Where in the heck did I leave off the last time I put in some build time on the RV?  I am almost embarrassed at my lack of progress on the project in the last 9 months or so.  Many builders I was keeping up with, have smoked me and are well into their fuselage and I am still stuck on my wings.

Having a 3-day weekend this weekend, I decided that I needed to get the "shop" organized and get back to the business of building that RV.  Since the time I last was serious on building, my work bench has collected a small pile parts that needed to be organized.

Late last Fall, Tami got me a cheap pleather rocker chair and foot rest.  I had complained about how uncomfortable my plastic chair was to sit on when eating dinner or studying RV prints in the garage.  Like a good woman, she went out and bought me some cheap furniture that was actually comfortable.  Lets review my garage setup here and figure out why I am not making very good progress on the project:

• Satellite TV, with TIVO and a DVD Player.
• Garage is heated and air conditioned.
• Comfortable rocker with foot rest
• Laptop computer with wireless high speed internet access.
• Wife / waitress who delivers dinner to the garage so I don't have to stop working on her plane.

Yeah right, with all these amenities, I will be lucky to get any building done. With a little discipline tonight maybe I get at least get that workbench cleared off.

While contemplating my task tonight sitting in my comfortable, imitation leather chair, I decided to treat myself to some premium root beer Tami had in the fridge. 

When we went to Osh in 2003 for our first time, we made last minute reservations so the closest we could get to the air show was Stevens Point, Wisconsin.  Stevens Point is about 70 miles west of OshKosh so was a little bit of a drive each day.  Anyway, we had went out to dinner one night and the waitress recommended that we try Point Root Beer.  It was bottled by one of their local breweries.  Yes, I know this is just root beer, but Point Brewery actually brews beer as their main product.  However, Point Brewery also bottles Point Premium Root Beer for those of us not drinking alcohol.  Now, I am no root beer connoisseur, but this stuff is great.  The problem with it is that  you can only buy it in Wisconsin (or the internet if you want to pay $17.00 / 12-pack).  Tami recently had a "girls weekend" (you know, the weekend retreat where a bunch of girl friends get together and husbands are not allowed.  They mainly sit around in an hotel and make fun of the "sugar daddies"), and she brought me back a case of root beer.

If you are interested in paying big bucks to have this stuff shipped to ya, click on the link below.  I like it, but even I haven't put down the mastercard to have it shipped to me.  If you go to Osh, and you like Root Beer, look for it in restaurants, or the local grocery store.

Now, I actually worked pretty steady tonight (5+ hrs) on sorting electrical lugs, stainless steel hardware, and an assortment of other parts that were piled on my workbench.  Even after the 5 hrs of sorting and labeling, you would be hard pressed to see the difference between the before shot of the work bench at the top of the page.   I am going to have to pick up the pace a little bit !!!!!!!!

Have you got the idea yet that I have an "RV-GRIN" still plastered to my face?  I have been grinning for over 24 hours now.  Loss of sleep, ability to concentrate on anything but planes and flying....  Get the picture???.

Monday (yesterday) was the EAA Chapter 80 meeting and their monthly theme this month was AIRPLANE RIDES.

I couldn't decide whether or not to go to the meeting as I was just beat, but when I got home from work, I caught my second wind.  I decided that I was going to go to the meeting and see if I could talk one of the RV owners out of a ride.  Tami has usually shown no interest in going to the EAA meetings and when I said I was going to the meeting she said "you mean I get the house to myself tonight?"  I said "yes, if that is what you want, but at the EAA Meeting tonight there is a chance to get a ride in an RV.  Do you want to go with?"  I barely got the words out of my mouth and she replied "YES, I WILL GO CHANGE....  BE READY IN A MINUTE."

So we got in the car and made the 70+ mile trek to Millard Airport.  We left plenty early as I knew the chapter president would be there (Mike Howard) and he has a gorgeous RV-6.  I wanted to be the first to stand in line for a ride as I figured he would be in high demand.  I asked Mike if I could talk him out of 2-RV rides as my wife and I have never sat in a RV little alone had a ride in one.  (oohh yeah, I have already spent $20,000 on this project without so much as a test ride....  That is building on faith!!!!)  Mike said "SURE".

I got the first ride and I WISHED I TOOK MY CAMERA UP WITH ME!!!!  Anyway, as soon as I got in the RV, I knew this was going to be an enjoyable ride.  Mike got done with his pre-flight and we taxied down to the run-up area and within a minute or two, we were heading down the runway and climbing at over 1000+ FPM.  We followed a Swift (see picture of red hot-rod below) which had a 200 HP engine, retractable gear, and a constant speed prop.  After we climbed to about 4000 ft, we leveled out and Mike was actually catching the Swift with a 180 HP, fixed pitch wood prop, and two gear hanging off the bottom.  COOL!!!!

The Swift started to do a loop and Mike said "lets get outta here" and with two fingers on the stick, we were in a 60-70+ degree turn and I was looking at the real estate that was previously under the plane.  REALLY COOL!!!!!  A 3+ G turn on two fingers...  I am beginning to understand what all this fuss over an RV is all about.  After a few steep turns (60+ degrees), Mike has the audacity to ask "WANNA FLY IT???"  NO... YES... NO...I BETTER NOT...  I AM JUST A STUDENT PILOT.... ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO GIVE ME THE CONTROLS?  Mike calmly said "yeah, fly it...  just make small movements on the stick".  OKAY!!!!  For the few minutes I had the controls, I did a couple of turns with two fingers.  I was amazed at how small the stick forces needed to be.  I kept my turns between 20 to slightly over 30 degrees.  In the Cessna, as you pass the 30 degree mark, you need to pull back on the yoke to hold altitude.  Sooo, keeping that in mind, as I approached 30 degrees, I pulled back slightly on the stick (two fingers mind you) and glanced over at the vertical speed indicator and we were climbing at over 700 FPM and the needle with still moving up.  REALLY COOL!!!!

As Mike took the controls over, I knew that my ride was close to over.  Within a couple of minutes, Mike had us down and taxied back to the ramp.  One thing of note here; this was my first time in a tail dragger.  The visibility over the cowl during take off is really pretty good.  However, during landing, I thought seeing over the cowling was pretty tough.  Mike did a 3-point landing and I had a hard time seeing the runway (any of it).  I am not changing my order.  I am staying with the tail dragger!!

Here Tami is buckled in and has what I am going to coin a "generic" grin going.  They haven't even started rolling yet...  This could be good for me!!!  Mike, remind me to thank you later if this turns out well....

Within a couple of minutes, Tami and Mike are "on their way".

Through the magic of digital pictures, viola, Tami and Mike have returned after flying west of Omaha for a while.  YEAH, these RV's are fast.

Here Tami and Mike are taxiing in.  I hope that she didn't have any "vomit comets" on Mike's instrument panel.

Can you see how her initial "generic" grin developed into a FULL BLOWN RV-GRIN (hint: see first picture).  Mike, I really owe you on this one!!!!

Getting out is a little bit of a trick, but she did well.

Here is that Swift I was talking about earlier.  I would have liked to ride in this too.  :>)  To many neat planes, not enough time.

It was really hard to catch these guys taking off.  This is not your average Cessna here.

I am not sure what this plane is...  Sorry.  I don't have all these planes memorized yet.  This pilot had a lot of interest.  He gave a lot of rides.  A side bar note:  He has a house with a hangar in the basement.  How righteous is that???

I told Tami that the only other plane I would like a ride in was a Lancair.  One of the members has a Lancair IV (and is having a lancair IV-P propjet built...  My guess is that he has money).  Anyway, he wasn't giving any rides in his Lancair IV.  What kind of deal is that???

Next time, I am going to try and get a ride in this Glastar.  Tami likes the new Sportsman model that New Glasair came out with and the Glastar would give her (us) an idea of how they fly.

For those not flying, Kevin Faris (kneeling) brought in his Grand Rapids Technology EFIS with a demo program and was demonstrating the situational awareness offered by this EFIS package.  I was fortunate to spend some time with Kevin after the last meeting for a little one on one demo.  Thanks Kevin.  Now where are all the RV's at??

This is a shot of the engine monitoring graphical display.  The engine instrument system monitor (behind EFIS display) outputs the engine parameters to be displayed on the EFIS.

Just some chapter members chit-chatting.  It is all about flying....

Hey Mike....  I thought that you said we would start the meeting after everyone was tired of flying???  What are you doing starting the meeting early?  There is still daylight out and who is tired of flying???   Anyone???

This was an extremely memorable night.  I will probably regard this in the same regard as my first solo.  I had a grin after that for about 24 hours too.  Tami.....  Lets get working on that last fuel tank !!!!!!  Where's my fuselage kit?!?!?!?