Engaged! "Pilot-style"

On Sunday, April 19th, I got engaged! I had been planning a unique way to propose that involved the airplane for about six months. My first idea involved being inverted, but I was too worried about the FAA seeing the video and giving me a call. You all know the silly rule that solo aerobatics without a chute is ok, but dual aerobatics without a chute is somehow much different, chutes must be worn. This rule has always amazed me and left me scratching my head. So, anything captured on video with dual acro was nixed (although there may or may not have been a victory roll with me yelling "yeehaw, great balls of fire!" after she said "yes"). So, I came up with a zero-G scenario that had her catching the ring as I did a pushover. 

The plane has been down for annual maintenance for a month and I have been trying to find the time in my busy schedule to get it buttoned back up and flying...so I could do the proposal. I really didn't have a "plan B" without the airplane...this was it! I knew nothing else would be as memorable as this. Unfortunately I got the airplane flying on Saturday, did a solo test flight as I always do after maintenance, and then the proposal flight happened on Sunday. Bottom line is, I didn't have time to practice the "delivery" or the camera angle. I was quite literally "winging" it. 

Here is some of the backdrop of the story that you don't see in the video. Before the flight, I set up the GoPro camera in a slightly different spot than I have in the past, making sure it would hopefully capture the action. I don't think Sheryl noticed the new location, but she did question why I was filming a routine local flight? I just said I wanted to play around with some new camera angles...and she bought it. As we taxi out, I am just about to do my runup and I hear the GoPro beep three times behind my head. I think crap! My first thought was the battery was dead. I say to Sheryl, "did that thing just turn off?" She says, "no, but it says FULL". My heart sank as I just now remembered that I forgot to remove the last video from the memory card! I proceed to take off and my mind was racing...should I abort and do it another time? I didn't want to do this without video, but I am flying my first acro contest next weekend so it would be awhile if I postponed. After a couple minutes, I thought..."adapt, improvise, overcome"...I got this. "Honey," I say, "hand me the camera." After she hands it to me, I have her fly while I proceed to go into the camera menu and manually delete the contents of the card. Problem solved that easy, I then get it started again and we are back in business! Whew...disaster averted....carry on, I thought. 

Since I hadn't had a chance to practice this with just the right amount of forward stick, I knew I was again going to have to adjust my game plan. My friend, Sean T. had said to me when I told him my plan, "be careful the ring doesn't fly into the back and get lost." Great insight, I thought. I need to be ready for this scenario, but how, without a practice run?

Just a couple hours before the flight, I was watching the sketchy weather, not knowing if we were going to get it in. I came up with my game plan in case the weather cooperated. I would practice, right there in real time with her, and not only would she not know I was actually practicing my "delivery" but also keep her completely unaware of what might be coming. I figured I needed two practice "trinkets" of some kind. I decided on a wine cork...which would be bigger, for my first try. Second was a quarter, which would have a similar size and weight of the ring. The added bonus was it was shiny silver to prep her eyes for the ring to follow. I was hoping to play tricks with her mind so it didn't immediately register that it was a ring. My thinking was, when the ring came up, she might...for a second think it was another piece of change...a nickel or dime maybe. Perfect, I thought, as I stuffed my trinkets and the ring in strategic locations in my front jeans pocket.

Mind you, I am doing all of this scheming, while being as nervous as a "long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs" and also trying not to tip her off in any way to know whats coming. Complete surprise was paramount to me. My new fiance is very observant, which I love about her, but it also meant I had to be very careful in my planning. As you will see in the video, I nailed that shock and awe requirement!

In the end, with all of the unrehearsed details and things that could've went wrong, I was amazed at how well it played out. With my first attempt with the wine cork going flying to the back because of overzealous stick input (thanks to Sean T., that wasn't the ring!), and with her catching the ring in the perfect orientation, I couldn't have asked for more to be honest. After the deed we had some great conversation on the flight home and I confessed, I didn't have a plan B...she responded, "there is no plan B, nothing else would've been as cool as this" as she loves the airplane and flying as much as I do. Yep, I am a lucky man! 

Without further ado, here is my proposal video, (watch it in HD) hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed doing it...I really had a blast with this. I apologize for my "potty mouth" a couple times...I completely forgot I was being recorded as I was caught up in the moment. Also take note how fast I am chewing my gum, which is pretty comical in hindsight as I had no idea at the time...I may appear calm, but underneath I was a nervous wreck! 

Lastly, all of this was possible because of a plane I built. The ways to use your RV to change your life never cease to amaze me! KPR, its all worth it.

Finishing the Job

Saturday, April 11th happens to be my birthday. 47 years young! Wow, how times flies eh? To celebrate this occasion I am delivering a talk at an entrepreneurial success summit about "finishing." The topic of discussion will be what its like to tackle, and ultimately finish a monumental challenge like building an airplane. Definitely a topic I know a little something about. I will offer my tips on what helped me through the nearly five year process. Finally, I will share what it "looks" like to finish, documenting the incredible flying adventures we have had in the last year. As I put together the content for this, I was sort of amazed how many fun things we did with the airplane last year. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next year. 

I also welcome the opportunity to share our amazing homebuilt aircraft community with a group of mostly non-pilots. I think we sometimes lose track of the fact that a lot of people think what we do--building and flying our own airplanes, is pretty amazing. My hats off to all of you out there building...or flying your creations, that is an amazing accomplishment and its ok to pat yourself on the back, you've earned it. Hopefully my talk will inspire them to follow their own dreams, whatever they may be. I'll share some of the content and my insights with you when it is over. Until then, keep pounding rivets (KPR)!

Lunch in New Mexico!

On March 15th, the last day before my annual condition inspection is due, Sheryl and I decided we needed to get out of town...via winged flight. Can you believe its been one year since my first flight?...I certainly can't. I'll devote an entire blog post to that in the coming weeks as I work on my annual. 

The forecast was for record breaking spring warmth in Denver and beyond. It was a perfect day to fly! And fly we did, all the way to another state. We made the 1.5 hr flight from Denver to Taos, New Mexico for lunch and strolling around town. Neither Sheryl nor I had ever been there, and I knew it would be a wonderfully scenic flight, so the deal was sealed. Taos, here we come! 

After some debate about going south to Pueblo and "around" the pointy rocks, I decided to give it a go with a direct route. Since I had never flown this particular route, I wasn't sure how rugged the terrain would be enroute. The sectional looked ok in preflight planning, so I thought, why not give it a "look see." A direct path also would take us right over the Great Sand Dunes National Park, which was on my Colorado aviation bucket list to fly over. Low and behold, the sectional didn't lie, it really wasn't rugged terrain at all. There were plenty of areas I felt comfortable with putting her down if we lost an engine. I would go this route again, without hesitation.

As we left Denver and had been in the air about 15 mins, Sheryl called out traffic at our 1 o'clock position. She is getting good at this. I got a positive visual contact, and it was just a dark speck at that moment. But it grew larger very fast. I took a somewhat leisurely bank to my left as I didn't like our convergence angles. It was a V-tail bonanza about 50-100 feet above us on an almost direct reciprocal heading. As I banked back to my right (basically a side step s-turn so I could watch him), he zoomed past us most likely completely unaware we were there. He never deviated in his flight path, which was probably good since we had a positive visual on him/her. 

Sheryl remarked..."he sure was moving fast", I responded "yep, that is a fast plane just like ours." The convergence speed was easily well over 300 kts in this case. No harm done, but if we wouldn't have seen him, I may have pee-ed down my leg a little since we were almost on a direct collision course initially. Keep your eyes open! And no, I never got a traffic callout on ADS-B system.

This is an added tidbit, as I've been asked several times where we crossed? Which pass? Here is a screenshot from our DeLorme tracker/PLB (which I love!) showing our mountain crossing at the Sand Dunes. The topo map shows a great representation of how the geography looked to me in the cockpit. As you can see, we didn't cross at Mosca pass to the south, there wasn't really any need flying the RV.

This mountain crossing was at about 12,500 ft, as we snaked through the canyon. As we popped out the other side of the ridge, the Sand Dunes appeared before our eyes! Kind of snuck up on me as I wasn't expecting them until a few minutes later. This picture shows what the view looked like as we first sighted them. 

Another shot as we descended down for a better look and some loitering. Its pretty crazy, these sand dunes are in the middle of nowhere and just seem so out of place in the Rocky Mountains. No doubt, they are very pretty as seen from the air. 

Looking straight down the wing in high bank turn...just because I can.

We circled here for a few minutes taking in the amazing spectacle of nature before getting back on course for Taos, which wasn't far away by now. I really like this picture. actually shot by Sheryl (not moi). 

Arriving at Taos airport, elevation 7000 ft, there is no control tower and it does not have a crosswind runway. I really thought Taos was bigger, I was a little surprised to be honest. The FBO was great and our crew car was the nicest I have ever used. They set a 2 hr limit to call them in case someone was waiting, which we did, and since no one was, we were given the go ahead to extend our usage to 3+  hrs. Nice of them.

On the suggestion of our good friend and fellow RV7 builder, Brian Beatty, we stopped at Orlando's for some authentic New Mexican food. Brian did not steer us wrong, darn good grub! I am sure we will visit again.

This was our crew car, with only 16,000 miles on it! Turns out that the local Hertz rental car company stationed at the airport lends these vehicles on a rotation basis to the FBO. Now that is a sweet deal! Never seen this kind of arrangement before. 

Cool sculpture in town...Taos, like many New Mexico cities, is known for its art. 

I grew up idolizing Kit Carson and the mountain men of the 19th century west. I did not know that Kit Carson spent some of his last days in Taos. We did the tour for $7 and it was pretty interesting to see his house. 

Heading back to the airport about 2pm, it had been a great day so far. I will admit to Taos not being what I expected. It was a small city and not as modern as I anticipated. The shops and the history was cool, but I think you would get real bored here in a short amount of time. We may visit again, but it won't be high on my list of return destinations. I would say I was lukewarm to it at best. I'm not saying you shouldn't give it a whirl, but I've seen cooler places.  

A nice panoramic shot of Wablosa on the ramp on a absolutely PERFECT day as the temps were about 65 degrees in Taos. 

A flight for life heli shared the ramp with us...another scenic shot. I made the comment, if this thing is coming for you, you are having a bad day indeed. But I bet it would be a welcome sight! Hats off to the men and women that come to our rescue when we are in need. 

Obligatory selfie on the return trip with my new red/black Taos hat...Sheryl was wearing her "Fly Girl" hat that I bought for her last year at Oshkosh. 

The flight back was again, uneventful, with a few more bumps in the warmer air, but still pretty smooth. What a great day of flying! Not many people can say they had lunch in a different state! We both had a blast and days like these really makes all the hard work of building this bugger worth it. 

After we got back and tucked the plane in the hangar, I thought it was such a nice day and I really was enjoying the warm weather, I said, "how about a beer?"We ended up having a couple each and talked about the day before heading to dinner. It really was a perfect aviation day, one only possible because of an airplane I built. KPR, its all worth it!

Pilots N Paws Thanksgiving Flight

It has most definitely been awhile since I updated you on my travels with Wablosa. I hope you don't hold it against me, after blogging so often for five years, its been a refreshing break. With my apologies aside, lets get to that aforementioned update.

Wablosa now has approximately 140 hrs on the HOBBS and it has been a whole lot of fun flying her. Outside of some nagging side projects I need to conquer this winter while its slow, she has been flying well. Being this is her first winter, it sure is a nice perk to fly with some cold air...she jumps off the ground this time of year. We have such high density altitude issues here in the summer, that cooling the air off has a pretty dramatic effect.

Rewind back to Thanksgiving. Sheryl and I decided to load up the plane and make the flight down to visit my parents in New Braunfels (KBAZ) once again. I thought...why not? We have an airplane that can get down there in no time, may as well put it to good use. 

We departed Denver about 2pm, and with the sunsetting at around 5pm, I knew we were in store for some night flying. Not our first nocturnal activity, but its still a rather new experience for me. As we crossed into northern Texas at FL 095, the sunset was gorgeous as Sheryl got caught up on her reading before darkness settled in. I nudged her and pointed to the sunset...we both smiled. I thought to myself, life sure doesn't suck, as the engine smoothly purred along! We made a mostly uneventful night landing in New Braunfels...because of airport construction and closed taxiways, I got a little turned around while taxiing to the terminal.

We had a great time with the family...ate some good food, visited Gruene and the River Walk. As part of this trip, I had decided to try and find an extra passenger for our trip home. I love animals and have supported Pilots N Paws for a couple years now. I always wanted to do a transport with my plane. I found a great candidate...Janna, an older Cocker Spaniel that had been abandoned by her owners as being too old I guess? Sad...but volunteer Arati came to her rescue in San Antonio and  posted on the pilots N paws forum for a ride from San Antonio to Colorado Springs. It was perfect for us so I volunteered to give the old girl a ride...in style.

I put the bottom half of a crate in the back, since she was so docile, I didn't do the top half. It worked out mostly well, she got restless a couple times, but it was manageable. 

Arati drove up from San Antonio to meet us at the New Braunfels airport. That really helped with logistics. She wanted to get a picture with the plane...I was honored to oblige. 

The family looks on as we get Janna situated in the back. We also had Sheryl's chihuahua Shadow with us...so two dogs, two humans on the this flight manifest.

I spent some time making friends with Janna, she was a sweet dog as most Cockers are. I knew we would have no problem with her en route.

Last minute goodbyes...before departing for her new home

You can see the weather was a little sketchy...that played a part later in the trip as I closely monitored it as we flew. We ended up getting snowed and fogged in once we got to Colorado Springs. We crashed overnighted with our good friend Sean Blair and were able to get into Denver the next day. That story would take an entire blog post...but many thanks to Sean for putting us up! 

As mentioned...Janna did pretty good. She had some motion sickness a half hour into the flight as we flew through some chop near Llano, TX. And then about a half hour from Colorado Springs...she had  an untimely bowel movement in her crate. Let me tell ya, when a dog goes #2 in a small cockpit like an RV7...it is powerfully strong and there is nowhere to run! I think my eyes started watering...as I said to myself, its just odor, its not going to kill you...although I wasn't entirely convinced of that! I repeated the mantra in my head, "just fly the plane...just fly the plane..."We survived...but short final was an exercise in extreme concentration to be sure.

Linda from the Rocky Mountain Cocker Spaniel rescue arrived shortly after we landed and we handed Janna off to her. They were going to do surgery to fix her eyes and then find her a home. Its pretty neat that there are volunteers out there to take care of abandoned animals like this...hats off to them. I was glad to play a small part in giving Janna some "extra" time...we all could use that.

A parting shot of Wablosa tucked in the home hangar. I realized I don't think I have ever taken a shot from our loft in the hangar...looking down. 

Thanks to my wonderful girlfriend Sheryl, I got this cool RV7 banner for Christmas. Looks good in the hangar. Its high quality and a nice product for $49 (mine was on Christmas special for $40).

Sheryl Getting Her Acro On!

Although this isn't RV related, I just had to share this video in the interest of good ol' aviation fun and inspiration. Last weekend, good friend Steve Bergevin who owns a Giles 202 and flies opposing solo for the Renegades formation team, took Sheryl for her first real acro flight. As you can see in the video, she pretty much smiled from start to finish and Steve said she flew quite well when given the stick. 

The G-meter showed +8/-4 at the end of the flight...not too bad for your first acro flight eh?! Shoot, that is more than I did when I flew with Steve. Not only did she not feel queasy, she said she wanted to keep going...definitely one tough lady I am lucky enough to spend time with.

The two things that stood out from our post-flight conversation were "addictive" and "I want to learn how to do that"! How many acro flying careers have started with those words...? Welcome to the "addiction" honey.

Amazing Lake Powell

As you know, we flew out to Vegas last month via Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon. I had the GoPro mounted under the wing...a new location just for this trip. It captured some great footage of our roughly 25 minute flight over Lake Powell. Unfortunately, the mount location contributed a lot of shake to the camera so the video is not what it could be. Still pretty amazing, but the shaking takes away from it. 

Here are some screenshots from that video to give you an idea what its like to fly over Lake Powell. When we finally departed the area for the Grand Canyon, I needed to grab a napkin to wipe the drool off my face...amazingly, these pics really don't do it justice. I'm not sure I need to say more...feast your eyes (definitely click to enlarge) on this scenery and daydream about what it will be like to fly your plane here!