Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

Why?
So we’ve decided to build an airplane. This decision comes from over ten years of off and on flying rental aircraft. I never have been very happy with the quality of aircraft available to fly, the cost of renting, or the aggravation involved in having to deal with the flight schedule of many other people that want to fly the same rental plane. (more…)

 

  

RV9

 

We’re still flying a couple times per week. Mostly touch-n-go in the patter with Tanya in command. We went to Fredricksburg for lunch on Sunday and turned the 150 hour mark. Time for another oil change…

Well, it is time to do something about paint on this thing. Our deposit is on its way to Grady at Glo Custom for a spot on their list about 1yr out. Hopefully a spot will open up before then.

With our return from Big Bend it was time for our 125hr oil change. When we put the airplane away we immediately pulled the cowl and began draining the oil. I went back out a couple of days later and installed a new oil filter and did a general FWF inspection. This is the first full 25hr. period in which I had not had the cowl off at all. Everything looked in perfect order. All there was to do is refill it with oil and put the cowl back on. Very cool.
This past Saturday, I did two round trips to San Antonio to bring my mother up for a visit and take her back home in the same day. It takes exactly three hours from the time I leave my house to back through the front door for a round trip from GTU to SAT with a quick drop off or pickup. Total flight time for the round trip is 1.2hrs. I was exhausted after that exercise.
When lifting off from SAT the first time that day, I must have run over an embedded runway centerline light. It sounded like a tire popping with a little shudder, but we were off the ground almost immediately. This was my mother’s first ride and she didn’t notice it, nor did I make her aware of my concern. So, I quietly considered my options for the unknown on the flight back. I didn’t know if I had a left flat main or not. I concluded that we should be fine if I did the slowest, smoothest touchdown possible. I did that landing back at home exactly that way. I drug it in with full flaps and power the last few feet on the back side of the L/D curve. I just barely touched the left main first to feel if it was flat. No flat, all was well so I completed the smoothest landing I think I’ve ever done. Mom was no wiser. I was glad that the trip from takeoff to landing was no more than about 35min. so I didn’t have to ponder the situation for too long.

We just got back from Big Bend Ranch State Park this past weekend. That was a lot of fun. The trip out was 2.75hrs and the trip back was 2hrs. I’m in amazement at the ability for this machine to provide such opportunities of near time travel. The airplane performed flawlessly. I commented to Tanya over dinner after we got back home that my favorite part of the trip was, without a doubt, the opportunity to exercise and observe the airplane that I built in my garage working perfectly. That is the biggest thrill for me.
Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jscottcard/BBRSP

I’m going to have some website down time this weekend, beginning this Friday 2/8/08 for our physical move to a new location… It will be back up and running on the other side in a day or two.

Our fresh new RV8 tail kit arrived. We’re working on the new place to build. Head on over to the build log for the new project and we’ll try to do the same thing all over again… http://rv8.card-net.org

We’re still flying as much as possible. Winter daylight hours sure put a damper on flying during the week. Also, Tanya and I just bought a new house that we’ve been working on all the time to get ready to move. The new house purchase was almost completely because I wanted a whole lot more shop space for the next project. The new garage is 746 sq.ft four car garage. No cars in this one though. We are nailing down the details of having a whole lot of electrical power added and central air conditioning and heat installed. Not cheap, but well worth it. The next question is why?

We are set to become “repeat offenders” tomorrow morning when the order is faxed to Van’s Aircraft for an RV8 tail and wing kit! We are going to do a full standard build in the new shop setup. Some have said, hey, the -9A still doesn’t have paint on it. Yeah, well, I don’t think I can stand to let it go to the paint shop for a month or so until I have another project going. Our plan is to maintain both airplanes when the -8 is done in 3-4yrs. His & hers (Tanya gets the -9A).

I’ve been flying like crazy since I got the ignitions replaced. I now have 10 hours on the new ignitions and loving every minute of it. I did a couple of 1.5hr flights with friends that are currently building RVs that had not received the full intro yet. They both commented about the “launch” feeling on takeoff with the healthy constant speed prop and the fact that my demonstration of all the goodies in the panel will probably cause their wallets to become lighter on their build. I had a ball. Thanks guys for providing ballast.

On Christmas day, Tanya and I (Tanya was PIC the whole flight) flew out to Brenham just because the weather was so great. It was a ghost town out there, but we didn’t care. It was a nice flight.

I went for a quick night flight over to Llano. It was just a little bumpy but not too bad. On my way back home at 5500′, a meteor or something reentered the atmosphere right above and ahead of me. It was super bright on a very clear early night sky. It scared the crap out of me for a second. Wow! That was a big first for me.