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.

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.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK   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)