Welcome to
the Twin Cities RV Builders Group
* * * * * *
July 2009 Meeting and
Lunch
Saturday July 11, 11 am at Bernie Weiss' Hangar
Anoka County Airport
Our hosts are Bernie Weiss and Pete Howell. Lot's of eatin'
and hangar flyin' is on the agenda. Bring a lawn chair for
relaxing and come hungry for a one-of-a-kind culinary
experience as Bernie and Pete serve a Mediterranean lunch
of grilled lamb, pita bread, rice, and dessert. You were
getting bored with hamburgers, right? Details are in
the
June 2009
newsletter
and also
HERE.
We would like to get an approximate number attending to
plan the menu.
If you are planning to
attend, please CLICK on this link to send us the number
of folks in your party.
Hope to see you all on the 11th!!!
* * * * * *
7/03/09
When
Pete Howell is not out saving dogs from mean puppy mills,
he is dabbling with electro-goodies that this old retired
airline pilot cannot begin to comprehend.
Pete's latest project has something to do with APRS, NUVIs,
and other ultra-geeky things. Now he can send and receive
emails in flight!! What can be next?
Here's the link to his story
and if you can decipher what he did, let me know!
Have a great Fourth of July weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6/29/09
We
are kicking off a
TOOL CRIB
page on the website. Bob Collins is making his engine hoist
available for loan.
AND a second addition is a
BUILDING TIPS
page. Your friendly Tech Counselor Tom Berge comes up with
a low-stress method of removed those pesky tires.
Guaranteed to keep your blood pressure below FAA limits!
6/26/09
This
week a very critical NTSB report was released regarding an
RV accident that occurred in 2007. Frankly, I consider this
mandatory reading for RV builders and pilots and I would
challenge you to read it in its entirety and consider the
circumstances of not only the accident, but the events
leading up to this tragedy. It has been added to the
Flight Safety
page or you can go
here directly to the report.
6/22/09
Saturday
I signed on as first officer in Sky Pig II and flew with
Bernie Weiss to the BIG RV fly-in at Boone, IA. The MN Wing
was well represented with Tom Berge and RV wannabe Matt
Huesman, Alex Peterson and his son, Paul Hove, Pete Howell,
plus a bunch of others in attendance.
This always a great gathering of RVs and this year the
weather was absolutely perfect. The folks at Boone go all
out to welcome everyone with a great lunch and lots of time
to hangar fly.
W & C Aircraft Works
plus all the RV builders on the airport put this together.
W & C is an RV builder's assistance facility and there
must have been at least eight RV projects underway in their
hangar.
As usual Pete Howell put together a nice photo essay of the
trip.
Here's the link on the VAF
site.
For the past couple months I have been flying 4 different
RV-7As and conclude that the Lightspeed EI system provides
an amazingly smooth running engine (hate to say this guys,
but when I fly a magneto-equipped machine it is a BIG
difference). Although we kid Bernie's SPII for being a
little slower than the rest of the local RVs, with dual
Lightspeed EIs, the Vetterman muffler system, and Telex ANR
headsets, it is by far the quietest and smoothest running
RV I have flown.
6/17/09
Vance
Draheim is selling an RV-9 tail kit. Please see the
FOR SALE
page for more info.
6/15/09
Ken
Beene writes that Bob Forsting's RV-4 is for sale. You can
check out the details on the
For Sale
page.
6/14/09
I
spent Friday and Saturday working with John Burgin from
Louisiana who came here for transition training. He reveled
in our wonderful weather which I told him is always like
this in the summer!!!
Pete Howell and Bernie flew to Olivia, MN for breakfast on
Saturday morning. Pete got some nice air to air
shots
HERE.
6/10/09
Your
June 2009 issue of the
RVator's
Log
is now ready for download
HERE.
This issue includes details on our July meeting scheduled
for Saturday July 11 (11 am) hosted by Bernie Weiss and
Pete Howell.
6/10/09
As
a postscript to our trip report below, we learned an
interesting lesson about the overly ambitious birds that
inhabit Put-In-Bay. Your brain dead PIC forgot to plug up
the cowl inlets on Tom's -7A during the 2 day stay on the
island. When we left, we noticed a fair amount of bird
droppings on the round cowl inlets and I looked in and saw
about a half dozen pieces of straw. I removed them and
looked carefully into the engine and couldn't see a thing
(Tom's engine has a very tight fitting plenum so I figured
there wasn't any room for a bird to get in there anyway.)
When we departed Put-In-Bay, there was a faint smell of
burning grass for a couple minutes and that was all. We
flew the rest of the trip (about 8 hours) with no further
burning odor.
UNTIL last Monday when Tom removed the cowl to change the
oil. Here's what he removed from the engine, jammed in
behind the two rear cylinders!
6/09/09
Jean and I returned from our spring RV trip on Sunday
evening. Generally all went well and we put Tom Berge's
RV-7A to good use.
We departed on Wednesday MIC to Aurora, IL for fuel
($3.25/gal) and then on to
Put-In-Bay, Ohio
which is an island in SW Lake Erie. Way back in my high
school days, this was a popular fly-in destination and
still is a lot of fun. On Friday we departed in the morning
for a quick 25 minute flight to Burke Lakefront in
Cleveland and a visit to the
Rock N Roll Hall of Fame
(well worth the stop). Around 4 p.m. we took off to the NE
for the 1:20 flight to Rochester, NY ($5.50 a gal for
fuel.. ouch!) for a couple days with Jean's cousin (and
also to see #2 son Dale play with the
MN Thunder
against the Rochester Rhinos (ended in a 0-0 tie).
Sunday morning the plan was perhaps to fly home but the
weather in MN was marginal (we had been flying the trip on
an IFR flight plan but this an RV is not a 757 so we were
watching the weather closely). Flew back to Lakefront and
made the decision to head NW to Grand Rapids, MI to have
lunch with relatives and then decide whether to come home
or stay overnight. Up to now the weather had been great
VFR.
By 4 p.m. the weather was vastly improved in IL and
southern WI with 1800 ceilings in the MSP area. 1500 ft is
my minimums for SE IFR flying so we launched VFR around the
southern tip of Lake Michigan (it was clear all the way but
hazy). Quick fuel stop in Rockford, IL and filed IFR to
Crystal. Around LSE the overcast filled in under us and we
watched the inbound rain in SW Minnesota on the XM weather
box (aka Garmin 530). Made a little sashay around a small
storm south of Redwing and then it was vectors to the GPS A
to Crystal. Solidly in the clouds the last 40 minutes or
so. MIC was giving 1400 overcast and 4 miles when we
started the approach but we broke out around 800 feet and
circled in light rain to land on 6L. Mission accomplished
by 8 p.m (don't place a lot of faith in ATIS weather
reports!)
Thoughts on serious IFR in an RV: You MUST have an
autopilot with altitude hold (and I do mean MUST!!) I have
taught a lot in these airplanes but this was truly my first
time doing the work myself (I can always easily dish it
out!). Let "George" do the heavy lifting. Secondly, XM
weather is also a necessity. Having the NEXRAD radar
showing exactly what was around us was almost as good as
on-board WX radar. BUT... this is still a small SE
airplane. We had good VFR to the east, but this is not a
big turbine machine with 2 pilots, dispatchers, weather
experts, flights attendants and a potty in the back. I was
confident in my slightly rusty instrument skills but I
confess not being real comfortable flying a small SE
airplane with low ceilings under us. You have to know you
and your airplane's limitations and manage your risks.
Thanks to Tom for loaning us his very reliable and
trusty-worthy machine!
6/05/09
I'm
out of town on an RV trip to Rochester, NY (courtesy of Tom
Berge's RV-7A).
Mark your calendars for our next meeting. Our hosts will be
Bernie Weiss and Pete Howell for a grilled lamb cookout at
their hangar at Anoka. The date is Saturday July 11th
gathering anytime after 11 am. Bring a lawn chair. More
details in the June newsletter coming soon.
5/30/09
Bob Collins has just published this week's RV Builder's
Hotline and he has included an audio interview with our own
MN Wing Tech Counselor Tom Berge.
Here's the link.
MN Wing News
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