Places Visited by my RV-9A (click to see a map):

Links to each sections


People build their airplanes for different reasons. For me, it is to have an airplane to fly! Having my own airplane eliminates the problem of scheduling a rental. As long as weather permit I can go. So far in the first three years I averaged a little more than 200 hrs a year. Living in a rural area a fast transportation improves the life style a lot. To take commercial air transportation, it takes us at least two hours to drive to a major airport. Going through security and waiting in line is no fun neither. With my own airplane, it is a 27 minutes drive to the airport. There is no security and never worry about what to carry nor losing luggage. While you guys who live in a big city or nice suburb enjoy the amenities of your community we fly to different places to enjoy what they have to offer. On this page I chronicle some of the fun trips we made. For some trips, such as flying to Canada, I also link whatever information necessary for the trip. In case you want to fly the trip yourself, it will provide you with the necessary information. For those who are building this should serve as a motivator for you to work harder. The day you get your plane finished you can enjoy the trips as we have been. For other, we just want to share the fun we have.

My second First Flight - March 27, 2007

A few weeks ago I read on Van's Airforce forum that a builder at Ashland, KY is looking for someone to test fly his RV-6A. I contacted him (Allan Stern) and made an appointment to see his project. He has already had his airworthness certificate on hand but don't have the experience/currency and transition training to test fly the airplane. After checking the airplane I found his aileron and flap riggings were not quite correct. Upon correcting the rigging problem, I checked other systems as well. Today, I made the first flight for him. So, he is the birth parent of the airplane and I delivered it. Through out the test flight I found myself not nervous. I was even able to take some photos and video inflight. I am glad that I could help.

First flight video

Flying the Hudson: from Poukeepsie to Statue of Liberty - 5/4/2007

Click here for the Trip description Statue of Liberty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Formation Clinic - 5/11/2007 - 5/13/2007

I attended the 4th Annual Formation Clinic hosted by the Ohio Valley RVators. Since one of fellow participants, Dave Gamble gave a wonderful and very detailed description of the clinic, I will just link to his blog for you to enjoy. Pictures and videos I took can be found by clicking on the words. During the clinic all 7 models of RVs were present. A flight of all RVs were done, with:

-RV10 (Rick Gray-FFI Flight Lead)
-RV9A (owner Ted Chang/Pilot Mike Stewart-FFI Check Pilot)
-RV8 (Stu McCurdy-FFI Check Pilot)
-RV7A (Tad Sargent-FFI Wingman)
-RV6 (Danny Kight-FFI Flight Lead)
-RV4 (Bob Goodman-FFI Flight Lead)
-RV3 (Dave Hirschman)

Pictures on the left were taken by Rob Logan (Lancair Legacy)
More pictures from Rob Logan.

Ground video by James Clark.

Virginia, NC, SC Trip - June 30 to July 4, 2007

Click here to see Mid-Atlatic Trip (Blacksburg, Williamsburg, Kitty Hawk, Ocracoke, Myrtle Beach, Charleston).

 

 

 

 

 

 


Trip slide show

Great Lakes and New York - 8/30 to 9/3/2007

This trip includes visits to: Mackinac Island (Michigan), Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (UP, Michigan), Oshkosh (Wisconsin), Milwaukee suburb (Wisconsin), West Lafayette (Indiana), Manhattan (New York). Including local tours, the total Hobbs time was 20 hours. Trip slide show

Pictured Rocks slide show

Larry Wiley's RV-7A First Flight - 9/15/2007

I promise Larry to be at his first flight. Larry built a 4 19 years ago. He sold the 4 this year and finished a 7A. Larry is the one who gave me the only RV ride before my transition training. We have been friends ever since. Since he does not A model experience, insurance requires him to have 5 hour nose wheel time. I gave him about 6 hours in my 9A. Today he did his first flight successfully. He commented that 7A is easier to land than 9A as I have told him. 9A tends to float on final and 7A does not. Congratulations Larry for a job well done!

Vinton Airshow, formation flight with Kyle's Cub J3 - 9/16/2007

This morning on the way to Vinton Fly-in, we fly formation with a Cub flown by Josh. He was doing full throttle at 65 kts. Initially I did not have flap down and I was flying at a nose high attitude. Actually it is not bad since I have absolute power advantage. However, after a while I decided to put down flap so we can fly more leveled.

10-19-2007 Strong headwind

Today I flew to Lafayette, Indiana to pick up my son. It is an IFR day. On the way to Lafayette, I got 48 kts headwind. On my way back, I only got 16-30 kts tail wind. Here is the proof (click on the photo to enlarge, see the left right corner of the upper screen, there is a 48H/47L that means 48 kts headwind and 47 kts from left).

First Icing - 11/25/2007

Recently we had mostly cloudy days. Before Thanksgiving I flew IFR to Lafayette, IN to pick up my son. Today I sent him back. Although we have an overcast sky, it is a VFR day. After having lunch and short visit to old colleague Joe, I jumped in my RV and took off Rwy 23 of KLAF. From XM downlink I can see large areas of green and some yellow over most of Indiana. Before I reach 2,000 ft my windshield began to take ice. I noticed that the outside temperature was 32 degrees F. In a few minutes, the front of the windshield is fully covered. I also noticed that ice particles began to grow bigger. The wind and HS leading edges are also coated with about 1/4" ice. Since the airplane is still perform normal, I decided to continue. I checked the temperature at airports ahead and trying to fly into cleared area. After 30 minutes, the OAT increased to 33 degrees. I noticed a few ice particles began to fell off. After I got to north of Dayton, the temperature increased to 37 degrees. I headed my airplane to the green area to get some rain to wash off the ice. It worked! In three minutes all the ice got washed off.

1-4-2008 Flying to Louisville, KY

Finally I got some reasonable tail wind today. It seems that I always got strong headwinds and weak tailwinds. Today at 8,600 (I was searching for stronger winds, I was actually cruising at 9,500) I got 39 kts tailwind and 195 kts ground speed. Just a little less than the 200 kts I was looking for.

Click to enlarge.

1-19-2008 Flying to Louisville, KY

Today a cold front passed through the region. The temperature is in the lower 20s. Our son in Louisville is free and my wife wants to visit him. On the way over we did 4,500' (for lesser head wind) and fought 30 kts headwind all the way. On the way back we climbed up to 9,500' for the 135 nm trip. Finally I got enough tail wind to do the > 200 kts ground speed for most of the trip home. Here is a proof (see the upper left corner 204GS, that means 204 kts ground speed. The true air speed is shown in the lower right corner, that is 160 kts. Wind is 54 kts, 42 kts tailwind and 34 kts from left. Using these numbers and you can get the 204 kts ground speed.)
It was really cold up there (2 degree F). Some cold air leaked in from behind my head and made my ears cold too. When it was warmer I don't notice this cold air.

Click to enlarge.

1-27-2008 Another trip PMH - LOU - LAF - PMH

This weekend we decided to visit both boys. On Saturday afternoon we flew to Louisville. It is a 137 nm trip. On Sunday morning we flew from Louisville to West Lafayette (143 nm), then back (211 nm). It turns out the hobbs times are all 1.5 hrs each leg. From PMH to LOU we faced 27 kts headwind and low ceiling. By the time we arrived at LOU, the ceiling was 1,200'. Outside temperature were about 20 degree. We decided to fly slow (45% power) and doing about 102 kts ground speed. When we depart LOU on Sunday morning. The ceiling was 1,000' with 28 degree outside temperature. After cleared Louisville class C airspace, we climb through a hole over the think cloud layer and cruised at 4,500'. We had 25 to 30 kts headwind. By the time we got to south of Indianapolis, the cloud disappeared. At 4,500' we had 35 degree temperature that is higher than the ground temperature. After had our lunch with Joey, we departed Lafayette. Since Lafayette is always busy with flight training, we had to wait for other traffic. We departed the airport and flew north to see our old home. After cleared the class D airspace we climb and turn to south east. Cruising at 9,500' we got 45-47 kts of tail wind. Our ground speed home was 203-207 kts and 25 mpg! The air was smooth. I began descending 35 nm out and had to descend at 800 fpm in order to get down in time for pattern. On final, the 14 kts gust at 90 degree angle did not bother us at all. It was a great trip. RV made the trip fun!

Click to enlarge.

Flying Knights Air Rally at Lunken 5-18-2008

For write up on air rally click here: Air Rally.


Destin, Florida Vacation 6-10-2008

Write up of the Destin, Florida vacation: Destin Trip.


John Furey (Crossfire) airport flyin 7-12-2008

John Furey hosts RV flyin at his 2,600' grass strip near Canton, Ohio. This is the first time I landed on a grass strip. It turns out the runway is very firm and smooth. My apprehension was not called for. Here are some pictures I took: Slide show

Great Smoky Mountain Trip with Dave Gamble 7-24-2008

Dave from Columbus flew his RV6 to Portsmouth. Then, we flew my RV-9A down to Great Smoky Mountain. We first landed at Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport. After lunch we took a short trip to Knoxville Downtown Island airport. After a landing we taxied back and took off again. We flew back to Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge area to do some aerial tour. After the tour we flew over the 7000' mountain to the North Carolina side. We landed at Jackson County airport. It is on top of the hill with part of runway 33 slide down the hill. After a short stop we toured Mountain Air from the air before heading home. A day trip through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.

7-24-2008 Smoky Flight Trip
My pictures to Great Smoky Mountain

Pictures taken by Dave

Dave's blog

Lake Cumberland Trip 8-23-2008

Today my wife and I made a trip to Lake Cumberland, KY. We first landed at Williamsburg, KY to fuel up the airplane. Then, we flew over Lake Cumberland to tour the lake. It is a beautiful lake even from the air. Since Dale Hollow Lake is not to far away, we flew over there and into Tennessee. Our original plan was to fly to Summerset and borrow a courtsey car to go into town for lunch. The line boy told us that there is no courtsey car at the airport. The former manager of the airport used to lend her car out. Now she is working at Williamsburg airport! He suggested that we go to London-Corbin airport where there is an onsite restaurant and a courtsey car. It is a short hop over there. After we landed and walked into the terminal we faced a large group of people having luncheon in the lobby! They were all very friendly. Many of them greeted us. It turns out that both London and Corbin city council, sheriff, and many other officials were there to tour the airport and hear briefings.

The airport manager came over and talked to us. When my wife asked how to get to Cumberland Falls, he suggested that we use their courtsey car for up to 2 hours. He also suggested that we may visit Colonel Sanders' shop. We went to the restaurant next door to have lunch before the trip. When three gentlemen approached our table and called out my name, we were really surprised. It turns out that one of them met me and my older son a year and half ago in a fly-in. He is a RV9 builder and has been following my website. Such a small world. After lunch we drove to Cumberland Falls State Park and took some nice pictures of the fall. Upon returning to the airport, again, we were greeted by very friendly people. We got to chat with one of the airport board members. It is such wonderful trip made possible by the little airplane I built in my garage!

8-23-2008 Lake Cumberland Trip

8-29-2008 to 8-31-2008 Trip

Photos for the Labor day weekend trip:

8-30-2008 Trip

3D photo of West Baden Hotel: click here

9-6-2008 MERFI Urbana

Here are some photos of Mid-Eastern Regional Fly In at Urbana, Ohio.

9-6-2008 Urbana Fly-in MERFI

9-20-2008 to 9-28-2008 New England and Canada Trip

Click here to read the trip report

Here are information on how to fly to Canada

10-18-2008 Ohio Valley RVators Birthday Party and Gag Award

This is the 5th birthday party of Ohio Valley RVators. I volunteered to bring the cake and take a RV-9A builder from Mason County, WV to the party. Enroute I flew formation with Larry Wiley and his RV-7A. Since neither of us get to practice much, we are beginners. There were 20 RVs at KPHD. A lot of old friends and some new ones. We had a good time.

10-18-2008 OVRVators

11-25-2008 Branson, MO Trip

My old son David is a private pilot. Since he just started his internship, he has not been able to fly for a long time. We decided to make a father and son flying trip during his Thanksgiving break. Original idea was to take three days before Thanksgiving (I have other plans for the weekend before) and fly to Texas. The cold front passing through the area changed our plan. On Tuesday morning, it looks like cold front has passed and only Ohio and east had bad weather. Half of my route to Indianapolis had good visibility and 2000' ceiling. I took off and flew against 27 kt headwind. The sky at Indianapolis was clear. We had lunch and made hotel and car reservations for Branson before departing KEYE. Branson is not what I imagined. Compare with a lot of tourist towns I have visited, it is more like a hillbillys town (sorry Branson fans). You make the judgment after viewing the pictures linked below. Second day when we arrived at the airport around 8:00 am the airplane was covered with a thin layer of ice and frost. We waited until the sun came out and melted the ice and frost. Upon departing, we flew west to Kansas, then Okalahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and back. In two days we have visited 8 States and gave David a lot of flying practice.

11-25-2008 West flight trip

Christmas 2008 Trip to Knoxville, TN and the Great Smoky Mountains, 12-25-2008

The weather in December has has been cold (several single digit nights) with snow and ice. Just two days before Christmas my wife and I went shopping in Columbus. The two hour trip took us seven hours to get back due to a level 1 weather emergency in the evening. However, Christmas day we have around 30 degrees and clear day. My old son, David, wants to fly. He picked Knoxville, TN, since it is not too far and due south and warmer. We had a great time flying there. I also get to do my two practice IFR approaches. Now I am current again. Here are some of the pictures we took (most what I took since I was not flying). This is the second time this year I have flown this route. First, in July with another Dave (Gamble) and now with my son David. With 7 kts head wind, it took us 1.5 hrs to get there (including taxi). In all, we flew four hours today (some local flight too). It was a great father-and-son time spent flying.

12-25-2008 Xmas DKX trip

New Year, Anniversary, and Birthday Trip to Nashiville, January 1-3, 2009

At the beginning of each year we have three celerbrations: New Year's Day, Our Wedding Anniversary, and my birthday. This year both our boys are in Indy and David had to work New Year's day mornign. We flew in in the afternoon to visit. Daivd cooked us a nice dinner. After dinner we did a night fly back home. On our anniversary day, my wife had to finish some work in the morning. I checked the weather and found Nashiville, TN had good weather. I called FBO at John Tune airport to get a rental car and a hotel room. Hurrily we packed our bags and took off around 12:30pm. The air was bumpy and with strong headwind. We decided to stay low. At 4,500' we had 17 kts of headwind. The bumps continues until we almost arrived at Nashiville. In the afternoon we toured the Parthenon, a full scale replicate of the original Parthenon in Greece. In the evening we had a nice dinner and shop at Opry Mills Mall (did not find much for us). The second day we drove to Belle Meade Plantation for the 10:00 tour. Since we were the only two guests for the that tour we got our private tour. In the afternoon we went to the mall and enjoyed after New Year shopping. We live in a small town that has no mall. The most popular place is the new super Wal-mart. We seized the opportunity and stock up our needs. The weather for this day is IFR for most of our route back home. We filed IFR and enjoyed near 30 kts of tail wind home. I would not dare to fly IFR if not because the outside temperature was 50 degrees up at 5,000'.There was actually a large thunderstorm west of us. Just a week ago we had single digit temperatue. This day, the warm front brought us 60+ degree surface temperature. We had to diviate a little to avoid built-ups. But the air was most smooth. A little bit of rain did fall on us. It washed away some dirts on the airplane. The XM weather downlink really helped. We had a quick trip home and a nice birthday dinner back in Portsmouth.

1-3-2009 Nashville

Put in Bay with Wife, 4-4-2009

The weather in this part of the country has been poor. Yesterday we have typical Spring weather with heavy rain and strong wind (40 to 50 mph). Today's forecast is much better, with sunshine and calmer air. However, the air after a cold front passes through is always rough. Originally I was trying to get a few RVs in southern Ohio, West Virginia, and Columbus to go with me. One after another they declined, except Dave in Columbus. He was going to bring his daughter/co-pilot with him. When the forecast indicated a 10+kts wind with upper teens gust/cross wind, he decided it is not for his tail dragger. My wife and I departed Portsmouth airport around 10 am. On the climb out we experienced some turbulence. The headwind was strong at 27 kts. We stayed at 5,500' to get above turbulence and less headwind. When we arrived at Put in Bay, I tuned to Port Clinton AWOS. It reported wind 300 at 14 gust 19, both runways 3 and 21 gets 90 degree cross wind. I decided to circle all islands in a clockwise pattern, that brings me to right downwind runway 3. Air was bumpy at this time. By the time I was on short final I noticed that I had to fight very hard to keep my airplane lined up with the runway center line and on the glide slope. My landing was the worst I ever had in my RV. After my left main touched down it bounced a little and wobbled down the runway. Fortunately, I got positive control of the airplane and exited the runway at around 1,500'. The lady worked at the counter told me that the pilot of a commuter flight that morning complained about the wind too. The wind was different than the one reported at Port Clinton. Landing on runway 3 I had shifting tail wind gust to 23 kts. She said that if I could land today I could land any day there. During a hot season weekend, there could have 100 airplanes visiting a day. Today we were number three there (with number one being the commuter).

The island was windy and cold. we gave up the idea of walking to downtown. It turns out during this time of the year there is only a pub and a restaurant open. We took the taxi (a pretty messy full size van with small seats on both side) ride to the restaurant. The ride costs $3 per person. We gave driver a $10 and she was quite happy. It looks like most guests at the restaurant were one of the four hundred or so locals. They all know each other. After lunch we walked for a few minutes around town. Of course all the shops were closed and we were the only ones walking on the street. Since it was a little too cold for my wife (the light jacket was not warm enough) I called the taxi to bring up back. It took only a few minutes for the taxi to show up (1.5 mile only). By this time two Piper Warriors have arrived and parked beside us (pilots left already). We had a little more small talks at the airport before we departed. When we were a little higher than the tree tops, suddenly we experienced a vertical wind shear. The airplane dropped a few feet. Fortunately, we were not over the trees yet, otherwise, we might hit those trees. We climbed out and departed to south east to tour Kelly Island in the air. After Kelly Island, we flew over Cedar Point Amusement Park and took some pictures. On the returning flight, I climbed up to 6,500' just above the scattered clouds. The air was generally smooth with small bumps once in a while. The 17 kts tail wind made our return trip much faster but did not cancel the 27kts head wind we had on the way there. We landed at our home airport before 3:00 pm. It was a pleasant trip made possible by this little airplane.

From 4-4-2009 Put in Bay

Cloud 9 Cafe with Tri-State Section of Ohio River RVators, 4-18-2009

We had good lunch at Cloud 9 Cafe of Big Sandy Regional Airport in Kentucky. Three RVs showed up: Larry Wiley and Roger Starcher in Larry's RV7A, Allan Stern in his RV6A, myself and my wife in our RV9A. We are based at three airports in three states: West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. Roger is finishing his Egg Subie RV9A. Following are photos of the first UFO by tri-state section of Ohio Valley RVators.

Sun N Fun 2009 at Lakeland, Florida, 4-21-2009

Tuesday morning we drove to the airport and flew to Lakeland to experience flying into a major event. It was pretty easy. After parking I found the RV4 right next to us belongs to Ron G. from Cincy. I met him last year during the Lunken Air Rally! After we paid the fees and came back to put the prop label (?) on, we passed by Rick G tying down his beautiful Rocket. He flew in to his parents' place down south a day before us. We beat him to KLAL! We strolled around and saw among others Van's tent. I went forward to greet Mike Seager, the RV transition training guru. I did my transition training with him two years ago and he still remember my name! Later I had a picture taken with Van himself. It was such an honor. We did some shopping and sit through one forum. The afternoon air show was very exciting. The strong gusting wind did not affect those performers much. They are truly skillful professionals. Right after the show, it seems everyone in the home built parking are leaving. The starting and taxing airplanes blow up all those dirt and grasses overall. For a while my canopy was open, everything inside got coated a layer of dirt. I really hated it. Of course we got sun burnt and dirt all over us too. I am so glad that we are not camping out there. I am just to domesticated to do camping again.

To depart SNF you just following directions from ground people. Although a frequency is gave by ATIS, the radio is dead silent. They use the big runway for departure (arrival was on taxi way). It is done side by side that means one airplane on left side and one on the right side. Since the runway is so wide, you don't really feel it is tight. After a few seconds of hesitation ATC directed us to follow a cub (instead of a Skymaster). When the controller gave us a hand signal we took off after the cub (the controller waited for the cub to climb a little before releasing us). As soon as my airplane accelerated to 80 kts I throttled down and kept an eye on my air speed. Too fast I was going to hit that cub and too slow I might drop out of the sky. It worked out. At this time we had departure traffic on our right and ultralight activities on our left (less than a mile). Using the "near" function on the GPS I monitor our distance away from the airport. When it is 1.8 nm, I full throttled and moved to the left of the Cub. Soon we were gone! We circled around the Lakeland class D airspace and avoided the Barstow class D airspace to get back to Winter Haven. All of them are fairly close to each other. On downwind we saw other old parking space next to the terminal building taken and airplanes are parked along two taxiways. Upon parked our airplane we saw Larry's beautiful RV7A parking two planes away from us. I called him on the cellphone and found him arrived 30 minutes ago and is heading to the hotel. We were going to drive to his hotel and have dinner with him and Roger.

In the evening I checked the weather and studied the route to Key West and flying by Space Center. We departed Winter Haven around 8:30 am. Our first stop was La Belle since it is on the way and has <$3.00 g fuel. From there we flew to Key West. Well, we just wanted to be there and had no intention to stay. While waiting to pay our landing fee ($17 plus tax) I got to talk to another pilot we arrived with two Bonanzas. It turned out that they were from Cincy Lunken airport. They must be the two Bonanzas ahead of us from last year's Air Rally! We made a date to see each other next month during their Air Rally. After purchased a few t-shirts and had lunch at the airline terminal building we prepared to leave. At this moment we saw a red RV-6A being parked by line man two planes away. I went over to greet them and it turned out they were the gentlemen parked right beside us the day before at SNF! We had the same idea of making such a day trip!

On the return trip we first filled up at Airglades Airpark at Clewiston. The air on this trip has been very bumpy. Wind was gusty on the ground. After fueling, we headed to Melbourne airport to join V3 that is excluded from the Space Coast restricted airspace R2935. Upon reaching Daytona Beach International, we followed the coast line to the north west. While monitoring ATIS of airports we passed, we heard a lot of wind gust and wind shear warnings. The moderate chops kept me quite busy in order to keep the heading and altitude. We eventually arrived at Sylvania Plantation Airport, GA for fuel. The wind gust was really strong. I had to put my cap in the cockpit in order not to loss it. Checking my XM weather and realized that the weather is okay all the way back home we pushed on.

Our route bring us over the peaks south east of Johnson City, TN. Further south near Asheville has lower mountains, but I was not willing to make the detour. Since the air was bumpy, and blowing over the mountain toward us, I decided to climb up away from the peaks. I ended at 12,500' with 70kts head wind. Due to the thin air, at full throttle burning 6.5 gph and 63% power my true airspeed was 160 kts! At one time I had to pull the throttle back since my rpm is going above 2,600. After passing the NC mountains, I dropped down to 6,500' in VA and 4,500' in KY. Just 10 miles south of our home field, we saw a curtain of rain cloud hanging a thousand feel above us. We got 30 seconds of rain, not enough to wash away all the dirt and bugs. The wind at KPMH was reported variable from 190 to 350, gusting to 20 some. I took straight in 36 since no one is around (I normally don't do that). On the way down we also had a few vertical shears so I kept the speed up. Over the runway I was doing 70+ kts and the wind began blowing from my tail. It took me almost three thousand feet of runway before my wheels touched down! I finally arrived at 7:15 pm. It was such a long trip made possible by this little airplane I built in my garage!

Click the slides to see a larger version.

Lunken Flying Knight Air Rally 2009

This is the second time we attended the air rally. Unlike last year's bumpy air, this year the air is smooth. For the long course, we were supposed to fly 137 nm, around four airports and full stop landing at one. The full stop landing was announced after we had already submitted our estimated time, thus making it hard to get to the finish line on time. Additional complication is the conflict between landing and departure traffic. For a 137 nm course, one really has very little margin for such delay. We were delayed several minutes and ended not able to catch up. Even with full throttle and 160+ kts, we missed three minutes (we flight planed 140 kts!). However, it was fun for both the flying part and the social part. Especially, I have met two Bonanzas from the Flying Knight club in Key West just a month ago. A few old friends also showed up. We will definitely go next year.

Click the slides to see a larger version.

Detroit Trip 5-29-2009

Fly my wife to Detroit for a meeting on Friday evening. On Saturday, I flew to Maryville, Ohio for a morning fly-in. Flew back to Detroit to pick my wife up then flew home. We arrive a home just before a bad thunderstorm hit the area. See pictures for more details:

5-29-2009 Detroit

Fly to Kent State University Airport to visit old friends: Luks, 6-6-2009

Susanne and YW were our old friends from Virginia Tech in the late 1970s and early 80s. Although we have been kept in touch through mails, we have not seen each other for 27 years. Today we met them at Kent State Unviersity Airport that is close to their home in Hudson, Ohio. After giving both of them rides we drove to Cleveland to have lunch and tour lake front. It was a wonderful day spent together.

6-6-2009 Kent trip

Flying to Tampa for Cruise, 6-25-2009

To celebrate my son's completion of Internship we booked a four day cruise (that is how much time he has between internship and residency). While both our boys fly out of Indianapolis via commercial, we took fly our own plane to Tampa. The Peter O Knight airport at Tampa is right besides the ship channel. The linear distance from the airport to the cruise terminal is probably 1/4 mile. Of course, it is much further to take ground transportation through streets. The flight from Portsmouth, Ohio to Tampa, Florida is about 660 nm. It is an half day flight in an RV. We had enjoyable flight both ways and wonderful time with the family.

Fuel burn: 68 gallons, fuel cost: $3.8 per gallon, total fuel cost: $258. Used less than a quart of oil.
Parking: 3 days (one day waived for fule purchase), $15 x 3 = $45

6-25-2009 Cruise Vacation

July 4th Weekend Trip to New York City, 7-4-2009

After Tony Award, my wife want to see Billy Elliots, the Musical in NYC. I purchased two tickets and booked a hotel room in the theatre distract for July 4th. 32 years ago when my wife was a graduate student in NYC she saw the July 4th fireworks on FDR Drive. We plan to do it again this time. I was also planning to give another RV9A builder in the city some left seat time. Unfortunately he has to work the entire July 4th weekend. On the 5th we will tour the southern half of Manhattan. We did the Hudson River tour two years ago, this time we are planning to fly over Central Park and down East River. It should be fun. I found information from internet on how to do it (click here"). Afterward we will fly to Philadelphia to have lunch with our friend Ellie. If we have time, we may go to Doylstown to visit another friend before coming back to Portsmouth. We may have to dodge some thunderstorms down here but the rest of the trip should be good.

At the end we did see the show and met my sister's family in Manhattan for dinner. After dinner we walked a few blocks toward Hudson River (the website I read must be for last year, they changed from East River to Hudson for this year) to see the fireworks. On Sunday morning we flew around lower half of Manhattan to take photos. After the tour, we flew to Philly to visit our friend Ellie. After lunch and a short visit, we flew home. Although from Maryland the sky was dark and covered with overcast, the air was smooth and we got tailwind. We had a wonderful weekend.

7-4-2009 NY trip

Rainbow in the Sky, 7-19-2009

July 18 my son David turned 25. Wife and I flew to Indy to celebrate his birthday and I gave him some recurrent flight training. David got his private license when he was 19 while a graduate student at IU Med Center. In the past five years he went through medical school and internship and had very little time to fly. Now he is a Radiation Oncology resident, no more over night calls. He would like to fly more and may be pick up an IFR ticket. I promised him to let him fly (with me on the right seat) whenever we come to visit (a lot). This weekend we did a lot of local flying around west side of Indianapolis. Sunday afternoon before we depart Indy, a big storm arrived at the area. Blinding shower covered most of the city. The weather map and forecast showed that we still can VFR back to Portsmouth, Ohio. With XM weather onboard, I am a little less concerned. So, we drove to Eagle Creek Airport and wait for the rain to stop. A few minutes after we arrived at the airport the rain shower slowed down. We got the airplane ready and departed. On the radar and visually we saw rain activity around downtown and further northwest of the city. We flew between the two cells (yellow and green on radar). With the scattered storm the sky looks very interesting. Other than a few light chops, most of the way were as smooth as you can ask.

Half way home (Indiana/ Ohio border) we saw weak rain activities over northern part of Brookville Lake on radar. When we get close we saw the most beautiful rainbow. There were sunshine all around and patches of dark clouds. As we get closer I deviates a few degrees to the right so not fly directly into the rain. It seems the rainbow just followed us. 10 miles after we passed this rainbow we saw another one just in front of us. It looks almost like we were flying into it. Of course before we get too close it disappeared.

Later on the radar screen we saw red and yellow activities blocking our way. I flew around the bad weather. From the picture it looks very bad, but it was confined to one area and the flight was safe and smooth. Overall it was a wonderful weekend trip.
7-19-2009 back from Indy

Oshkosh 2009 Trip, 7-30-2009 to 8-2-2009

In four days we visited Oshkosh for one day, had lunch in Indianaplis, Minneapolis, dinners in Indianapolis, Maquon, and a round trip with my son to Fort Wayne. All these fun made possible by an airplane I built in my garage. I am too tired to write more for now. I will just post some of pictures we took on the trip. I may come back to write a little more later.

2009 Oshkosh and St Paul

Lee Bottom Sinful Sunday, 8-9-2009

I heard about Lee Bottom for a long time from a lot of tail dragger pilots. It is a private grass strip on the Ohio River near Hanover, Indiana (west of Cincinnati). Today is the last Sinful Sunday of the year (check out what sinful things they offer on this sunday from their website). We went after church and had a good time.

8-9-2009 Lee Bottom

Washington, D.C. Trip 8-20 to 8-23-2009

My wife had a medical conference in Washington, D.C. from 8-21-2009 to 8-23-2009. We flew our plane to Gaithersburg, MD. then took taxi and train in town. On Sunday we departed Gaithersburg at noon. Flew to Rostraver, PA (south of Pittsburgh) for their EAA corn roast. After visiting with old and new friends we flew back to Portsmouth. It was a wonderful trip again. We had done so much in such a short time. Here is a write up of the trip: DC Trip.

Weekend Flights: Crossfire's Flyin 8/29, and French Lick Trip 8/30

This weekend was supposed to be our second try to fly to Niagara Falls. I was going to lead Allan (RV-6A), Dave and Rick (RV-6) to Niagara Falls to meet Alfio (RV-9A) from Canada. The original date in July was canceled due to bad weather. Our new date 8/29 turned out to be bad again. After reschedule the trip to Sunday 8/30, I flew to John Furey's (Crossfire) flyin at his grass strip. This is the second time I attended this event and I am much better in landing at a short grass runway. As a matter of fact I turned off after less than a thousand feet. The bad weather just passed his area in the late morning and people began to arrive. We had RVs and a few other airplanes lineup half the runway length. It was a great fun to see old friends and meet new ones. I spent too much time talking and did not take too many pictures.

After I came home from the flyin, I received words from Dave and Alfio that weather out east (Niagara Falls and Ottawa) are not going to be good for Sunday neither. So, we canceled the trip again. I called Allan and of course he is disappointed. He really wanted to build up his cross country experience. Last time when the trip was canceled I flew with him to Lunken, Cincinnati to give him some "training". This time we decided to fly to French Lick, Indiana, then, Lexington, KY, Cythiana, KY, and back. I promise him that I will give him some practice to divert to another airport while en route to French Lick. Due to strong headwind, our flight to French Lick was low and slow. Before landing at French Lick airport we did an air tour of the towns of French Lick and West Baden. While on cross wind, airport manager called to ask whether we need a ride to the resort. On final I saw him working near VASI light mowing grass. What a responsible guy, he does not forget serving pilots even when he is mowing! A few minutes after we landed a new black SUV pulled in front of the new terminal building. We got a ride to the resort and learned a few things about the place. Since I have been there before and Allan had never heard about the place I gave him a guided tour of the place. We had lunch in the casino before taking the shuttle to the West Baden hotel. I guaranteed Allan that he would be impressed. Indeed he was impressed. The customer service lady at West Baden called the free shuttle for us to go back to the airport. We departed and climbed to 5,500' above the scattered cloud layer. Allan commented that it was like dancing with the clouds. We passed Louisville and soon approaching Lexington. The 157 kts ground speed shortened the trip significantly. Lexington is a class C airspace (so the practice for Allan). We called up approach and received a squawk code. 7 mile out, approach instructed us to fly south (80 degrees to the right) to avoid another inbound aircraft on extended final. Eventually we were cleared to turn inbound for runway 4. There was a RV-10 doing touch-and-goes and a regional jet or two following behind us to land. On the ground we asked to go to "Air 51", a new FBO that has a 2008 Porsche Boaster courtesy car. When we got there we read on the door that they have been ceased operation. I was there 3 months ago and it was new and all kinds of amenities. Now it is gone! We asked and was cleared to taxi to "TACAir" instead. On our way home we stopped by Cythiana for cheap fuel. Experimental pilot can not resist stopping by for cheap fuels! Cruising at 7,500' above the cloud layer I commented to Allan that this is the way to travel and he agreed. It is indeed a wonderful life.

Chicago Trip: 9-10 to 9-12 2009

Chicago is a city we love to visit. The skyline of the city is just magnificent. The park department really knows how to plant flowers. While we lived in Lafayette, Indiana we drove to downtown Chicago all the time. My wife had a two day conference. From KPMH to Chicago is just an easy two hour flight. I was planning to land at Midway as I did before. However since I still owe my old friend Sherman a ride, we flew into Bolingbrook, Clow International Airport. Clow International Airport is at International Parkway. Now you got an image of a large airport with a lot of runways and international flights. Not so fast, it has a single runway 3,363'x50'. With housing and business buildings surrounding the runway. I don't know enough history to know how is it called an International Airport. Anyway, we arrived at 6:30 pm before Sherman arrived. It took him 45 minutes to drive the 11 miles from his office to the airport. Road construction and traffic made bad combination. We are glad we live in a small town. When there are three cars in front of me at a light, it is "heavy traffic". After touring his house and had dinner we drove the 35 miles to downtown Chicago. On Friday while my wife was enjoying her meetings, I took my camera and new fisheye lens out shooting. I walked from the north end of Michigan Avenue to the former Meigs field and back. Along the way I took a lot of nice pictures. Here is a sample of my photo:

On Saturday morning I drove to Sherman's house in Aurora. Along the way fog became heavier and heavier. After picking up Sherman we drove to the airport. By 10:30 am, the fog has lifted. However, the sky is hazy. Midway is reporting MVFR. I aim between Midway and Gary and flew 1,800'. By the time we arrived at the Lake Michigan shore we had the most wonderful view (see below). A week prior, my friend Dave from Columbus, Ohio flew to Chicago and experienced similar view. After our photo session we came back to Clow International, having lunch, before driving to downtown to pick my wife up at 3:40pm. We left Clow at 5:00 pm and flew to Indianapolis to have dinner with our sons. What a wonderful live made possible by this little yellow airplane.

Trip to the West: 10/30 to 11/8

My wife has her annual convention in Chicago McCormick Place. The meeting begins on Saturday morning and she will stay until Tuesday morning and take the rest of the week off.Since Chicago is closer to the wild west than Portsmouth, Ohio. We decide to use the rest of the week to visit places we want to fly to for a long time. Here is our adventure:click here

Other Aerial Photos and Videos

 

Youtube videos: youtube

More of my pictures on Flickr (before 2007)
and Google (pictures taken after 2007).
Additional Videos with higher resolution.