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Rick Gray's report on the Ohio Valley RVators Formation Clinic We had about 44 RVs total at the clinic….38 of those being clinic participants. Plus…one sweet Lancair Legacy photo ship. Right at 50 folks attended! We ate about 150 donuts, drank about 100 bottles of water, 50 orange juices, 50 apple juices, and lost count of the pop, coffee, and ‘other’ beverages during dinner Saturday night. I didn't get the tally on the fuel yet, but let's say that the airport sold a few gallons of Avgas….. $3.27 per gallon. The clinic began with the arrivals on Friday (a few even came in on Thursday). The tower frequency was buzzing with incoming traffic all day…..Keystone Flight, Buckeye Flight, Bulldog Flight, Hawk Flight, Palmetto Flight, Rat Flight, Speedy Flight,……you name it….you heard it!! Incoming flights ranged from single to 8 ship arrivals. In addition to the incoming traffic…..we had quite a few departure flights as well…….we couldn’t just ‘watch’ the incoming flights all day…..we had to go up and get in some 4 ship practice as well! All planes were hangared or tied down then the Pizza Party started….right on time at about 6pm. We ate just about all of the 21 pizzas.......the noise of RV formation talk, and laughter in the background as new friendships were in the making was music to the ears!! After our bellies were full……the ground school began. The ‘ground rules’….(read: ‘SAFETY’)……. and agenda for the clinic were covered ……then I turned the ball over to Stu ‘Falcon’ McCurdy (FFI) for his segment of the Ground School. Stu’s presentation dealt with the basics and overview of formation flying including a background of Formation Flying Inc. (FFI). This was followed up with the introductions from the participants and the ‘nuts and bolts’ (as Stu calls it) of formation flying......a GREAT presentation from Mike ‘Kahuna’ Stewart….founder of Team RV. Saturday morning came early, with only about 5 hours of sleep for many of us. Off to the airport….I love those clear, crisp mornings with the sun coming up behind you as you preflight your RV……especially when there are about 40 other RV’s doing the same thing!! I took Buckeye Flight of 4 up for some early morning practice which included a photo pass prior to the carrier breaks…….another flight consisting of Kahuna, Dogg, Hooter, and Speedy were out for a little ‘specialized’ training as well. Nothing like standing on the ramp early in the morning as the roar of the lycoming engines overhead break the silence……this will really get the juices flowing!! Briefs for exposure flights began right on time at 8am. Flights were organized according to experience levels, with all new folks being put in an aircraft with experienced formation pilots for one-on-one training. We put up 4 ‘missions’ throughout the day….each mission contained between 8 and 10 flights…….flights consisting of mostly 4 ships with a couple 3 ships….again….tailored to experience levels. The ‘practice area’ was divided into 10 sectors for the different flights….each sector having an assigned frequency to keep communications safe. We took a well deserved lunch break in between the missions :^)!! All this was observed by our beautiful Lancair Legacy Photo Ship which was piloted by owner/builder Rob Logan. Dana Overall from our group was snapping the photos and taking the video.
Oh yea…..I MUST comment
on my last flight of the day on Saturday (actually the 6th flight of the day
for me....big smile). I know that we are ‘all about’ RV’s….but……Rob
Logan (photo ship) came up to me and invited me for a ride in his Lancair Legacy…….NO
hesitation on my part…….I was going to die if had to watch his bird
make more Reno Air Race style pass down the runway from the ground! He did the
walk-around and strapped me in……a couple minutes later we were rolling
down the runway. All I can say is this is ONE SWEET AIRPLANE!! And…..FAST!
Basically…it’s a whole ‘nuther kind of airplane than our RV’s…….and
it’s FAST! It’s equipped for anything that could come your way…..and
performs amazingly……and did I mention that it’s FAST??? Thanks
Rob……does anyone want to buy my F1 Rocket project??……ha
ha. We got an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night…….to bed at eleven instead of midnight…..5 o’clock came real early. No biggie when you know you’re headed back to the airport for the ‘All Up’ Formation Sunday morning. For me….this is the climax of the weekend. Once at the airport we had another great day ahead of us…….folks were pulling their planes out of the hangars and the fuel island was hopping. More donuts were being consumed as folks got ready for the ‘All Up’ briefing scheduled for 8am. My daughters Lauren (11)
and Kristen (9) were there as well…..they wanted to be the ones to draw
the names for the giveaways that were donated by Vans Aircraft, Cleaveland tools,
Avery Tools, and PKB airport. It was priceless to watch them as they handed
out the gifts. A HUGE thank you to those that contributed…..be sure to
buy your tools from these folks….and make your next aircraft purchase
is from Vans Aircraft…..yea right….like I need to tell you that!
Falcon briefed the All Up
formation……engine start time would be 10am…..all watches were
synchronized. As the seconds counted down, the quiet morning was interrupted
by the sound of 18 Lycomings coming to life (sorry….no Subaru’s
or Rotarys were there this weekend….smile). Falcon called for the check
in and Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo flights responded as briefed.
Falcon Flight of 18 taxied into position on Runway 3 when cleared for take off…….that
poor guy coming into the pattern in the Cessna 152 would have to wait :^)!!
We took off 4 x 4 x 4 x 4 x 2 then joined up for the first of 4 passes in the
racetrack pattern. The second pass was the ‘loose diamond of diamonds
+2’ followed by the ‘arrowhead’ formation…..then, we
joined up for the 18 ship ‘diamond of diamonds”…..+2…(smile).
http://members9.clubphoto.com/rick398651/owner-e5f1-1.phtml And Robert ‘Salty’ Saltsman’s pics from the clinic can be seen here: The rest are on Rob’s site at: The videos can be seen here: http://rob.com/pix/pkb?page=11 Rob’s favorite is this one: Once the 18 aircraft were secured Falcon held the usual debrief with all pilots and passengers from the flight. After the debrief, it was time for lunch and departures. It was icing on the cake to watch our Cincinnati ‘Rats’ 5 ship depart in the 5 ship Vic formation. They did a textbook takeoff with a left 270 degree turn over the tower and the ramp on the way out. The flight looked and sounded awesome as they departed!! This was followed by a 4 ship Team RV/Palmetto departure led by SuBob headed back to the south. Blackhawk departures headed to the west, and folks heading east formed up for multi-ship departures as well.....it was bittersweet!! It was a SUPER weekend……and no incidents! We did some serious flying and also some serious ribbing! Old friendships were rekindled and new ones were formed….all in the course of a 3 day weekend! Thanks to Falcon, Kahuna and Team RV for their continued support of our Ohio Valley RVators at the clinic (again)……you guys are GREAT!! There is no one who does as much for the RV Formation Flying community as these guys do!! Thanks to PKB airport and their staff for a great facility and for meeting all of our needs!! Thanks again to Vans, Avery, and Cleaveland for their contributions! Thanks to the unknown person (smile) that helped me with all of our documents and materials. Thanks to Dan ‘Danno’ Lloyd our ‘Gadget Man’ for ALL his help with the audio/video……it don’t happen without Danno’!!! Thanks to Rob Logan for volunteering his time/gas/ and Lancair for the photo ship duties (and for the thriller ride)! Thanks to Dana for taking the pics and to Salty for his pics, and Dan Woodfin for his pics...and others who I missed :^)! Thanks for all the GENEROUS DONATIONS that you folks offered to help pay for all the incidentals…..it looks like I won’t go in the hole this year……and, my little red haired wife says thanks too…..big smile!! And….most of all......thanks to ALL of you that participated in the clinic….there would be NO CLINIC without you!!! He probably thought I’d forget….but, thanks to Bill ‘Lefty’ Connelly…..my right hand man in running the clinic……YOU ARE THE MAN!!! Again, if you didn’t
make the clinic….hope to see you next year….and remember….”You
Snooze….You Looze”!! |
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A member
of the AeroElectric-List recently cited a startling failure mode for
a switch in his airplane. It presented an internal short to ground!
I asked that he send me the corpse. He complied (
EAA Chapter
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Removing
rivets