Hot Springs Fly-in

Earlier in September(10-12) we went to a fly-in at Hot Springs, SD. The fly-in was for the type of airplane I am building. About 120 people and 54 airplanes showed up. I had a lot of fun just looking at the airplanes and talking to the builders. The highlight of the trip was getting to ride in, and fly the same model airplane I am working on (an RV-9).

We flew over Mount Rushmore on the way to Hot Springs,


The Bearhawk,

Here is the RV-9 that I got to fly,

Some of the RV's


An RV-8 (Borrowed Horse)


A nice RV-10,


Dad admiring another nice RV-10,


A row of airplanes waiting for fuel,


A nice RV-6,


A funny shirt,


A map of where everyone came from,


The Bearhawk sticking out like a sore thumb,


On our way back we flew over Crazy Horse,


And Devils Tower,


We also flew over the Medicine Rocks,

RV-9 Part 2

Well, as promised, here are some pictures of what was in the boxes. I had to inventory all the parts to make sure I had everything.

This is the big wing box:


And here is what was in it:


Here is a picture of one of the wings:


Earlier I said the two smaller boxes contained the fuselage kit, but I was wrong. The fuselage kit was in one of the smaller boxes and parts for the wing were in the other. Here is a picture of the rest of the the wing parts:


And here are most of the contents on the table:


You can see the flaps on the left side of the table, the ailerons to the left, the wingtips on the far side, and various parts strung all over the place.


Here is the fuselage box:


And here are the parts that were in it:


Some more parts. It's amazing how much stuff can fit into one box:


You might have noticed that there was a lot of paper in the boxes. Here is a picture of where the paper went:


DJ

RV-9 Part I

Yesterday was a big day for me(DJ). My wing and fuselage kit for my airplane arrived!

Here is the truck it came in:


And here I am standing next to the boxes. The wing kit is the one on the left and the fuselage kit is in the two boxes on the right,


Okay, now for those who didn't know I was building an airplane, I'll explain a little, well maybe a lot. I have always liked flying with Dad and decided I wanted to build an RV-9. Now, Dad has an airplane (actually two), but I still wanted to build an airplane that was faster and more economical. So a few years ago I bought a tail kit for an RV-9, a fast two-place all aluminum low wing airplane made by Van's Aircraft. You can find more about the RV-9 here. There are four different kits, the empennage(tail), wing, fuselage, and finishing (canopy, landing gear, etc). I started working on it last winter and finished the horizontal and vertical stabilizer. I am working on the rudder now and was hoping to have it finished by now, but with the warm weather, we had to do more outside than normal. I still have to finish the elevators as well. A few months ago I ordered the wing and fuselage and they got here yesterday, as you already saw. I got the quick build kit for the wing which means the wing has been nearly finished. The fuselage is a standard build, which means when I open the box it will just be a bunch of aluminum parts with prepunched holes in them. Well I think I've described enough so on to some more pictures. If you want to find out more(like you would) you can look at the link I supplied.

Here is a picture of the horizontal stabilizer:


Here is a picture of the vertical stabilizer:


Here is a picture of what it will look like when I finish it:


I haven't opened the boxes yet, but when I do, I'll post some more pictures. Stay tuned for RV-9 Part II!