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Our RV–8 is painted in the colours of the RCAF Golden Hawks, who flew six Canadair Sabres as Canada’s national military formation aerobatic team from 1959 to 1964. Canada had no national military formation aerobatic team for three years after the Golden Hawks were disbanded in 1964. 1967 was the 100th anniversary of the creation of Canada, and the RCAF was tasked to perform flying demonstrations across the country. They decided to form a new team, the Golden Centennaires, flying 10 Canadair Tutors. They toured the country, along with two restored Avro 504Ks, a CF–101 and a CF–104.

Phil’s RV–9A is painted in Golden Centennaire colours.

Phil and I decided many months ago that it would be worthwhile to organize an air-to-air photo shoot of our two aircraft together. Easier said than done, as we needed Phil and I, plus a photographer, and a photo aircraft and pilot, and an experienced formation pilot to fly with Phil. All three aircraft had to be serviceable, all people had to be available at the same time, and the weather had to be good. It finally came together at the end of June - these images were taken by experienced aviation photographer Nick Wolochatiuk.

After taking the photos, Nick promptly went on vacation. Then another vacation. Then he forgot to mail the CD. Today, finally, the long awaited CD with the digital files arrived in the mail.

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The hot muggy weather we’ve been having for seemingly forever finally broke on Friday night as the first of two cold fronts came through. By Sunday AM it was much cooler and drier. I took advantage by taking one of Terry’s friends flying. We managed to find her father’s farm, and she experienced a loop and a roll, and got to fly the aircraft for awhile. She was very happy. Good flight.

I spent a bit of time today inspecting all the camping gear, to be sure it was ready to go for Oshkosh. Terry flew to Green Bay today to spend some time visiting her sisters. Weather permitting, I’ll fly the RV–8 to Wisconsin on Saturday, 27 July. We’ll spend Saturday night with one of her sistsrs, and early Sunday morning we’ll fly into Oshkosh and set up camp. I’m looking forward to meeting up with a bunch of friends.

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I took the day off Friday to do some pre-Oshkosh maintenance. I did a short flight to warm up the oil, then changed the oil and filter. I changed the upper spark plugs (automotive plugs fired by the LightSpeed electronic ignition), as other users reported degraded ignition performance if the plugs had more than 200 hours on them. Unlike aviation spark plugs, these automotive ones are very cheap (I got four new ones, plus one spare for less than $20), so changing them every 200 hours isn’t a financial hardship.

Then I did a full inspection of all the stuff ahead of the firewall.

The last thing I checked was the exhaust system, and I was very dismayed to find that the #3 exhaust pipe was cracked at the edge of the weld at the flange. Drat!

Those who have been keeping score will know that his is the third exhaust system crack in 250 hours of flying. Two years ago the #3 exhaust pipe failedas we were over top of North Bay airport, on our way back from Oshkosh. I sent the pipe back to Vetterman exhaust for repair. Last year, in early July, I discovered a significant crack at one of the Y joints further down on the exhaust. Now the #3 pipe has cracked again.

 

I removed the exhaust system, and pondered how to get it repaired. I didn’t have time to send it back to Vetterman Exhaust in South Dakota, and get it back here in time to make Oshkosh. I talked to one of the other pilots who was at the airport, and he suggested I talk to Peter Wright at Wright’s Welding in North Gower. Peter flies a nice Murphy Rebel that he built. I stopped by there on the way home, and Peter said that he could weld it, but given that I have had several previous cracks on this exhaust he doubted that it would be a permanent repair. But, it should get me to Oshkosh and back. I waited while the pipe was welded, then went home.

I’m not sure why my aircraft is having so many exhaust system issues. Maybe there is something strange about my exhaust that is making it more likely to crack. Or, maybe my engine vibrates more than most, or maybe there is some deficiency about the way I have the exhaust mounted. Or ?? I’ll talk to some experienced folks at Oshkosh to see if anyone has any useful ideas.

Saturday morning I reinstalled the exhaust system, then did a test flight. The engine was definitely running smoother at idle, probably due to the new spark plugs.

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Today was the annual COPA for Kids event at Smiths Falls. COPA for Kids provides free aircraft rides for children, to give them a taste for flying. I was lucky to grow up around aviation, but most children don’t get that chance.

Last year was the first year I had participated in this event, and it may have been the first year it was done in Smiths Falls. There weren’t very many kids last year, and there were several four seat aircraft involved, so I only had one passenger. This year there were many dozen children, so I was busy doing ride after ride. I took five enthusiastic passengers up before I was finished. Everyone seemed to enjoy their flight.

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I had a lightning fast trip to London, for one day of testing at London City airport. We (myself and a flight test engineer) flew over to London on Friday the 14th. Saturday we did a quick pass through central London. On Sunday, we drove to visit the Shuttleworth Collection (Wikipedia entry) at Old Warden Aerodrome. The Shuttleworth Collection has a large number of old aircraft, most of which are maintained in flying condition. They have five aircraft from before WWI, including the oldest airworthy aircraft in the world, a 1909 Bleriot XI, the type of aircraft that first flew across the English Channel. Sunday was one of their occasional flying days, when they display many of their aircraft to the public. It was great to see these aircraft in the air. I took quite a few pictures, but mine aren’t as good as those posted by “Private Custard” on Flickr.

Sunday evening we met up with the manufacturer’s flight test crew in a hotel near Stansted airport, to brief the testing planned for Monday. On Monday, the weather was much nicer than expected, so we flew down to London City for the testing. London City is an airport built on top of the old King George V Dock, on the Thames river, just east of central London. The approaches into London City airport are steeper than normal, to avoid the many buildings, and to decrease noise (most airports have approach angles of –3°, but London City uses –5.5°, almost twice as steep). The steeper approach angles require the aircraft to obtain a specific approval, and the purpose of this test phase was to conduct the final testing to determine whether this aircraft type could be approved to operate into London City.

We had booked four days for the required testing, but the weather was perfect on Monday, and we had excellent cooperation from Air Traffic Control and the London City airport staff, so we were able to complete all the planned testing in one day. Drat! I was really hoping this would take several days, so we had more time in the London area. Oh well.

The winds were out of the east, so we were flying right over central London when setting up for the approach. Here we are on base leg, with Big Ben, the British parliament buildings and the London Eye visible.

Here is the view from final approach on runway 09. You can see the Canary Wharf complex of tall buildings just right of the approach path, which is one of the reasons for the steeper than normal approach angle.

This is the view from short final of runway 09. The whole paved length of the runway is about 4,950 ft long, but the runway thresholds are displaced, leaving 4,327 ft as the published landing distance.

We got done earlier than expected, so we had to come home earlier than planned. It wasn’t possible to get flights back on Tuesday on short notice, so we flew home on Wednesday.

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I finally got airborne this morning, after almost two weeks on the ground. The weather has been pretty terrible, but today was a much appreciated warm, sunny day.

I took the opportunity to test the new Sony NEX–6 camera that I bought a few days ago. I’ve been wanting a better camera for many months, and finally pulled the trigger on this one. It takes absolutely gorgeous pictures. The four shots here are straight off the camera, with no adjustments at all.