Twin Cities RV Builders “Spring” Meeting
Saturday, April 1, 2023, 10:00 am - noonish
Doug and Paul’s hangar, 41C Mooney Lane, Lake Elmo Airport
Yep, this has been a crummy winter for flying. But the end is in sight!. Let’s get together and pretend we’re on the cusp of a great spring flying season!
Pete Howell will be back after having to postpone his talk last December. He first flew his RV-9A in 2006 and is coming up on 2700 hours total time (and on the original engine!) He has cross-crossed the country many times and few builders have put their RV to such good use! Pete will discuss his 16 years of RV traveling (all VFR by the way) and his plan to keep that Lycoming humming along.
Plus… always time for your questions on building and flying. And a special welcome to any new members!!!!
Coffee, juice, “low-cal” goodies as usual.
Directions: From I-94 go north on Manning Avenue (County Road 15) about 3 miles. Turn right at the second entrance to Lake Elmo airport just before the railroad tracks. Go east past Lake Elmo Aero and follow the road to the left. Go just past the old Civil Air Patrol hangar on the right. Then turn right on Mooney Lane. We are the fourth hangar on the left (41C.) Call Doug if lost: 651-398-1184.
See you there!!!!!! BTW, please park on the hard surface!!! (Restrooms are at Lake Elmo Aero)
03-08-2023
12-01-2022
9-14-2022
RV-12 builder Bob Collins is reviving our Tool Crib. If you have a "rare" tool (such as scales, c/s prop wrench, wing jack, etc, etc) that you might be will to loan to a member, zip over to the Tool Crib page for details
3-11-2022
1-14-2022
RV-7A driver Frank Huber recently took a flight of a lifetime in "Crazy Horse", a beautifully restored 2-place TF-51 in Kissimmee, Flordia.
1-14-2022
Here's the video of our January virtual meeting with Guil Barros. Enjoy...
12-06-2021
11-8-2021
Eleven "antique" issues of the newsletter have been added to the "RVator's Log" page. They range from the March 2007 to the December 2005 issues. The graphic format on some of the issues did not convert properly so you may see some issues with photos not displaying but the content is there. Enjoy.......
10-3-2021
9-3-2021
Head over to the Video Clips page to check out Tom Berge wrassling the Colorado River on his rafting trip in August
09-03-2021
The September issue of the RVator's Log is now available HERE.....
06-22-2021
The June issue of the RVator's Log is now available HERE.....
03-16-2021
The March issue of the RVator's Log is now available HERE.....
12-14-2020
The December issue of the RVator's Log is now available HERE.....
09-06-2020
The September issue of the RVator's Log is ready for your reading pleasure HERE......
07-07-2020
Mark Owen's RV-12 has been flying for several months. Every RV that takes to the air has a back story that is unique. Here's Mark's story...........
Adobe Acrobat document [2.3 MB]
04-20-2020
Several weeks into the Covid-19 lockdown..... RV-14 builder/pilot Tim Olson shares his version of "Social Distancing". Enjoy........
03-17-2020
The March issue of the RVator's Log is ready for your literary pleasure. Click HERE....
11-19-2019
9-10-2019
8-13-2019
Most of the club was at our Summer hangar party where we honored RV-guru extraordinaire Tom Berge. We presented Tom with a commemorative book with a ton of "Tom" photos and testimonials from club member on Tom's impact on their projects and planes. Here's a link to the publisher where you can page through and enjoy the book!! You can enlarge the size of the page for better viewing.
6-15-2019
The June 2019 issue of The RVator's Log is now ready for download HERE........
6-4-2019
Every time I make a trip to Hibbing to visit Midwest Aircraft Refinishing, I usually find some reason to marvel at their artistry with a spray gun. Monday of this week, I flew the RV-7 north to meet up with Frank Huber who was taking his RV-7A back for some minor touchup work. His RV is painted in Bud Anderson's "Old Crow" paint scheme and is flawless, as I would have expected by any paintwork coming out of Hibbing.
The big news is their completion of a major addition to their facility. Their new hangar is more than doubles the size of their other buildings. One half is a sterile dust free space where they can do their final polishing and vinyl graphic work. The other side is a state of the art paint booth big enough for a King Air. Brightly lit with LEDs, the north wall is one big filtered air inlet and the south wall is the exit. All the air is filtered and captured so no bad chemicals escape into the pristine Minnesota north woods nearby.
Most of their work is Cirrus restorations and repair, but their reputation is spreading among the RV community. If you want the best, book early, as they are usually scheduled 8 to 12 months out!
- Doug
For more details on how Midwest Aircraft Refinishing came to be, here's an article in Business North magazine from last fall.
Frank Huber's RV-7 in front of Midwest's new paint hangar
This is the detail side of the new hangar. Final finish work is done here before delivery.
The paint "booth"... filtered air comes in through the entire wall
George Virnig explains the "exhaust" side of the hangar to Frank
Their bread and butter is Cirrus repairs. This one in the process of recovering from a chute recovery with major composite repairs.
This is a recent Cirrus restoration (it's a 2004 model). The carbon fiber effect is painted not vinyl graphics. It's a secret how they do it, but they do it!!!!
4-13-2019
Our resident tech counselor Tom Berge recently returned from Austria where he reassembed Joerg Pfeiffer's RV-9A. Joerg's RV had been based at the Lino Lakes, MN airpark for a number of years. He splits his time between the U.S. and his home in Austria managing his company JP Powersports Engineering. This fall Joerg decided he wanted to move the airplane back home to Austria. In late November, he and Tom took the airplane apart, crated it up in a standard shipping container for the trip to Europe. After it arrived, Joerg contracted with Tom to come put it all back to together. So in March, Tom and his wife Karen spent two weeks in this most beaitiful part of the world splitting time between RV "work" and sightseeing.
Here's a short clip of the engine start on March 17th. Keep in mind the battery has been sitting in the airplane since the end of November and traveled on trucks and ships for all of this time with no attention whatsoever. The Odyssey PC680 is a pretty robust battery and will hold a charge a LONG time without human intervention!
Here's a couple shots of around the local area in Nuziders, Austria (about an hour's drive east of Zurich.)
Driving to St. Moritz
This is certainly not Minnesota!
Pretty impressive place to fly your RV!!!
11-28-2018
The December issue of The RVator's Log is now read for download HERE........
9-17-2018
14 RVs attended our Fall Fly-In Breakfast at Anoka last Saturday. Thanks to all who flew in and those who drove as well. EAA Chapter 237 did a great job in hosting us and we thank them for their efforts to make it a fun morning.
Here's some photos........
RVs on the ramp in front of the old University of Minnesota aeronautics building.
DAL captain Kevin Knutson and his RV-6. A beatiful example of an "old-school" RV.
RV-7A builder Frank Huber (yellow vest) shows Peter Fruehling his newly finished machine. It's heading to the paint shop in Hibbing next month.
Pat Halama (R) flew in from EAU in his RV-9A. Pat's co-pilot was Reynolds Tomter, who at age 101 loves to fly with Pat!!!
Breakfast at Chapter 237's hangar.
Chapter 237 cooks up their famous breakfasts every other month. Yum!!!!!
6-26-2018
Our June summer hangar party (aka Anoka Extravaganza) is history. Go HERE to check out the photos......
Tom Irlbeck tribute page
6-05-2018
4-10-2018
Our April meeting was a great success highlighted by a fascinating talk by retired Northwest Captain John Hanson.
3-01-2018
11-14-2017
RV-10/14 builder Tim Olson and his family took a trip this August to Oregon to view the eclipse. What makes this really cool is that they took BOTH of their airplanes with his wife Andrea and daughter Colleen flying the RV-14 and Tim and daughter Danielle flying the RV-10. You can read all about the trip HERE......
Before their trip, Tim (who is a CFI) gave his daughter Danielle some dual in short field operations in the -14. Check out the video.........
9-13-2017
Our 2017 RV Fly-In and Picnic is in the books. Attendance was down somewhat perhaps because of a rather windy day. But regardless, it was another great time of eating and talking RV talk. Here's a shot from Peter Fruehling of his daughter Teagan delighting in Nancy Burkholder's RV-6 roaring overhead. Click on this link to see the Photo Gallery....
12-18-2016
Tom Irlbeck reflects on his 57 years as a pilot, 71 1⁄2 years of flying....
Thought I’d drop you a note, as I reflect back on my years in the air. Flying has been good to me. I consider myself very fortunate, having been born into a flying family. My Dad was a B-17, B-29 pilot. When he was home on leave in the fall of 1945, we went out to John Benson’s Airport, just north of White Bear Lake. Don’t know all of the story how my Dad and John met, but know they were close friends, until both went west, a number of years ago. Anyway, I have a cherished photo sitting in John’s J-3 that he was renting, on my Mom’s lap, with my Dad in the front seat. That was my first ride at 2 1⁄2. I have my hand on the stick, my Mom said I want to shake the stick, and to this day I still enjoy “shaking the stick”, must be in the genes.
Last Sunday, old “Bear”, my trustworthy RV-8 turned over 2,000 hrs. I started building her in 1997, and June of 2000 she took me into the air on her first flight. On Sunday I was giving a “Young Eagle Ride”, a young lady of 15yrs, her 1st ride in a “little” aircraft. She had been in the air only once before, in an airliner, and was a little apprehensive. On such rides, I take it “easy”, you might say I hold back a lot, not my normal “Navy Take Off”. I mentioned that we would be turning over to the 2,000 hr mark to her, but I’m sure she didn’t realize the signifigance, but “Bear” did!!!!
09-16-2014
RV-4 pilot John Field recently took his niece Mono for a ride in his beautiful yellow -4. She wrote him this REALLY COOL thank you note... You'll love it!!! (make all that labor worth every minute!)
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