Launching from the Chris Anderson Landing we began a pleasant paddle excursion downriver. This section traverses the Waccamaw River Heritage Preserve so it is undeveloped wilderness.
Kayaking the Waccamaw at NC 904
We slipped into a quiet cove to nose around and here I am parked between the Cypress. Prime fall color from these. S’ man and I tried to return to this cove after the weekend but even after such a short time it had become landlocked.
Lots to explore on this river that is 140 miles in length from its North Carolina lake origin to discharge in South Carolina. This river section sampling goes through Pireway Game Land. Antlerless deer season and distant rifle fire sounded reminding us that we were some distance from city life.
Rice Creek at Winnabow, NC
We saw the animal descending out of the tree in moment of hurry. He crashed through the watery bog as he made his get away. He could have stayed put, silent while we paddled by and we’d have never known.
About that startled Black Bear… NC Wildlife Resources Commission: “Black bears are commonly seen in Brunswick County, especially during the summer months. This is because bear cubs are often sent away by their mothers to explore,” source another source bear facts and yet another source
The “creek” was very flooded still from the recent rains. We witnessed pumping which seemed rather futile. Mother nature will have its own way.
Keeping Things Straight
The RV-14 rudder requires a fair amount of precision. Its surface controls aircraft yaw and as an aerodynamic foil it must also be slippery (low drag) as it moves through the air upwards of 200 MPH. The feature to get right, is the trailing edge (TE) which slims to a pointed ending. It must be straight and true without twist.
Observe the underlying aluminum angle bar fixed to the workbench in the photo. While the bench itself is quite flat, the aluminum straight edge clamped to the TE will minimize any pucker or wave tendency in the skin. The skin is quite thin (0.016″) and needs the support. A preformed wedge is sandwiched between the right and left skins as you can just make out inside the TE of the rudder (lying on side).
The TE wedge is machined so that its rivet thru holes are angled properly. They are matched drilled 90 degrees with reference to the chord of the wedge. The holes are also machine counter sunk so that the dimpled skin will lie within for an interference fit that also allows the skin to lie flush upon them.
An adhesive seal provides a bond between skin and wedge. Once the sealant cures the cleco clamps can be removed and the sandwich permanently fixed in place by riveting. With this effort the structure will be robust and provide good handling characteristic without adverse yaw or drag whilst cleaving the sky. Straight and true.
Continued VFR
Fraught with the risk, a scud running pilot conducting a flight that started out under VFR may blunder into IMC conditions. The outcome is known as and described by the catchphrase continued VFR.
In a foray to get across the Sierra my hope was to have a “look-and-see” as it was obvious from official reports as well as my observation on the ground from the flat valley floor that mountain tops were likely to be obscured. My plan was to depart and follow the North Fork of the San Joaquin which would traverse the range and lead to the Mammoth Pass. At 9,300 ft. elevation this is the lowest point at the ridge for over 250 miles. I’d crossed there many times during routine visits to the MMH airport so I knew it visually. But today it wasn’t visible from start. I launched pretending that there’d be a break in the clouds as a possibility.
There’s the option to fly VFR over-the-top [of the clouds] but this assumes the there will be a clearing or at least a hole to descend through at point B. My Centurion P210N, while very capable altitude performance wise was ill-equipped for an in-cloud icing conditions encounter so I elected to stay underneath the deck.
Barreling up the North Fork canyon it was apparent that the cloud ceiling was solid. However, I still met separation criteria from both cloud and terrain so I pressed onward. Emotional stress began to factor in. The hope for a light at the end of the tunnel was not assured and further the undercast was a grey mass. In fact, to the left and the right was plenty gloomy with the canyon walls merging with cloud. I routinely swung my vision to assess. The Centurion has a back window and this scan included looking behind to verify that my completed route was still re-traceable. I found myself becoming increasingly concerned, not so much with what was ahead, but what was behind. I was relying upon a 180 degree turn route escape. That backup was becoming less assured as I pressed forward.
Canyon flying presents the peril of getting boxed in meaning U-turn collision with canyon wall. Further, that lovely diminishing tight circle of clear daylight aft was becoming quite small. Maintaining visual with the mountainous terrain was crucial and going IMC at this juncture could not be good at all. The grey tunnel surround was bleak.
I learned about flying from this. The trap of continued VFR was raring to bite. Finding relief and dumping the anxiety, I aborted and turned back.
If you don’t like the mountain weather – wait a few minutes (hyperbole). I returned to base for re-fuel and flew an alternate mission plan. All the wiser, this was the safe course and a successful outcome. Discounting expectation bias will help a pilot to avoid a continued VFR pitfall.
Vertical Stabilizer Finale
The VS has been completed. A buck (tungsten bar) in the one hand and a pneumatic gun in the other, fixed skin to skeletal structure. Rivets were placed one by one in the dozens of holes perfectly aligned and previously held fast by temporary cleco fasteners. The gun placed against the manufactured head and the bar against the shop head formed the rivet making each one fast.
Vertical Stabilizer mock up
Inner skeletal structure
Once encapsulated by (0.032) 2024-T3 sheet aluminum the vertical stabilizer will be quite robust. The spars and interconnecting ribs enhance rigidity while retaining light weight. The outer skin will tie it all together. The spars are of the same material spec as the skin. To add backbone i.e. rigidity extra material is strategically employed. This doubler material is of greater thickness (0.125″). You will observe the large diameter holes in the doubler; they are for weight reduction.
Pre-Punched – In the kit manufacturing process the vendor enhances the product by machine piercing the rivet holes. The machine has a much more precise tolerance than any amateur in their positioning. In this application they are slightly undersize at 1/8″ (0.125)
Doubler – A small piece of plate attached to a larger area of plate that requires strengthening in that location
As described in the video clip the manufactured holes must be enlarged from 0.125 to final size 0.1285 in a process called finish drilling. I use a #30 reamer for this purpose.
A reamer is a rotary cutting tool that is used to enlarge and finish holes that have been drilled, bored, or cored. Reamers are designed to center themselves in an existing hole, which results in a rounder hole and with fewer burrs.
Thanks to the precision of the pre-punched holes everything generally will line up for excellent fitment. When alignment is crucial a process called match drilling is employed. A piece that already has pre-punched hole(s) is used to center an underlying piece which does not. The former acts as a guide for the drill bit once the two are mated.
RV-14 Amateur Build
Not without challenges and learning curve, the video for brevity has been somewhat polished. Behind scene lots of investigation, a little practice, and study has occurred. This is the beginning of an amateur build of an experimental (E/AB) Van’s Aircraft.
EAB –Experimental Amateur-built is an aircraft built by an non-paid individual and certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as “Experimental“. Colloquially known as home-built aircraft and kit-plane, they are typically constructed with acquired tools, a set of plans and parts from kit plane manufacturers. E/AB aircraft make up nearly 10% of the U.S. general aviation fleet.
Van’s Aircraft having a solid reputation as a kit provider will be shipping airplane parts from the West coast over a multi-year span for the duration of this project. A first sub-kit has already arrived. The end result when completed will be the RV-14 model.
The Empennage (first sub-kit) includes the tail cone (fuselage aft structure) and the airfoils affixed thereto:
- Vertical stabilizer (VS) and attached rudder
- Horizontal stabilizer (HS) and attached elevators)
Wings, fuselage, firewall forward, engine/prop, finishing, and avionics will follow in progression. There will be ups and downs (idiom and pun) and lots to learn. The experience (06-02) begins!
WFU
Not an acronym for an off-putting phrase, in FAA lingo it means withdrawn from use. Occasionally, I run across an early days airframe that I used to fly. These machines may have reached the end-of-the line due to age, component wear limit, abuse or neglect but in some cases, with extra care and good fortune, they might be operationally airworthy and still going.
This green job is still flying the airways. I have stick time in this one only when early on in my career it was liveried in United colors, a 15 seat EMB110P1 N102EB one of a fleet operated by Westair Commuter in California. Re-numbered TG-JCO you’ll note is not a USA registered tail but a Honduran one. We’ve both moved on.
There are significant others that I have tracked down from my office desk: N3053W LJ-613 a Beech King Air that I flew in the 1980’s now operating in South Africa; another King Air N511D LJ-951 operating as PT-OZJ in Brazil. The tail numbers and paint schemes change so if one happened to be physically within eye sight you’d never know it. A useful resource for tracing aircraft is a Dutch website with a database that can reference by registration number or C/N (construction number).
As there are many photographer aviation plane spotters worldwide actively capturing and identifying aircraft and location; it is usually easy to find any particular bird while stalking my Exes with a simple search. Some camera toting enthusiasts even venture into the graveyard.
Sad and at the same time artistic as they return to earth, this boneyard in Bates City, MO turns up dozens of old relics that have many flight hours logged and recorded in my own pilot log book. Pictured is N616KC c/n 110238 “retired” in 1991. There is a DNA resemblance to the green one above. They are of the same fleet type but this one has been stripped for parts.
Not all have been put out-to-pasture. Tragically, a number have been damaged beyond repair — written off. This is a euphemistic way of implying Crashed.
THE LAST RADIO CALL MADE BY THE PLT WAS AT 0658 EST WHEN HE REPORTED LEVEL AT 8000 FT. RADAR DATA AT 0708 EST, SHOWED THE ACFT CHANGING HEADING FROM 327 TO 335 DEGREES, ALT DECREASED FROM 8000 TO 5000 FT AND GROUND SPEED INCREASED FROM 179 TO 188 KTS. COMMUNICATION WITH THE ACFT COULD NOT BE ESTABLISHED AT THIS TIME. RADAR COVERAGE WAS LOST 5 MILES WNW OF SAYRE INTERSECTION. THE ACFT CONTINUED ITS DESCENT COLLIDING WITH POWER LINES FOLLOWED BY THE GROUND. INVESTIGATION DID NOT REVEAL ANY MECHANICAL FAILURES AND/OR MALFUNCTIONS.
That was N806Q a Beechcraft 58 Baron that I flew during happier times and I am sorry to learn of its demise in a morbid way. I logged 523 flights in it. Her sister, N807Q, another bad ending with occupant fatalities.
On a much happier note: N4702X a 1966 year model Cessna 150G still flying!
I had my first flight and solo in N4702X c/n 15064752 [photo credit: SBJ over Watsonville, California]. It still wears the original paint color scheme from memory. At the time (1975) it was part of a small flying club at a small airport in Fresno and this is where it all began.
ZHA Visualization
This visualization of a home automation shows a mesh network of smart switches, smart plugs, and sensors.
The rectangle object in the diagram identifies a Zigbee Coordinator (radio adapter) which is the go-between for the automation hub. Sensor end devices (circular object) that are within close proximity can signal back to the Coordinator directly. Data is transmitted using a low power RF so signal strength is a factor. Happily, since this is a mesh network, the more distant end devices can chain relay through smart devices (oblong object) which relay amplify to the Coordinator like a router.
