iflyvfr
Pattern Altitude
Another thread had me bummed about my home airport, no one there and hadn't met a soul in 8 months. Earlier in the summer a gentleman had caused an email to go out to all pilots on the field inviting them to his hangar. I was out of town but figured it was a bust as I heard nothing more.
Last night there was another cook out and I went. To my surprise, about 8 couples showed up! There we children running around and younger people as well. One young man took me to his hangar to show off the Excalibur he is building. Has a brand new Jabiru motor in a crate just waiting to go in.
The host is building an RV-12 he bought nearly finished and has a friend who built one already. We were all talking about how simple VANS has made the RV-12 to assemble when the hoped-for question came: would you like to see mine? Off we went to admire his finished beauty, painted in scarlet & gray for the Buckeyes of course. As he showed off his glass panel functions and knobology, he said, let's go for a quick flight. Yes!
I've never flown in any kind of RV anything but the two of us were climbing 1k / min at full gross. The responsiveness of the controls is amazing and the view is magnificent. That was my first ever venture into a homebuilt, and knowing that his RV-12 with autopilot will run circles around my stodgy 172 on 3 gals less per hour, have a nice autopilot with traffic, weather and engine management and be so much more FUN to fly, really makes that an attractive next/last airplane.
So, I got to add a 16th type to my list of planes I've flown, met some really nice pilots at my home field, and got to hang out with some new faces.
I had to shake my head at the goofy guy who is 1/5th owner in a C-206 that hasn't flown in 6+ months and has had thousands of dollars in exhaust and engine work done trying to chase an overheating cylinder. Who then proceeded to make fun of my friend and I for having the nerve to fly our smaller Cessna's all over the country.
Dude, I'm flying, you're sitting, STFU! 
To top off a great night I went out and practiced a couple of short-fields for my fly in to a 1650' strip this afternoon. Great night!
Last night there was another cook out and I went. To my surprise, about 8 couples showed up! There we children running around and younger people as well. One young man took me to his hangar to show off the Excalibur he is building. Has a brand new Jabiru motor in a crate just waiting to go in.
The host is building an RV-12 he bought nearly finished and has a friend who built one already. We were all talking about how simple VANS has made the RV-12 to assemble when the hoped-for question came: would you like to see mine? Off we went to admire his finished beauty, painted in scarlet & gray for the Buckeyes of course. As he showed off his glass panel functions and knobology, he said, let's go for a quick flight. Yes!
I've never flown in any kind of RV anything but the two of us were climbing 1k / min at full gross. The responsiveness of the controls is amazing and the view is magnificent. That was my first ever venture into a homebuilt, and knowing that his RV-12 with autopilot will run circles around my stodgy 172 on 3 gals less per hour, have a nice autopilot with traffic, weather and engine management and be so much more FUN to fly, really makes that an attractive next/last airplane.
So, I got to add a 16th type to my list of planes I've flown, met some really nice pilots at my home field, and got to hang out with some new faces.
I had to shake my head at the goofy guy who is 1/5th owner in a C-206 that hasn't flown in 6+ months and has had thousands of dollars in exhaust and engine work done trying to chase an overheating cylinder. Who then proceeded to make fun of my friend and I for having the nerve to fly our smaller Cessna's all over the country.
Dude, I'm flying, you're sitting, STFU! To top off a great night I went out and practiced a couple of short-fields for my fly in to a 1650' strip this afternoon. Great night!
![brian]](/community/data/avatars/m/21/21096.jpg?1456258959){kind=avatar}
