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Vince Frazier
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 132
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 Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:52 am Post subject: Rocket flying |
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<SNIP> I'm drilling holes and mounting ribs to my main spars. The
radio is playing. The sun beams innocently into my garage. The Diet
Coke is cool. But the work does go slowly and it has been quite awhile
since the Rocket Fly In at Bakersfield. It's not the boredom, I like to
build things -- it just takes awhile to get a Rocket to the point were
you sit in it, imagine and make noises.
Then, out of the blue, almost as an answer, a real life story appears
about a Rocket. The holes are going faster now. They look better. The
wings will be done more quickly. A fuselage and an engine mounted will
soon follow, more quickly than before. Paint will find its way to the
proper places more evenly and designs only before contemplated will
become reality. Noises will emanate, and soon, there will more
victims. Thanks. JBB <SNIP>
************************************************************************
*********************
Roket stories? OK, I've always got time for that.
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to fly from Evansville, IN (Hepler
airport) to Louisville,KY (Bowman field), about 96nm, with a friend,
John Crabtree, alongside in his RV-6. Both of us had passengers along
to share the fun. The RV left Hepler first and reported birds over the
end of the runway. That was enough excuse for me to make a max
performance takeoff.... just to get above the birds quickly. Well, I
don't know if there were any birds still down there or not since we were
climbing at a ridiculous angle after about a 400' roll. "Yeeehah"
doesn't really come very close to describing a Rocket launch on a cool
day, not even with full fuel and a pax. And let me tell you, a Rocket
takeoff solo, half tanks, on a cold day is an ear popping, pants wetting
ride. No kidding. It's just astounding. Even after 100 hours of flying
mine, I can't get over it.
The flight to Bowman took only about 35 minutes. The RV reported a
bumpy ride but the Rocket's higher wingloading just eats those up. It
does make a difference.
At Bowman, we met two other RVers, Greg Gruniger in his flashy RV-8
(what craftmanship!) and
Chuck Brietigam in his RV-3 (best RV-3 I've ever seen). Jim Stone
(Rocket builder, and a great craftsman) met us there also. We stuffed
ourselves with Bearno's pizza, then went flying. My pax got to ride
with Greg and I took Jim.
Jim and I broke off so that Jim could show me some of that Navy pilot
stuff. We did a few mild rolls, etc (limited only by my stomach.. LOL)
and some slow flight, etc. I spotted a Cessna about 1/2 mile away and
pointed out the target to Jim. Jim was all over the hapless victim in
less time than it takes to type this. I found out that the shortest
path to a nearby Cessna involves rolling, pulling and going upside down.
When I was brave enough to open my eyes again, Jim had us RIGHT on the
Cessna's tail. Woo hooo! Jim swooped past (at a safe distance) and
took us up and around the Cessna. I don't think that the Cessna pilot
ever saw us. He appeared to be busy with something on the panel.
(Eeck! Cessna pilots gotta look outside too, even if you're going slow.
Sheesh.)
I took over and made a passable landing at Clarke county airport. I
hope I didn't scare Jim too much. John and I swapped passengers again
and headed back towards Hepler. I had considerably difficulty keeping
the Rocket right side up on the way home. Rolls are so easy and smooth
in the Rocket that you almost can't keep from doing them.
Arriving at Hepler, John and I spied a Cherokee that is based there. I
keyed the mic and gave a little evil laugh. John knew what it meant and
said that the Rocket passed his RV-6 like a missile headed for the
Cherokee. I swooped past the Cherokee (flown by an RV-7 builder) at an
easy 100k faster than he was moving. I wonder if I'll ever get bored
with this? My wife just says "Boys." and rolls her eyes when hearing
about all of this goofing off. LOL. Who can argue?
Summary: 3 Rocket launches, 3 flights, 3 airports, 3 different
passengers, more pizza than I needed, 2 confirmed "kills", more upside
down time than I've ever had before, and all for a measely 17 gallons of
100LL.
Damn, I love that airplane.
Vince
| | - The Matronics Rocket-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
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_________________
Vince Frazier
3965 Caborn Road
Mount Vernon, IN 47620
812-464-1839 work
812-985-7309 home
F-1H Rocket, N540VF
http://vincesrocket.com/ |
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James Baldwin
Joined: 16 Jan 2006
Posts: 23
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:26 am Post subject: Rocket flying |
|
|
Thanks Vince. I'm still drilling. JBB
Frazier, Vincent A wrote:
| Quote: |
<SNIP> I'm drilling holes and mounting ribs to my main spars. The
radio is playing. The sun beams innocently into my garage. The Diet
Coke is cool. But the work does go slowly and it has been quite awhile
since the Rocket Fly In at Bakersfield. It's not the boredom, I like to
build things -- it just takes awhile to get a Rocket to the point were
you sit in it, imagine and make noises.
Then, out of the blue, almost as an answer, a real life story appears
about a Rocket. The holes are going faster now. They look better. The
wings will be done more quickly. A fuselage and an engine mounted will
soon follow, more quickly than before. Paint will find its way to the
proper places more evenly and designs only before contemplated will
become reality. Noises will emanate, and soon, there will more
victims. Thanks. JBB <SNIP>
************************************************************************
*********************
Roket stories? OK, I've always got time for that.
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to fly from Evansville, IN (Hepler
airport) to Louisville,KY (Bowman field), about 96nm, with a friend,
John Crabtree, alongside in his RV-6. Both of us had passengers along
to share the fun. The RV left Hepler first and reported birds over the
end of the runway. That was enough excuse for me to make a max
performance takeoff.... just to get above the birds quickly. Well, I
don't know if there were any birds still down there or not since we were
climbing at a ridiculous angle after about a 400' roll. "Yeeehah"
doesn't really come very close to describing a Rocket launch on a cool
day, not even with full fuel and a pax. And let me tell you, a Rocket
takeoff solo, half tanks, on a cold day is an ear popping, pants wetting
ride. No kidding. It's just astounding. Even after 100 hours of flying
mine, I can't get over it.
The flight to Bowman took only about 35 minutes. The RV reported a
bumpy ride but the Rocket's higher wingloading just eats those up. It
does make a difference.
At Bowman, we met two other RVers, Greg Gruniger in his flashy RV-8
(what craftmanship!) and
Chuck Brietigam in his RV-3 (best RV-3 I've ever seen). Jim Stone
(Rocket builder, and a great craftsman) met us there also. We stuffed
ourselves with Bearno's pizza, then went flying. My pax got to ride
with Greg and I took Jim.
Jim and I broke off so that Jim could show me some of that Navy pilot
stuff. We did a few mild rolls, etc (limited only by my stomach.. LOL)
and some slow flight, etc. I spotted a Cessna about 1/2 mile away and
pointed out the target to Jim. Jim was all over the hapless victim in
less time than it takes to type this. I found out that the shortest
path to a nearby Cessna involves rolling, pulling and going upside down.
When I was brave enough to open my eyes again, Jim had us RIGHT on the
Cessna's tail. Woo hooo! Jim swooped past (at a safe distance) and
took us up and around the Cessna. I don't think that the Cessna pilot
ever saw us. He appeared to be busy with something on the panel.
(Eeck! Cessna pilots gotta look outside too, even if you're going slow.
Sheesh.)
I took over and made a passable landing at Clarke county airport. I
hope I didn't scare Jim too much. John and I swapped passengers again
and headed back towards Hepler. I had considerably difficulty keeping
the Rocket right side up on the way home. Rolls are so easy and smooth
in the Rocket that you almost can't keep from doing them.
Arriving at Hepler, John and I spied a Cherokee that is based there. I
keyed the mic and gave a little evil laugh. John knew what it meant and
said that the Rocket passed his RV-6 like a missile headed for the
Cherokee. I swooped past the Cherokee (flown by an RV-7 builder) at an
easy 100k faster than he was moving. I wonder if I'll ever get bored
with this? My wife just says "Boys." and rolls her eyes when hearing
about all of this goofing off. LOL. Who can argue?
Summary: 3 Rocket launches, 3 flights, 3 airports, 3 different
passengers, more pizza than I needed, 2 confirmed "kills", more upside
down time than I've ever had before, and all for a measely 17 gallons of
100LL.
Damn, I love that airplane.
Vince
|
| | - The Matronics Rocket-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Rocket-List |
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