Air Prayer

It’s finally come down to it, time to sell the RV-4. I swore that this would be my last airplane but my flying mission has changed. I really want to start getting into the old back country strips that I used to go to and the RV-4 just isn’t suitable for getting into some of the smaller and rougher ones. Plus now that it’s painted I would worry about chipping paint.

I am also feeling compelled to build a plane with my son. The next plane will be largely built by him with my supervision. So without any further ado…

For Sale

Asking Price: $55,000 or best offer

RV-4 N311SV
Serial No: 1054
Year built: 2002 (actually the year it was registered, took 5 years to build)
Engine: O320-D2A, TTSN: 288
Propeller: Catto 2 blade
Flaps: Manual
Trim: Electric
Avionics:
Rocky Mountain MicroMonitor
MicroAir 760 Comm Radio
MicroAir T2000 Transponder with blind encoder
Stereo intercom with music input
Standard ASI, VSI, ALT, Mag Compass

Photos:

The plane is all white. I will be adding vinyl graphics in the near future unless requested otherwise by buyer.

I need to clean up a few wires behind the panel. There is also one more air vent to mount just below the panel. Electrical switches are on a panel located below the right cockpit rail. Throttle, mixture, and carb heat controls are located on a quadrant just below the left cockpit rail. The instruments are: Left half of panel from top down, ELT, Intercom, Trim indicator, trim button, MicroMonitor, fuel gauge with selector switch directly below, MicroAir 760 Raido, T2000 Transponder. Right half of panel from top down, Alternator warn indicator and field breaker, Magnetic compass, ASI, blank, Altimeter, turn coordinator, blank, vertical speed indicator. At the far left is an air vent. The stick has a single push to talk button mounted on top.

Fuses are located in a hinged panel below the switch panel on the left. Note that the battery and fuel lines are normally covered. I had them off to clean the interior and forgot to put them back on for the picture.

I need to get a better shot of the interior. The interior is flat grey with two-tone grey upholstry. The roll bar is painted white.

A few more exterior shots follow:

If you would like to view higher resolution photos please visit my Picassa Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/svanarts/RV4N311SVForSale

The bottom line:

If you are looking for an Oshkosh award winner, this plane is NOT for you. If you a looking for an honest, fun flier, this plane may be for you. I’ve flown it to Oshkosh twice now and it has never let me down.

email: svanarts [at] yahoo [dot] com  if you have any questions.  Thanks for looking!

I got a call while I was on vacation that my RV-4 has been painted. I have no idea what it looks like. Well, that’s not true. It’s white. All white. But it will still look like a different plane when I go to pick it up. The plan is to fly over there on Saturday and spend the rest of the day putting it back together again. Then I need to repair my trim tab but then it’s back home with a shiny airplane. I’ll post pictures when I get it.

Day 2 was really our first day camping. We spent the night but really didn’t get to enjoy our surrounding until the next morning. The campground and it’s surroundings were beautiful. I woke up before everyone else (nothing unusual there) and started cooking pancakes and scrambled eggs. We got to enjoy our breakfast with stunning views in every direction.

We decided that we wouldn’t be able to see much with our dog along with us so we borded her at a local kennel and spent the rest of the day on the shuttle bus going up through the canyon.

One of the most stunning views was at the three patriarch’s overlook. Apparently a Methodist minister named the three highest peaks in the area after the three patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But by far our favorite spot was the weeping rock. It is a short uphill hike but the views are exquisite and the sound of the dripping water is so peacful and cool during the heat of the day.

Here is a view from under the overhang at Weeping Rock.

Some of the hanging gardens at Weeping Rock.

And one of my favorite shots.

After Weeping Rock we rode the shuttle up the canyon some more and did some exporing. I’ll leave you with some of my favorite pictures of the area.

On day 3 we moved from Watchman Campground in Zion National Park to Zion Camp RV Park located about one mile from the park. We decided to move so that we would have access to showers. By this time they were sorely needed. Most of this day was spent packing up our campsite, visiting at the visitor’s center while we waited for check-in time at the RV park, setting up camp at the RV park, and then having lunch. Since we were still sore from hiking on day 2, we decided to just clean up and hang around the camp site and enjoy a “down” day of doing nothing. We were treated to a beautiful sunset that evening as the sun turned the cliffs from red to golden.

My family and I just returned from a week at Zion Canyon in Utah. When you see pictures of national parks you can usually bet they’ve been doctored up a bit to enhance the beauty of the place. I was expecting the same of Zion. However, I was taken aback by the rugged beauty of the place. Those photos aren’t doctored folks, it really looks like that.

There isn’t a whole lot to write about Day 1 of the trip. We packed up the van the night before. I hitched up the mini-van to the trailer and parked it out front ready to go. We stumbled out and piled into the van at 4am and drove. And drove and drove. Before the trip I was a little concerned with how the van would tow the trailer. The trailer is a bit on the heavy side for our van but it turned out there was no need to worry. The van had plenty of power for all but the steepest hills. I was a little concerned with the wind but I was able to hang on and we eventually arrived.

We pulled into Watchman Campground in the park at around 4:30pm. I was beat, the kids were grumpy, and, well, I was pretty grumpy too. All that changed after the hustle and bustle of setting up the camper and transporting suitcases and pillows to the trailer. It was after we all sat down and just looked around us that we (even the kids) were awestruck by the beauty of the place.

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Thanks to the generosity and hospitality of the Hector family we got to enjoy a fun two days in beautiful surroundings with wonderful people. First off I’d like to thank the Hector family who had their water pump give up under the demand for water from all the invaders to their property, who had their septic tank over-run, who had their screen knocked out of their screen door, who had kids and toys, and cars and trailers and tents all over their property. Thanks to the Hector’s we all had a wonderful time.

The Hectors live up in what I would call the higher end of the Sierra foot hills. So for this flat-lander it’s always an adventure getting there. In previous years we slept in tents, this year we took the pop-up trailer we bought last Fall. I was a little nervous about pulling the trailer up to their property. The roads are narrow, the entry to their property is fairly steep and paved with gravel, and my trailer is close to the max towing weight for our mini-van. However, it turned out that all my worries were for nothing; the old Sienna pulled the trailer up the driveway just fine. I now know I can to that trailer *anywhere*.

Pop-Up row

The highlight of the camp-out is usually one of Dave’s famous bonfires. However, this has been a dry year so the fire captain in Dave (who incidentally REALLY IS a fire captain) decided not to have the bonfire. So instead he lit two smaller fires for the kids to cook their hot dogs and smores over. I elected to grill two buffalo burgers on my RVQ instead. We sang around the campfire for an hour or two and then sat and talked around the campfire until late into the evening. The older kids went down into the meadow and played capture the flag until late in the evening. It’s kind of a tradition.

Actually we did have one exciting event earlier in the day. Checkers went swimming. The picture says it all. The good news is that Checkers is very clean now.

My family retired to our PUP (camper) and fired up our portable heater. The kids and I were toasty warm all night but my wife said she still felt cold. I learned two things; one, the heater will have to be closer to my wife and two, I need to get the adapter that will let me run that heater off the propane bottle on the trailer. I went through two of the small propane bottles. However, all that aside my wife still loved sleeping in the PUP over the tent. She liked being able to change her clothes and prepare food in comfort.

The next day some folks went on hikes but I was content to hang around the house and talk with the other folks. I also got to play ball with Ginger, the most tireless yellow Lab in the foothills. Soon it was time to go so I folded up the PUP and we headed down the mountain. Thank you again to the Hectors for a wonderful two days!

Breakfast courtesy of the Hector family

The “Indian Head”

Who says you can’t pick your neighbors? Checkers and the sheep in the barn next door don’t snore too loudly.

Trail down to the meadow.

To see more photos of the Hector camp-out please see my online album: Hector Camp-Out 2008