RivetBangers.com

1st SOLO
Mustang II
4/26/07
PVF
David Haley




Aeronca Champ 4 hrs. 18 landings
Luscombe 150 1 hr. 4 landings
Mustang II 16.6 hrs. 62 landings
1st Solo 4/26/07

I guess that makes me a tailwheel man.

[EDIT by Spike: Included the picture direclty into the post]

back!

And welcome to the tail wheel fold.

Congrats!

CJ

Way cool. Congrats!!!

WOOHOO!!! Congratulation David!

- Peter

Way to go David! We have a beautiful Mustang II in our chapter. It is owned by Tom Meeker and is named My Patience. I think that is a very appropriate name for a homebuilt airplane. Tom did a great job on it.

Enjoy it and post some more photos when you get them!

Congrats David, that is one slick plane. A local builder here is making one from plans and was just showing me the drawings a few days ago.

Thanks Guys.

I'm having a great time but it makes me start to sweat every time I think about flying this thing. Thursday night after my first solo I only slept about 1 hour, my adrenaline was so high. I went out Friday dead tired but managed to solo at 2 other airports. I couldn't seem to get the landing down at Jackson with it's uphill runway. The beauty of these "fighter" like experimentals is that if you get into any kind of trouble on a landing you have plenty of power to go around. It only takes about 1-2 seconds with the throttle to the wall to start flying again.

Friday we were practicing emergency procedures down to 150 ft. and I only managed to "kill" us 1 time in simulated power out. When you are playing this game you don't really think that it could ever really happen to you. Little did I know that after climb out in Lincoln headed back to Placerville, at about 3000ft. We got a loud rattle and vibration under the cowl. Hal took over and we 121.5 'ed Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! engine failing. Tracor at Mather picked us up on Radar and contacted Auburn ahead of us to clear an emergency landing. We turned toward Auburn and landed straight in on 07. After landing we discovered that I had lost the exhaust stack on #1 and it had completely departed the cowl. It had broken off right at the flange and the rear support had failed. (I told you I have bounced this thing a couple of time havent' I) I watched the news and it appears the exhaust didn't hit anything important and so my first bombing mission is a success, no civilian casualties.

Too much excitement. I think I am going to have to go back to sitting by the river and playing checkers for entertainment.

Welcome to the world of experimental aviation.

That actually happened to me in my Champ. The engine sounded REALLY loud all of a sudden so I headed back to Oakdale. When I got there I had the mechanic check the engine out. After a brief inspection he noted that my exhaust stack had departed just below the weld in the Y. The loud noise was the exhaust pulses hitting my metal cowling.

At least you didn't have to fill any paperwork out when you landed. My instructor and I declared an emergency over Sacramento and Approach cleared us to land at McClellan AFB. Back when it was active. LOTS of paperwork to do when we got down.

WOW!! Great report, and glad everything was okay (all things considered)!

You just never know...

A note on the T-18...I have a set of plans coming my way, and if I ever get the RV done, the plan is to build a T-18 (even SLLLLOOOOOWWWWEEEER) to fly the hours off and sell it.

Hopefully I didn't burn a valve or something.

It takes so much work to build an airplane. I have realized just how much after months of work just "cleaning up" on the Mustang. I had to get flying. There was one big factor in the decision process. We are expecting parents.


Maybe I'll get to building in a couple of years. Wish me luck.

I think I still qualify as a rivetbanger as I replaced all the trailing edge rivets on the horizontal stab of the Mustang (Smokin') and put nut-plates on the cowl.

Fixed the exhaust, secured it better, compression in the 70's all cylinders, so I went flying today for 2.5 hours, 6 airports 11 landings. Made it down to Caleveras Co. Airport (I'm headed your way Scott!) 25 at Auburn with it's downhill landing can be tricky, but a good intro to Mountain flying.

I bought a 296 Garmin and my airspeed indicator is off. I'm getting 140mph at 2400rpm. 1500fpm climb (2000fpm only when you race down the runway before pull up, my instructors trick) She stalls at about 75mph and pretty hard. I have taped some stall strips on the leading edge and am getting some buffet now, and the wings are breaking more level.

Flying this thing is not as bad as everyone said, the hardest part was getting past the nay-sayers because you have no experience and you tend to believe everything people say. I'm having a hoot.

Done.

And actually anyone can get a gallery as long as its for rv related purposes.

Spike