Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

Christmas was upon us, and it has been a few years since we spent the holiday with my family. So, the plan was hatched to visit Streetman for Christmas. Scott decided to skip some of the holiday time with the group of 20 at Lisa’s house and offered airplane rides to anyone that wanted one. The plan was to fly some of the Lott boys in the morning and Jennifer’s clan in the afternoon. Christmas morning was forecast to be below freezing, and I was tasked with getting some kind of engine warming device so that we didn’t have to abuse the engine. The RV community gave us an easy answer. Off to Ace Hardware for the heater and Home Depot for the duct work. The stars must have been aligned properly since it was the last milkhouse heater they had and was on sale - Score. A few pop rivets later, and the contraption was assembled. OAT: 28 degrees. Time: 45 minutes. Oil temp on start-up: 67 degrees. It sure seemed to do the job.

David, Dylan, and Oscar were waiting on the ramp in Corsicana when we arrived, 10:30am sharp. Oscar was the first up to experience the sleigh ride. Dylan sang Christmas carols through the whole flight. David was bundled up like the Michelin man and had to be stuffed into the seat. I guess he didn’t expect to have heat in the plane. The flights were all successful with some stories worth of being retold in future years.

The Jennifer clan plan fell apart. They were fighting weather in Dallas, where they had an unusual White Chirstmas. That delay led to another, and another, and another. Eddie’s kids were waiting for him at Lisa’s house by then, so they decided we’d have to try another time. We climbed into David’s SUV: Oscar, David, Scott, me, Dylan, Watson, and Dylan’s new puppy. It was a full carload.

The group of 20+ ate, opened presents, laughed, and generally made a huge fuss. We chatted away the evening and then headed back to mom’s house for the night. The next morning, mom made us a tasty breakfast, she and I took a walk, and Scott imparted some wisdom on VAF. A nice morning visit and we were back to the airport to pay our $5 tie-down fee and head for home. Watson fought the idea of having to get stuffed into the crate in the baggage department, but I did eventually win. A few minutes of whining, and he was settled in for the trip.

My niece decided she wanted us to pick her up in Dallas and fly her to Austin for a weekend as her Christmas present. The day before I was scheduled to go get her, we had a light snowfall followed by the winter’s first hard freeze the next morning. 22C was not happy about having to start that morning. VansAirForce may have provided the solution - albeit 2 days too late for this trip - a blanket over the cowl, plug up the inlets on the upper cowl, and a hair dryer blowing for an hour. We may have to try that next time.

I also learned about the phenomenon of a “flash frozen airplane”. 22C was clean and smooth coming out of the hangar. It took about 10 minutes from pulling the plane out of the hangar until I made it to the run-up pad after letting the engine warm up. As I was pulling on to the pad, I thought I saw frost on the wings. I didn’t really believe it, but I shut down on the pad to inspect. Sure enough, there was a thin layer of frost on the wings and horizontal stab. It was -3C, with a dewpoint of -7C, and about 70% humidity. I proceeded to turn around and borrowed a nice, sunny ramp from a hangar mate for 22C to defrost for half an hour. My first airplane example of deposition in action. The plane was sitting in the shade outside the hangar, and I wonder if I would have had the same issue if it had been sitting in the sun.

I filed a flight plan around the west side of the restricted space north of Georgetown - KGTU, LZZ, JEN, KDTO. Apparently, that wasn’t what ATC wanted, and they routed me around the east side. Radar service off of GTU is provided by Austin controllers. Saturday, their radar was down and they had a digital feed from Center. (I got that information from the tower when I delivered their Christmas caramels.) I’m not sure if that impacted the route or if ATC just has a preference around the east side of the restricted space. Fortunately, they gave me a direct to JEN at the exact location that allowed me to skirt Bush’s compound at P-49 and the airspace around Fort Hood. About the time I passed P-49, ATC gave me instructions to follow the SLUGG arrival even though I filed No STAR. No problem, I let him know that wasn’t going to work and we continued on with the JEN to KDTO legs.

Denton is not a quiet airport. Denton tower asked me to slow down as I started entering their airspace as they already had 3 airplanes in the pattern and requested a tight downwind. No problem - Reduce power, blue knob a little bit forward, and aim for a tight downwind. I allowed the 3rd plane in the conga line a nice lead on final before turning base. Even though that plane was turning off the taxiway as I was a half mile final, the tower asked me to go around. OK, add power, pull up the flaps, and CLIMB like crazy in the freezing temps.

My sister and kids were on their way out to meet me as I was heading to the terminal. I turned them around as I needed to enjoy the warmth that was inviting me inside. You don’t notice the leaks until it is cold outside. I’m so glad I leave in a warm climate. We headed out after another half hour defrost. I cleared the Bravo airspace and handed the controls to my niece. It was her turn to fly and follow some nav guidance. About half way through, it was time for her try her hand at some pilotage as we progressed home. Erica was having a hard time finding the Georgetown airport, so we did a turn around Florence to head south and give her another chance. It turned out that KGTU was too big after finding all the tiny little airports she had been locating. Add in a headwind, and it took us a little longer to get home. We stopped at the fuel pumps to make sure that Scott has full tanks to get her home. Erica asked what the static line was for, but I made her wait until we got out of the biting wind and into our greenhouse for the explanation.

Scott kept Erica busy all afternoon with deburing parts for the 8 and countersinking a bunch of holes. She learned all about the sander, scotch brite wheel, files, and the drill press. Sunday, she helped me remove all the blue plastic from the recently finished wings and wipe them down with MEK. The tanks were showing some corrosion around the plastic, but that was the only location. I’m glad we got them cleaned up when we did. To finish off the morning, we pulled parts from the airplane room for the next assembly.

Mother nature was having nothing to do with flying Erica back to Denton. On Friday and even Saturday, the forecast looked to be OK for a Sunday flight back to Denton. Sunday arrived, and crummy weather kept getting worse. We had planned several options of getting Erica home: 1) fly back Sunday afternoon, 2) fly back Monday and miss a day of school, which I’m quite sure was Erica’s preference, or 3) meet my sister halfway up I-35. Monday’s weather forecast was looking exactly like Sunday’s had looked a day before, and we were expecting the forecast to be just as inaccurate. My sister and husband were already driving Sunday night and a stop half way between Austin and Dallas added an hour and a half or so to their trip. If we ended up having to swap by car on Monday, it would have been about 3-4 hours of driving for her. So, we made the decision to drive Sunday evening. We’ll see if having to deal with the inclement weather keeps my niece away next year or if the spoiling was worth it.

Broken at 3,000 and a couple thousand feet thick. Sounded like a pretty good IFR training day. I filed a round robin trip from Georgetown to Waco (intending to do an ILS approach) and back - KGTU, DARTE, ACT, KACT, V17, DARTE, KGTU. All started out well, we got our clearance to Georgetown, via REDDA, Victor 17, and then as filed. No problem - just a slight change of the intersection to get me onto Victor 17. Off we go.

Shortly after we passed over REDDA, Gray Approach requested intentions. I responded with the plan to Waco with an ILS approach and return to Georgetown. She informed me that I was only cleared to REDDA and back to Georgetown. HUH? Why would any rational pilot file a flight plan to an intersection about 20 miles from the airport and back. After some self-doubt of what did I really file and get cleared for, I pulled out my documentation. I had the printed sheet from the flight plan I filed. Sure enough, I had my request ID, filing time, and route of flight via Waco. I also had the clearance from Georgetown written on my kneeboard (Deene would be so proud). Yup, cleared to Georgetown via radar vectors to V17, REDDA, then as filed.

ATC turned me to a heading of 330. It seemed like I followed that heading for a while - with the GPS shouting airspace ahead in 10 minutes. I gave the controller enough time to get the situation figured out and offered to read the full flight plan filed and the clearance from the Georgetown tower. I’m thinking it was pretty clear where the problem was by then, and she responded that they were working out the details and to stand by. OK, no biggie now that I know I’m right and ATC’s wrong - AND we weren’t IMC as we were just barely skirting above the clouds. It was apparent she didn’t want to talk to me and wanted me gone. When she came back, I received a heading and to call Waco approach. Just after read back, she wanted to know if I was still around. I was, and then received a direct to Waco. OK, so which is it, the last heading or direct to Waco? I had to get clarification, and the answer is…last heading. We think it she must have misspoke and said direct Waco instead of cleared to Waco.

Yet another good learning experience.