I recently completed my biannual flight review (BFR) and instrument proficiency check (IPC) at Fort Meade Flying Activity.  Two of my friends from work wanted to go flying, so I took them to lunch at Airways Inn, Frederick Airport.  I flew the club’s Piper Arrow, a 2002 model with retractable gear and 200HP.  It costs a little bit more, but I find it much more enjoyable to fly that the Cessnas.  Unfortunately, we wound up running short on time and had to rush to make it back to Fort Meade in time for the next renter… but now that I’m a little more aware of how long it takes us to eat, I’ll have the schedule down a little bit better the next time.  With the exception of Matt’s bad burger for lunch… the flight was a lot of fun.  Its always great to fly… even more so with some friends.

Here’s a video of the flight on YouTube. 

Here are Matt and Wes next to the Arrow just before loading up and taking off.

On the ground just prior to taxi.

Wes sat shotgun on the way out.

Here’s a picture of the approach into Frederick.

Matt sat shotgun on the way back.

I let Matt take the controls for a little while on the return flight.  He did pretty well!

The monolith from 2001 Space Odyssey….

Who the heck is this??

Being lazy, I have still not added the charter members to the EAA Chapter 1384 website for the First Mid-Atlantic Gathering of RV’s held in July. Jack met me at the airport to give me the registration documents so I could add the names. Of course, going to the airport always results in plenty of hangar talk and Jack asked if I had time to go for a flight. I always have time for a flight! I told Jack I’d buy him lunch at the Airways Inn in Frederick so off we went.

The first two photographs are of Jack’s beautifully restored 1975 Triumph TR6 in British racing green. Fantastic automobile.

Here is Jack’s RV-8 which has been on this blog previously. You can see he has added the RV Gathering sticker to the fuselage just forward of the canopy.

Here’s a shot of Jack flying from the GIB’s (guy in back) point of view.

We met another RV builder at Airway’s inn, Rob, who invited us to see his RV-4 nearing completion.

Next door was a Ford Tractor Blue RV-12 also nearing completion.

These allow the aircraft to be moved sideways for storing two aircraft in one hangar and allowing each plane to be easily taken in and out. Unfortunately this design doesn’t work if you have wheel pants, but its gotten me thinking about some potential solutions. I want to find a hangar mate to reduce hangar costs and a little basic welding should make a good solution… I’ll have to give this some more thought down the line.

Here’s a self shot with the canopy open during taxi. Today was typical east coast weather… hazy and humid. Perfect weather for a slider canopy.

A few shots of the quarry in Frederick, MD.

Jack’s TR6, and RV-8 with Alan’s RV-4.

I used my cheap MotionX GPS on my iPhone again to record the flight stats. According to Jack’s stats we burned about 6.5 GPH and that comes out to about 26 – 28 MPG with a 190 HP IO-360. Not too shabby! I like the ECI kit engine choice. On the way back, Jack gave me some stick time. As always, the RV’s are impressive. Light and responsive I was able to fly with two fingers. The stick position in the rear seat is perfect. Great fun!