Ron's RV7 Aircraft Factory


Welcome to my personal blog. This site was created as an informal description of my build progress in the construction of a Van's RV7 aircraft. A place where family/friends/builders/curiosity seekers can follow along. It is not intended to be a detailed description of every step in the building process as that would be much too time consuming. There are plenty of sites that do a great job in that arena, that is not my intention with this site. My intention is for this to be a philisophical/motivational/inspirational account of the emotional ups and downs of the life changing journey...and it will change your life. I hope this will give you an idea, through my eyes, of what its like to make this transformation. A note to other builders, I am not an expert so do not put your safety at risk by attempting anything you see on this site until you have done your own research, or send me an email so we can discuss it. Any deviations from the plans are not approved, nor endorsed by Van's Aircraft or myself. Thanks for visiting.



Thursday, January 7, 2016

Photo Shoot


Hello, hello! Its been quite a while since I last posted, I hope you are enjoying the site content without much new stuff from me. Its not been for a lack of activity on my part, its just been a matter of moving onto other things. I am now teaching a Leadership course at the University of Colorado, Boulder so that has been taking up a lot of my free time as I get prepped for the first class. In addition, Sheryl and I just got back from a week vacation in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Wonderful country and people.

I am still flying plenty...well, that's not completely true, I wish my schedule, the weather and budget allowed for more. But isn't that always the way it goes with flying? My latest trip was a spur-of-the-moment jaunt down to New Braunfels (KBAZ) to visit my family and wish my Pop a happy birthday. I decided to go on a Sunday night...loaded up the airplane Monday morning and off I went. Four hours later I was in South Texas, the land of cheap AvGas, I still pinch myself at the utility of owning one of these planes that eats up real estate at 3 miles a minute. It was a wonderful flight. It was bitter cold (about 15 degs in Colorado) so the plane flew like it was on steroids and the air was as smooth as freshly churned warm butter...winter flying at it's best.  

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to get a couple of my photographer friends to do an air-to-air photo shoot over the Boulder Flatirons. With my limited formation flight experience, it was "interesting" trying to stay close to the photo ship without trading paint. I was concentrating hard...if you cant tell from the pics. I wasn't smiling much and chomping on my gum a mile a minute. 

Here are the results for your viewing pleasure. Many thanks to my talented photographer hanging out the open door in frigid temperatures, Julia Kirchenbauer Apfelbaum and her husband (both pilots) Jonathan for flying the photo ship (their Glastar). Julia got me on the IAC banner and also in the Van's 2016 calendar! Many thanks to her for that effort. Cool stuff to see your plane become a fashion model! :) Keep pounding those rivets (KPR) because its gonna be worth it one day!







I particularly like this one over the University of Colorado, Boulder campus and Folsom Field. Nice capture Julia!