark a line on the
canopy and fuselage where you want to limit the skirt. Using clear
packing tape (starting from the bottom up) span the gap horizontally.
I only went on the fuse a short bit - the canopy side got clear
tape past the line. My first layer of glass was BID tape to set
the line - after that BID cut on the bias - six layers - spanning
from one side to the other. The last layer was covered by a covering
of PeelPly. Then walk away for a couple of days. Take it all apart,
trim. I had already drilled holes through the plexi and in to
the frame and every third one was already pop riveted in, keeping
the frame/plexi relationship intact. The pre-drilled holes left
little dimples in the fresh layups so they were easy to drill
and fit. Rough everything up where the glass and canopy meet,
countersink the attachment holes. A painting of resin on the skirts
and glass. Cleco together and rivet before the resin sets. Then
two layers of 1/2 oz glass cloth (RC model stuff) over the line
of rivets. The valleys in the skirts were filled with Flox/micro
(2:3) mixed in to resin - not too thick - smooth it on with a
spreader. Cover with peel-ply.
After everything hardens up, sand down to a nice shape (wear a
mask for the dust) and a final coat of raw resin after the last
sanding to seal it up. Fits perfectly......pleasant shape......I
did it only once.
Related links:
Same
subject, different thread (VAF)
Vincesrocket.com
Phil's
RV project
Tip-up
front fairing
I
meanwhile, have been plodding along at the other end of the different
style canopy. As
I noted on my blog, I'm flying blind with this newfangled
fiberglass stuff and generally trying to follow the directions
of you smart builders. So far, so pretty good, although I do have
a little "bump" on one side of the front -- as the blog
entry makes clear. That's when Pete Howell -- RV9A fame -- called
my attention to an article he wrote back in 1995 for the RVator's
Log, the official newsletter of the Minnesota Wing of Van's
Air Force (expertly edited by wing president Doug Weiler) . Pete
has a slider, too, but his advice for the "bump" transcends
this selection. Of course, my problem is also that the bump isn't
consistent across the front of my canopy, but I'm going to give
his idea a shot. Many thanks, as always, to Pete for his contributions.
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PICTURE
OF THE WEEK
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Oshkosh's
vibe starting to wear off? Perhaps what you need is
a look at some of John
Slemp's Oshkosh photographs he posted earlier
this week. (Hat tip: Doug Reeves)
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The
RV Builder's Newsletter is published every other Saturday morning
-- more often as time allows -- and is distributed to those interested
in building and flying the RV aircraft featured by Van's Aircraft
Inc. There is no cost to subscribe
and the newsletter is delivered by e-mail in html format. ©2008
Bob Collins. This newsletter is not endorsed by, approved by,
or affiliated with Van's Aircraft Inc. The Hotline is produced by Bob Collins, 2734 McKinley Dr., Woodbury, Minnesota 55125-3487. You may unsubscribe at any time by selecting the link above. |
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