Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

Sunday was nothing but a bonding day for me and 4822C. We started out the day early morning with a handful of touch and gos. Then off to reconfigure Scott’s side of the plane. I planned to take my boss flying, and he is a bit taller than Scott - close to a foot that is. He showed up at 10am and climbed in to the cramped quarters. The poor guy had his knees in his chest. I wish I could have done more for his comfort, but the back was all the way aft and there weren’t any booster cushions under the seat.

Off we went to do some circles around his house, circles around a co-workers house, circles around some land he used to own, follow the river and chain of lakes upstream for a little while, let the boss-man fly, and then back to the airport. An hour and a half later, we were back on the ground. No thanks to the knees attached to the long legs that accidentally put the flaps back up somewhere on base. Brought down full flaps on final and pointed the nose down. Thanks to the 9 flaps and constant speed prop, we made it down. Yes Scott, the go-around button was primed.

Just after we shut down, Scott showed up for the flight to Corsicana to drop in and see my mom for a bit. An hour each way under the hood with my safety pilot, working with ATC the whole way, and my first two instrument approaches. Granted, they were the easiest ones (GPS), but I’ll check that mini milestone off anyway. We had a nice visit with my mom. I so love being able to drop in for a couple hours. Over three hours in the car each way isn’t so conducive to that.

After logging 4 hours of flight time, our bond is a little stronger.

A couple pictures regarding the ‘danger’ of giving people rides. I came back to find my office newly decorated.

Well, we were supposed to have some company today, but the RV table in Brenham remained empty. I guess the rest of the crew were a little too ‘fraidy’ of the mist and low ceilings early today in Brenham. OK, so we were too, but we were fully prepared to turn around and come home back to the local VFR conditions if the clouds didn’t lift as the forecast indicated.

Fortunately, the clouds lifted and the mist went away when the magic temperature showed on the thermometer. We enjoyed malts, a burger, and some fried catfish. We missed our friends, but we keep each other company pretty well.

Oh, and you remember the beta software on the HX mentioned in the last post? Sure you do. As we got set to leave Brenham, the 2nd display unit wouldn’t boot. Dead to the world. Since we have never seen that before, the primary suspect is the new software. But that is ok since Scott was looking for a little more software excitement. That is part of non-production ready software. We’ll see where that debugging leads. No big deal. We flew home with two displays, and Scott reloaded the software on the 2nd display while I delivered the unloved cookies that were baked for the RV gathering.

IFR training flight #2 is in the books, and the first flight in the left seat is complete. I have been flying from the right because moving the seats is such a hassle. My instructor was not too enthralled with that idea and said the DE wouldn’t be either. OK then, over to the left. What a strange feeling after flying from the other side for so long. At least Scott has to go through the same transition. It will be good for both of us. It’s almost like flying someone else’s airplane.

The flight consisted of some more air traffic control calls - turn to this heading, fly this altitude. Then we moved on to intercepting VORs and tracking some radials. The biggest obstacle overcome this time was not looking away from the PFD for too long. No more taking 30 seconds to find the VOR frequency, load it up, swap radio frequencies, select the OBS, while peeking out the window to make sure you are still in level flight and heading the same way. Having to break it down into pieces is something I had to learn. Maybe it was obvious to some, but others of us are a little slower on the uptake. Just one more way the brain needs to be retrained.

Of course, no good plan goes without a few wrenches. Scott and I headed out to the airport before my second lesson so I could get a little left seat time before I met up with my instructor. Scott updated the HX software to the new beta version, and I swapped seats. Pull out 4822C, close up the hangar, fire up the engine, and “oh my” the clock isn’t working. The clock isn’t exactly required equipment for a VFR T&G day, but the engineer is Scott starts to contemplate why the clock isn’t working. It didn’t help his comfort factor that the clock is attached to a circuit that is always hot. and what else might be in danger Shut down the engine, and pull the plane back into the hangar. Under the panel goes Scott. He found a blown fuse and replaced it. Now, why did the fuse blow since they don’t usually go for no reason. The verdict is still out, but there are some theories to be tested.

As you can see from the pic, I have an instructor with a great personality as well as impeccable skills.