MN Wing News Archives - page
1
7/09/09
Pete
Howell, Bernie Weiss, and Alex Peterson will be our hosts on
Saturday for our summer meeting/lunch/hangar flying session. Here's
the menu from the Holy Land Deli:
•
APPETIZER
- Samosa
• ENTREE ITEMS:
- Gyro
- Chicken Gyro
• SALAD:
- Fresh Salad
• RICE:
- Yellow
• DESSERT:
- Mixed Desserts from the Med!
Yep, a departure from the usual burgers and chips.
Again, if you haven't done
so, please send us a note indicating how many in your group are
planning to come.
Please bring a lawn chair for lounging. Weather looks good so we'll
see you Saturday!!
7/07/09
Walt
Ray has posted various tools that he has available for loan in
the TOOL
CRIB.
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.
5/25/09
Hope
you are all having a nice Memorial Day weekend as we commemorate
those that have sacrificed for our
country.
Our
official MN Wing Dog Whisperer Pete Howell, flew another
canine-critical mission this weekend. "Boomer" made the move from
Packer country to a new home in Minnesota courtesy of Pete's
RV-9A. Read another great story here and be sure to check out
the photos.
5/20/09
The
Boone, Iowa RV Day is scheduled for June 20th (added to the
Calendar of Events). This is one of the oldest local RV gatherings
and is always great fun (it is even worth the drive).
Here's more information.
AND... also this coming Saturday, the Twin Cities RV Group has been
invited to the CAF Salute to Veteran's Show at Red Wing Airport.
Lots of war-birds, cars, and fun stuff. Here's their promotional video.
5/16/09
I was out of the loop last week and wasn't able to attend Tom
Berge's Firewall Forward seminar. But our own Bob Collins has put
together a great article all about it. If you missed it, here is a wealth of info.
Credit
goes to the latest issue of Bob's RV Builder's Hotline.
And
BTW, if you are not on Bob's subscription list for this outstanding
synopsis of ALL the RV news on the planet, sign up HERE.
Bob puts a lot of work into this publication!
5/13/09
Finally
getting back to the world of the living after battling off the flu
bug. Here's a couple news items from two of our members:
Doug,
I'm down in Brazil on business, and I found this picture of the
week on the AV Web flash weekly email. They incorrectly labeled the
photo from Argentina. It was very inspirational for me. Maybe some
people would enjoy it. I haven't been to Rio De Janeiro yet, but I
will always have this image in my mind.
Regards,
Pete
Peter D. Gunness
MTS Systems Corporation
14000 Technology Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 5534
This from from RV-4 builder Mike Casmey two weeks
ago:
Well, I finally have left American soil. We have arrived in
Kuwait to spend a few days acclimating to the desert and the time
change. To jump start our internal clocks we were given 4 hours of
sleep after a 24+ hour travel to a desert base in the middle of no
where. Then we jumped up into 110 degree F. The next day we went
out and re-qualified with our weapons in full battle rattle, 110
degree F and an almost blinding sand storm. Welcome to the
desert.
Tomorrow I will jump on a helicopter with more gear that three
people can carry and head up into Iraq and my final destination to
begin work. I'll send out another e-mail when I can with address
info when I have firm info.
Mike.
Michael L. Casmey
Lieutenant Colonel
U.S. Army, Aviation.
5/12/09
Added
Pete Howell's video
clips.
5/11/09
Some
good news this morning! Bob Barrett's RV-6A made its first flight
out of Clearwater, MN. Go to Bob's page for more
details.
5/09/09
Wow,
Paul sold his dimpler already!!!
5/09/09
I've
been grounded (literally) for past couple days with a major
cold/flu (not sure if it is the "swine" variety but it's potent
regardless).
Also added Bernie Weiss's RV-7A (aka
SPII) to
the Completed RV's
page.
5/04/09
When Tom Berge inspects your RV, he REALLY inspects!! Just couldn't
resist!!
5/04/09
Yours truly joined our usual group of chase pilots and flew the
initial test of Mike Behnke's RV-9A.
Everything worked reasonably well and the airplane flew perfectly straight (nice to see the ball in the center and ailerons/flaps/wingtips all in perfect alignment). Test time was about an hour with Tom Berge and Bernie Weiss backing me up. Here's some links you might enjoy (just ignore Pete Howell's commentary!!)
Pete's Portfolio
Updated the Completed RVs page with Bob Miller's award-winning RV-8 and Tom Irlbeck's RV-8
You might be interested in attending Bob Nuckoll's Electrical Systems Seminar in Mason City. Details are HERE.
4/29/09
Finally getting back up to speed on the website. First of all, Tom Berge has posted info on his current and past RVs. Also an update from Gary Underland. Check out the COMPLETED RVs link.
Also , welcome to these new members!!
Scott Elhardt
Brad Benson
Todd Shannon
Dennis Schares
Roger Bestland
Stephen Denmark
4/27/09
After replacing the hard drive in my computer and restoring some lost files, the website updates are back on line. Hopefully the rest of the site is operational as well. Let me know if you find any bad links. Thanks! - Doug
4/19/09
While I was in Sacramento mourning the sale of my RV-4, Pete Howell was off on another RV cross country extravaganza. This time it was a mercy flight to retrieve two unwanted boxers (canine variety) and bring them to a new home in Minnesota. Check out the story HERE
We are also just beginning to experiment with a Video Clip page. Here is the first file. See what you think and let me know if you have any problems viewing it.
4/16/09
As I type this, my wife and I are enjoying a 3-day mini-vacation in central California relishing lots of sun and green grass.
Yesterday, my RV-4 officially changed hands and now is on its way to Baltimore and it's new home at Martin State Airport. The new owner is U.S. Army pilot Steve Heaton. It is a bittersweet time for me but there is a new RV-7 out in the shop that beckons. I'll give you some more details in the upcoming RVator's Log. But I will have several RV's to fly thanks to the generosity of a couple club members of which I am VERY grateful. But the hangar looks pretty empty!
4/13/09
On Friday I had the pleasure of making the initial test flight of Bob Nelson's RV-7A at the LaCrosse, WI airport. He has a real nice machine that he and Paul Irlbeck worked on for the past year or so. All systems worked virtually perfect and it was fun flying behind a couple Advanced Flight Systems EFIS displays.
On Saturday, me and my -4, Pete Howell and his -9A. Bernie Weiss and his -7A, and Alex Peterson in his -6A made another trip to Rushford, MN. It was a perfect Saturday morning and the occasion was possibly my last trip in my -4 (the new buyer is coming this week to pick it up).
Go HERE to check out our route plotted on the APRS system. And here is a gallery of photos from the morning.
MN Wing News Archives - page 2