I don't have the little light box nor the knowledge of how to time the mag, so our technical counselor, who has the tool and knowledge agreed to assist me with it. So, after work today, I went to the airport and quickly changed clothes to get ready for the job ahead.
Then I saw him ( technical counselor ) pulling his plane out of the hangar. It is a gorgeous RV6. He told me that he would be right back, he had to fly a friend over to Newberry to pick up a plane and began showing me the tool and explaining how to use it. Just as he was getting started, another RV6 owner came up and said to me, "would you rather work on your plane, or fly to Newberry?". Well, that was a no-brainer. So, he pulled out his RV6 ( gorgeous ) and told me to get buckled up while he did the pre-flight. Soon we were beginning departure and he gave me the stick and said "you have the stick". I took it and he said "now, you say, I have the stick", so I said that. Then he said "gently apply forward pressure and "under no circumstances, release that pressure" well, I apply forward pressure and it seems as if we are going to go over on the nose, and I can't help but release the pressure a little, and he very loudly repeats his command, "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, RELEASE THAT PRESSURE". I gave it all the will power that I could muster and managed to keep the tail up. Soon we had built up enough speed and he said, "Ok, very gently begin releasing the pressure" and I do, and he keeps reminding me not to pull or jerk and to keep the climb at 500 FPM. So here I am, flying an RV6 and we head to Newberry. He then gives me the rudder and tells me what altitude to maintain Well, he had to keep reminding me, because it seemed that the RV just wanted to keep climbing. I said, "this plane just wants to climb". He took the stick and let go of it. It was amazing, the VSI immediately settled on zero. So he gave me the stick back, after proving that it might just be pilot induced climb and I finally got the feel of keeping it where it was, which really took NO effort at all. Now, you might think that is the end of the story, well, as we approach Newberry, he takes the controls back and goes into a steep decent on the runway, cutting the power so we will not exceed 200 knots. We screamed down the runway at 200 knots and at the end, went into a 3000 FPM climb, all the while, he was cutting the power, so when we reached pattern altitude, the RV was at 80 knots, flap down speed. So down went the flaps and we made a very gentle landing. No, this is not the end. These two RV pilots are avid formation flyers, and the real reason that the pilot that I was with wanted to fly to Newberry, was so they could practice formation flying on the way back. So, we took off in a flight of 2, that is formation pilot talk. We were the second, so from now on all we responded to the leader, was "2". My pilot quickly closed in tight on the wing of the leader and you could feel the force of concentration required to maintain the exact position that the leader wanted him to take. Then the leader held up a fist and my pilot dropped down and crossed under the lead plane. We were so close that I could see the tail wheel slowly turning in the wind. We did this all the way back to Owens and then initiate a high approach down the middle of the runway we were to land on, 1000 feet above pattern altitude. The leader had signaled 3 fingers which meant a 3 second break away. At the break away point, the leader broke hard right and 3 seconds later, we did the same. In a matter of a couple of seconds, we had lost a 1000 feet, were at pattern altitude and at flap speed. Down went the flaps and another perfect landing. What a day, does it get any better than this? Well, yes, I then went to my Daughters house and she fed me filet mignon that I washed down with a pint of Bass Ale while I watched our 1 year old grand son entertain us. This was an experience that mere mortals can't even dream of, let alone, experience. As Mark says, life is good. See N64KR at http://KRBuilder.org - Then click on the pics See you in Mt. Vernon - 2006 - KR Gathering There is a time for building and a time for FLYING and the time for building is over. Daniel R. Heath - Lexington, SC
