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Yesterday all the pieces finally fell into place to bring the RV–1 into Canada. I thought we may be able to do this on Monday, but the tach cable broke while the aircraft was enroute to Nashua, NH Sunday afternoon, and it took until Wednesday to get the aircraft serviceable again.

Mark Richardson flew me to Bangor, ME in his beautiful RV–8, while Bob DiMeo was flying the RV–1 there too.

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My intercom was quite scratchy and broken when I did my COPA for Kids flight. We could communicate, and the radio transmisions and reception were fine, so I did the flight, but decided I wouldn’t fly any more kids until I found and fixed the problem. I took the aircraft back to the hangar, and started troubleshooting. I found some very puzzling symptoms.

From the pilot’s seat, if I spoke into the mic, the audio in my headset was very scratchy and broken. I tried the rear seat headset, and it was fine. I tried speaking into the rear mic while listening in the front headset, and it was fine. I tried speaking into the front mic which listening in the rear headset, and it was also fine. I then switched the two headsets between front and rear seats, and got exactly the same symptoms as before - i.e. the problem did not follow the headset, so I knew the headset was OK.

Completely baffled, I stopped for lunch. I discussed the issue with a couple of bright guys, and the best advice I got was it could be a panel jack grounded at the panel. Good idea.

After lunch, I checked out the panel jacks, but they seemed to be well isolated from the panel. I repeated the same tests I did before lunch, to confirm the symptoms were well understood, and I got exactly the same results. But, this time I noted that the problem only occured when the mic was very close to my lips. If I pulled the mic a bit back from my lips the audio was clean. I recalled that I had turned the front seat intercom volume up to max, as my passenger was very soft spoken. I turned the volume back to its usual position, and the problem went away. It seems that the intercom puts out enough audio signal to overpower the headset, if the intercom volume is at Max - only in the front seat. There must be enough loss in the longer wires going to the rear seat headset to avoid the issue.

I was very glad there wasn’t really a problem, but a bit frustrated that it took so long to come to that conclusion.

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Last weekend I spent some time with the O2 bottle mount. I installed the mount I built, but discovered that it put the hoses coming from the regulator too close to the forward baggage compartment door. It looked like the hoses would touch the door, so I decided I should modify the mount to angle lt the bottle differently. I made the mods to the mount today, and will try it again sometime soon.

Yesterday there was a COPA for Kids at Smiths Falls. I was one of the many pilots who volunteered, and I took a very nice young guy for a flight. There were a number of four seater aircraft, and one six seater flying, so we burned through the list of kids very quickly. By the time I got back there were no more kids to take.

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This page will be updated as the details of the RV–1 Canadian tour are sorted out.

At the moment, we hope to have four stops on the Canadian portion of the tour:

Date

Place

Notes

May 19 and May 20

Stanley, NS (CCW4)

Fly-In Breakfasts organized by Stanley Sport Aviation

May 22 to May 24 (one evening only)

Smiths Falls, ON

Low key event on which ever evening the RV-1 stops overnight on its way from Stanley, NS to Windsor, ON.

May 26 (rain date is May 27)

Windsor, ON (CYQG)

 

June 23

Langley, BC (CYNJ)

  

 

Update - 12 Mar 2012- The RV–1 is in Hartford, Connecticut now. Sunday it is scheduled to fly to an event atFulton County Airport,Johnstown, NY, then be ferried toNashua, NH. On Monday, May 14th (or the first good weather day after that) it will be ferried toBangor, ME, where I will pick it up and sneak it across the border to St. Stephen, NB to hand it off to Ross K., and Don B., two NB RV owners.

 

Weather permitting, Ross and Don will fly the RV–1 to Fly-In Breakfasts at Stanley, NS on 19 May and 20 May.

Update - 19 Mar 2012 - The RV–1 is in Stanley, NS now, for day 1 of the Victoria Day weekend Fly-In Breakfasts at Stanley. There may be a local RV gather at Sussex, NB to view the RV-1 Sunday afternoon.

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I wrote an article about the RV–1 that was published in the May 2012 edition of the COPA Flight newspaper. This article has at least one error - it says that at least two other RV-1s were completed. In fact, as far as Van knows, only one other RV-1 ever flew.

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The RV–1 has been making its way up the east coast of the US. There were a few early maintenance glitches, but they were resolved thanks to some excellent troubleshooting from local RVers. I think only one planned event has been missed due to aircraft snags.

Van has had a chance to fly it the RV–1 again, for the first time in 50 years or so when the aircraft was at Spruce Creek, FL.

 

There has been some juggling of responsibilities. The original plan had the NE US RVers bringing the aircraft across the NB border and handing it off to Ross K. and Don B., two NB RVers. They would take the aircraft to Stanley, NS for the Victoria Day weekend Fly-In Breakfasts. I would ferry the aircraft from NB to the Ottawa area during the week of 21 May.

That plan fell apart when the US RVers couldn’t find anyone willing to bring the aircraft across the border. So, to ensure the eastern Canada events still go on, I will take over the responsibility to fly the aircraft from SE Maine to NB during the week of 14 May. Ross K. and Don B. will ferry the aircraft to the Ottawa area during the week of 21 May.

The main Canadian events of Stanley, NS on 19–20 May, Windsor, ON on 26 May and Langley, BC on 23 June are still on track. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.