Page 37 – Peter's RV-8

Helicopter Intro for my mum

This entry was posted in Flying Helicopter on September 5, 2019 by Peter

Its been on my list for awhile to land the helo at the farm and give my mom a ride. My original plan was to do a tour of all the places we lived growing up – there were 7 farms from the time I was born until I left for college at 18. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do them all, I did however hit two of the biggest ones.So I grabbed the R22 from Frederick and landed on the front lawn. I grabbed a quick selfie, and Cristina grabbed a few photos of me getting my mom strapped in.

And then we were off!. I flew east from Littlestown PA, crossing south of Hanover PA. The first location on the tour was the farm we lived at while I was in high school. This was the closest to suburbia I ever lived, but it was also one of the best places we lived because I went to South Western High School. South West is one of the best public schools in the region, and its the school I claim as my alma mater. Of the 5 school districts I attended growing up, I only have only kept in touch with friends from two of these schools. Many of my closest friends today were made while living in Hanover PA.

The arrow shows our house, while the circle outlines the farm. The barns are still standing, although much of the area around has since been developed. The farm was formerly part of the Lana Lobell Standard-Bred farm – a huge farm in the Hanover area that had gone defunct some years earlier.

Next we flew over Codorus State Park (cleanest water in the State of PA) and Lake Marburg. Between my knob year and sophomore year at The Citadel, I came home and had a job renting boats at the marina here. One of the best jobs I ever had!

Then we flew over our farm in Brodbecks PA. This was the first farm my mother purchased. It was rough when she moved in, and she made it quite nice. I’m sad to say it has not been well maintained in the 27 years since she sold it. The only thing I can tell that has been improved is perhaps new roofs on some of the structures. Everything else looks like its gone completely uncared for. Sad – it was quite a cool little farm. I lived here from the age of 3 to 10 years old. This is the only other school district I count among my current, and lifelong friends. Susquehannock High School – Southern York County (neighbors the best school district – South Western) is another great school.

My buddy Dusty Wolfgang lives just around the corner from the farm – in fact the entrance to the farm is at the bend of the road between the Snyder and Wolfgang Estates. I’ve known Dusty since I was 3 years old – so thats 34 years now. My good buddy Zack Snyder’s parents moved to a home also located on this road. Their house, a log cabin I believe, is hard to photograph from a moving helicopter. (Note – my mother took all these photos!)

The last place we flew over before heading back was the house of Skip Hoover – Chad Hoover’s father. The rail road tracks / creek on the left of the photo are the dividing line between South Western School district where I went to high school, and Southern (Susquehannock) School district where I went to elementary school. Chad and I became really good friends in high school, and I wound up introducing him to some of my friends from elementary. Skip’s house is a quick bike ride from where I lived on the farm in Brodbecks. In fact, Dusty Wolfgang’s parents live on the other side of the tracks just a bit further down this road. Chad and I are still close friends – and he’s lent a hand here and there to this plane project. In fact – he’s done more for this project than anyone I know – from multiple assists in the building of the garage to the installation of the radiant heating system. Chad’s been a stand up guy. Dusty and I used to bike between each other’s houses – literally passing right in front of Chad’s house – not knowing years later we’d all get to know one another from my school district changes!

Between Dusty’s house, the old farm, and Chad’s place – there were a lot of good times growing up. We used to ride dirt bikes all over these fields – none of the farmers in the area cared much, and we had a blast.

And then we returned by the same route we came. Here is my mother’s current farm from the air. I started work on the RV on the garage on this property.

The horses barely took note of the R22 coming in. A few looked up, a few took off at a canter, but nothing crazy. You can never tell with horses when, or what, will spook them.

This was one of the best trips I’ve done in the helo. Getting my mum up for a ride, and the trip down memory lane was quite exceptional.

Empennage Fairing 1

This entry was posted in Construction Empennage Finish Work on August 25, 2019 by Peter

Okay. Seems like every post in the past year begins with an apology about the lack of keeping the log up to date. Today is no exception. This post will encompass the past two months or so that I’ve intermittently worked in the shop. While I haven’t been good about updates, I have been doing an OK job of taking photos. I’ve recently started work again on the plane, with my first project to tackle all things related to the empennage. First among these was the empennage intersection fairing.

As I’ve done the fastback modification to the fuselage, my empennage fairing supplied by Van’s isn’t going to come close to working. My approach was to cut the fairing into three sections, and then fiberglass the gaps.

Here is the fairing sitting on the attached tail feathers. You can see the cut – there is an identical cut on the opposite side.

I put packing tape on the airplane to make clean up a snap. (Be sure to use some tape of decent quality – use cheap stuff like I did, and – well you’ll see a bit later)

In addition to glassing the gaps created by the cut, I want to make sure I have minimum gaps and a nice tight fit. Here in the next few photos you can see some of the current gaps. I also want to use as few screws as possible for the attachment points.

My approach to glassing it was fairly simple. I secured the fairing with clecos, and then put two strips of fiberglass over top. A thick 3″ strip, and a thinner 2″ strip.

I used my trusty bag of lead shot to weight down the front portion as there are no clecos or holes in this section. The bag of lead shot does a better job anyways!

I also want my fairing to wrap around the front of the horizontal empennage just slightly. This is a pretty popular modification, and relatively simple. I can tell I am a bit out of practice, as my application of fiberglass here was a bit rushed and sloppy. I should have taken the time to split the front of the strips I was using, and have more careful measurements.

Next, I removed the fairing, and applied flox underneath the outer strips to fill the void. I then applied two strips of fiberglass to the inside of the fairing. Don’t overdo the flox, the idea is just to ensure there are no gaps between the inner and outer fiberglass. Now, here’s another mistake that you should avoid. DO NOT fold fiberglass over from one side to the next. I know better than to do this. I even thought to myself when I did it – “I shouldn’t probably do this – its going to give me air pockets and be a pain later.” But, again, being out of practice I’ve forgotten to listen to my sensible side and did it anyways. My sensible side was right – it was problematic later on. End of the world? Certainly not. But a mistake I should have avoided.

After it set up, I did some basic trimming and shaping. You can see its starting to really take shape.

Now its time to start filling in the gaps. Use flox and micro as appropriate. Micro for flat surfaces – flox for anything near an edge or requiring any strength. I used a small amount of micro to fill in the gaps between the fairing and the surfaces. This micro was only a very small amount and served as a distance guide for a subsequent application of flox, and then finally a layer of fiberglass. This made the fairing a little thicker at points, but the gaps are gone and I’m hopeful the extra thickness will help prevent the empennage for curling / bowing due to heat changes.

The rest of this story is primarily filling, and sanding. Repeat.

McLean Clan Visit

This entry was posted in Flying Helicopter on June 9, 2019 by Peter

Owen was excited for his first helicopter flight. Poor fella has a broken arm to boot – but it sure doesn’t slow him down. Owen is the first kid I’ve taken flying, and I’m glad I approached it the way I did. This will be my default mode of operation for any kids from here on out. First, James is also a pilot, so I didn’t have to worry about him not understanding the risks or freaking out etc. Parents can be a bigger worry than the kids! I told him in advance to bring a booster seat. I wanted to make sure the seat belt was not across his neck. I did a safety brief for Owen, James and Katie. I told Katie I would be remaining in the pattern, and thus in her sight the whole time. This keeps mom happy, and makes sure I can end the flight quickly if Owen is scared. It also means the flight doesn’t need to be too long. A kid’s introductory flight should be a fun experience – and it doesn’t need to be long. Longer flights can be in the future. A fun experience is the goal!

Owen is jaw dropping smart – and just about the best behaved kid I’ve met. He’s an absolute pleasure to be around.

Owen and I did a couple laps in the pattern and then we came back and shut down. James and I went on a longer flight over past Harper’s Ferry into West Virginia. 2009 was the last time James and I flew together, so its been awhile. It was great to give him an introduction to the helicopter.

You’ll have to indulge a few non-aviation photos from the weekend. Owen and Andrew got introductions to the tractor.

Although as much fun as Owen had in the helicopter, I think he may have had more fun playing with my chessie Squire. They were playing together for a long time. Squire is great with kids. I’m not sure which one was entertaining the other – but we all enjoyed the show!