Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

… or perhaps it’s complete?

We’ve been having some unusually wet weather here in Texas the last few weeks. The good news is that it is filling up the lakes and aquifers, and subsequently the water supply, after a severe drought and some of the lowest levels in the last 50 years. Unfortunately, it makes for lousy flying conditions. One of the VAF members had a very fitting acronym - GPS, Grumpy Pilot Syndrome.

We have managed to put about 20 hours on the cylinders now with five this past weekend. We flew up to see my mom for an afternoon lunch visit on Saturday and a trip to the coast with Johnica flight and to meet an RV10 flyer out of Oklahoma City in Palacios. CHTs are still running a little high, but that should resolve itself as we get some more hours on it.

Once again, I was hailing the virtues of an instrument ticket on Saturday, even though we didn’t actually need it. We woke up to fog and low ceilings. As the morning progressed, the ceilings and visibility were steadily improving, but it was still IFR conditions. We decided that our safety threshold had been met around noon, so we motored out to the airport. As we took off, the ceilings in Corsicana had gone broken from overcast - yep still improving. When we arrived at our destination, it was perfectly clear. Of course, by the time the weather actually cleared, it was too late in the day to start the trip. Since we were capable of getting down with the lower minimums earlier, we didn’t have to scrub the trip.

After munching on shrimp and walking on the beach Sunday, we left Palacios in 65 degree weather. We returned home to 40 degrees and winds gusting to 30 knots as a cold front passed through earlier than expected. We ended up getting a local IFR clearance from Austin to get down through the clouds instead of bumping along below them for a hundred miles or so. Johnica flight aborted (smartly I might add) their landing at Breakaway as those 30 knot gusts were a crosswind on their 30 foot runway. We delivered the fried shrimp from the Outrigger Grill from Palacios to the tower, and then took Johnica flight home. We were rewarded with coffee and hot chocolate.

Over the last several months, we have been seeing some ‘leans’ from the EFIS at times. It indicates that we are in a shallow bank when flying straight and level, and it does correct itself with some time. The symptom has been occurring more frequently, and while not a significant safety issue at this time due to the relatively small error, it isn’t helpful when in the soup. While flying home Saturday on a leisurely flight, it happened to us again. This time, it lasted long enough that we were able to record the demo. Scott shot the file off to Grand Rapids on Monday, and Carlos was back with a response a few hours later. The data showed that the roll gyro is off by 1.2-1.5 degrees. A replacement AHRS should be on the way shortly, which we will swap out and send our current one back.

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.

Co-author: Scott Card

“Watson Flight” departed Sunday afternoon around 3pm for a short test flight. “Georgetown ground, Experimental RV 4822C with information Papa is ready to taxi to departure eastbound. This is a beagle hound test flight, we may be right back with you.” “RV 22C, Roger, taxi to 18 via Alpha.” …is exactly how the initial radio transmissions went.

Of course, never to be left out, a fellow RVer had to get into the conversation. At the run-up pad, he noted, “Wow, that is an attractive passenger you’ve got there. Oh, and the wife is pretty, too.” We’ll see if he ever gets another invitation to dinner, or another cookie.

Departure power was curtailed to 2200 rpm for large floppy ear considerations. The foam ear plugs only lasted to top of climb at 3500′. A beagle knows just how to shake the head to ensure that whatever is bother him is smartly ejected. The fact that my face was red from getting slapped with said, floppy ears convinced me to not try to reinsert them. The noise seemed to be of no concern for him, then again, he doesn’t even flinch anymore when the air compressor starts its convulsions. The air was very smooth above 2500′, which it better have been after two days of stable air kept us firmly planted on the ground with overcast at IFR levels and questionable visibility. Scott started with some 1/2 standard rate turns and 350 fpm climbs and descents. No major concern was detected - just some on-and-off shaking, which subsided as the maneuvering progressed. Watson was most interested in looking out the window from my lap where he was riding. I wanted him at hand for the first flight to have the best chance of observing his behavior to see if he was in panic mode. Next test flight will be to see how he handles a crate in the baggage area. At times, I swear he was begging me to let him hang his head out the window to experience all the smells of this new universe, but we suggested otherwise. The air coming in the vent would have to suffice. About 40 minutes into the flight, the beagle hound’s floppy ears starting hanging low and he dropped onto my lap for a little snooze.

“Watson Flight” maneuvered for 50 minutes and entered an eventful, 2-weekend days of IFR, conga line, #3 behind a Cessna, with notice that “two more stacked up on 4 mile final”. Scott turned right base (as instructed) at 2mi and saw the rest of the traffic out the left window. OK, this isn’t good…”RV 22C, left 360 please.” As Scott started to roll out on what was then a 3.2mi downwind, he asked the controller where he wanted him. The tower responded with “Well…” Scott didn’t give him a chance to fully formulate the thought before he informed him he’d fly downwind until he found the end of the conga line. “Roger, 22C the last aircraft now in sequence is a Bonanza that is 4.8mi final, you are #5 to land behind the Bonanza.” Oky, doky, no problem, safe and sound. Our tower needs RADAR!

Oh, this was “Watson Flight” in progress… Scott did a very flat stabilized approach with a subdued decent rate. We touched down with no beagle issues, even with unplanned pattern maneuvering. All went well except for the heavily accelerated ejection of dog hair into the cockpit. The flying dog hair got thick pretty quick, and I was nominated to vacuum and wiped down the cockpit after landing. Happy dog all the way.