Today Angela & I were priviledged enough to experience our first RV rides thanks to Danny King and VansAirForce's
Doug Reeves. I had contacted Doug a while back, and he offered me
an invitation for a ride this morning before work. I took him up
on it, and it grew into a second plane and Angela being inclcuded
also! Wow, we got way more than we could've ever imagined!
Doug and Danny are experienced formation flyers and asked if we'd be
willing to do a little formation flying with them this morning.
Both of us jumped at the opportunity! After a briefing of what to
expect, we hopped in and Doug & I were the first to take off.
Angela & Danny were right behind us. It didn't take long for
them to pull right up next to us. I mentioned to Doug that I was
upset I left my camera in the car. He proceeded to pull his out
and say "here, use mine". Here's a shot I took of Angela and
Danny in his RV-8 "Beautiful Doll" off our right wingtip.
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After
a little close formation flying, each aircraft taking the lead for a
while, when then did a little "loose formation" follow the
leader. While doing this the lead aircraft would do some light
aerobatics (barrel roles & such) and the trail aircraft would
follow suit keeping the lead carefully in site. It was VERY
cool! Not only was it cool to be inverted in an aircraft for the
first time, but to be doing it in (loose) formation was the icing on
the cake!! After a bit of that, we joined back up in close
formation, and decided what was to come next. The decision...
split up and let Angela & I take the controls for a while.
So, with Doug and I flying off of Danny & Angela's wing, Danny
peeled off left...
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Angela
& I each had a blast flying our respective RV's... Very easy to
fly. You truely need very little rudder input. In fact, I
made no rudder inputs at all, and the the turn coordinator ball never
was out of center more than about 2/3 of its width, and I was doing
turns with banks greater than 45 degrees! We finished up our
flights by joining up one more time in formation to fly back to the
airport. We flew formation right down the runway about pattern
height, and then Danny & Angela peeled off to turn downwind.
We did the same 4-5 seconds later. I checked the g-meter, and we
pulled about 2 and a half g's on that one... grrr! To some, no
big deal... but the most I've ever pulled... VERY cool! Doug
greased our landing and followed it up with a fast taxi (fast enough to
keep the tailwheel off the ground) all the way down the runway –
breakfast was at the departure end of the runway ;-) When then
debriefed over breakfast at the airport café. Doug &
Danny were very gracious, and treated us to the most memorable first
flight we could've ever imagined! Thanks guys! Here's a pic
of Angela & I next to "Flash", Doug's RV-6 that I rode in.
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Here I am with Doug... our gracious host for the flight.
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This is Angela with Doug and her
pilot, Danny King, next to Danny's RV-8. Originally Angela wasn't
too hip on the idea of a tandem seat aircraft (one seat behind the
other) but after her flight she was amazed at the visibility, even from
the back seat! If we ever do a two seater in the future, one of
these is a realistic possibility!
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I like this shot... and we couldn't pass up the opportunity :-)
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(7-10 step 2): Motivated
from the flight this morning I was right back out in the garage after
work. First step was to remove the rudder from the angle iron and
Angela & I cleaned pro-seal out of all the rivet holes in the
trailing edge... tedious process!. Next I pop rivet the rudder
spar to the shear clips attached to the stiffeners.
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(7-10 step 3): Next was attaching the bottom rudder rib assembly and the striker plates to the spar.
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This is a shot of the bottom
rudder rib assembly and the striker plates riveted in place. All
rivets that fall above the bottom rib web are pop rivets since the
backs of them can not be reached for bucking. All those below the
web, are solid rivets and were squeezed.
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(8-3 step 3): While
I was working on the rudder Angela jumped back on the horizontal
stabilizer. Her next step was to fashion the front spar
attachment brackets out of some beefy aluminum angle. The plans
mention to be pretty accurate on some of the holes on these, but I
think we've got the right person on the job ;-)
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(7-10 step 4): The
last step on the rudder before calling it a night was to rivet the top
rib together and to the spar. I adjusted the squeezer and set as
many of the rivets as it would reach. The remaining ones were
done with the rivet gun and bucking bar. This was the first time
using a universal head set, and also bucking an 1/8" rivet. The
results turned out rather well! That is until the very last rivet
(why is that!!) This is a picture looking up inside the top of
the rudder where the top rib (on the left) attaches to the spar (on the
right) I had the bucking bar firmly pressed against the rivet
while the gun was on the achine head on the opposite side of the top
rib. During the 1-2 second burst the rudder moved and the bucking
bar pressed right up into the top rib web while the rivet gun stayed
nicely planted on the rivet head. This caused a deflection in the
web of about 1/8". I taped the head of a hammer (to protect the
metal) and with a bucking bar on the underside of the web used it to
tap the web back roughly flat. I sent these pictures to Van's and
their feeling was that it was ok, so onward we go!
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(8-3 step 4): Here's
Angela with something a little better to show for her efforts tonight
than I... the nicely shaped front spar attachment brackets. It's
getting late so she decided to put off drilling the holes until next
time.
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