Mackinac Island & Oshkosh 2015

Its been quite a while since my last post, not for lack of activity with the RV. I hope you are all progressing well with your builds. Here is a little inspiration for you as you slave away. On our way out to Oshkosh this year, we decided to leave town a little early and head up to Mackinac (pronounced Mack-in-aw) Island in Northern Michigan. This was recommended to me as a nice day trip from OSH, when you need a break during the show. It was quite an amazing place to visit. It is a small island that does not allow motorized vehicles outside of emergency vehicles. In addition, it is like being transported back in time to the year 1875. The old houses and buildings are immaculate, as is the landscaping. Put this destination on your aviation bucket list. We are hoping to go back for a longer stay and get a room at the Grand Hotel that was built in 1879.

On our way out, we joined the 200kts GS club again...clipping along at 208kts. Its not every day that you get a 56kts direct tailwind at 11,500 ft but I'll take it every time!

Without motorized vehicles, horse drawn carriages and bicycles are the norm.

Although we were unable to secure lodging on the island, we did land and take a look around. Great little airport. As you can see, lots of Cirrus on the ramp. This is somewhat of a high dollar destination I believe.

A picture of the runway inside the FBO. You can either take the short walk into town or have a horse drawn carriage pick you up right at the airport. 

The runway is paved, but this area of the ramp for transient aircraft, is turf. 

The views from the fort are awe inspiring...

A shoreline selfie...the weather was perfect for our visit.

Views of the Grand Hotel...this place is all original from the outward appearances. We didn't get a chance to go inside as they have a dress code in the evenings and we were not dressed for it.

The one token London phone booth on the island...Sheryl just had to get a picture. :) Not sure who she was talking to?

As mentioned, the landscaping is immaculate.

Grabbing a waterfront drink before taking the ferry back to our hotel at St. Ignace. We had a wonderful day walking around the island.

From there, it was a short trip southwest to Oshkosh. Obligatory selfie at the Arch.

I really enjoy just sitting under the shade of my wing, having a cold beer and watching the airshow. The weather at OSH this year was the best in all the 7 trips I have made so far.

This little bugger sure comes in handy to keep cellphones and iPad's charged while camping with the plane. 

My acro flight instructor flew her S2C out for the Pitts 70th anniversary. Here it is parked with the big boys. This is the plane I learned acro in.

The A350 was a sight to behold parked on the ramp.

Scenic views of the seaplane base...

Our camping spot for the show...I am still trying to learn to pack lighter. We may ship some supplies next time we go to keep our weight down and our CG forward.

Attending an RV party in Schoeller after we arrived.

Watching the free concert...Dirks Bentley

On our way back home after a wonderful week, we grabbed some cheap gas in Wayne, Nebraska. Great little FBO with free sandwiches for Oshkosh week. It was a great trip flying around the country in the little airplane I built in my garage. 

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!