The new plane factory is getting closer to reality. The closing date has been set for March 26th.

I’m hoping to have everything set back up and the kit out of storage by early to mid May.

I can’t wait to get started back up again.

Sorry there hasn’t been any plane building news lately.

We are getting settled into our rental. Our hew house started to be built today. They are pouring the foundation.

Maybe the house will be done in Feb. and my baby plane can be moved out of storage and into its new maturation site sometime shortly after that.

We’ve made it to Illinois and are moved into our rental until the new house is built.

Haven’t been down to storage to see if the kit is doing ok yet. I’m sure that if I see it sitting there, I’ll just be disappointed that I am now close to it, but still can’t resume yet.

I’ll have to see if I can do some little tasks while we are in the rental just to keep myself sane.

We’ve sold the house here in Arizona and will most likely be moving back to Illinois the weekend of Oct. 21st.

It will be good to finally be there, but the kit will have to stay in storage until we actually get moved into the new house sometime early 2007. :(

I might be able to accomplish some small tasks in our rental property until then, but not sure. Going a little stir crazy knowing nothing is getting done right now.

Completed and was signed off for my BFR a couple days ago. It took longer than normal since I hadn’t flown in so long.

As mentioned before, not building right now, so might as well get some flying in. I plan on getting my IFR ticket if time allows before we get moved.

It just feels good to be flying again. Take the bad with the good. Good to be flying, bad to not be building for a while.

I updated the software that runs this site. The theme is different for now. The old theme would not work with the newer version. Let me know if there’s anything that is not working for you by commenting below.

Recently I’ve been having withdrawal symptoms with the kit being in llinois and me still in Arizona. I decided to do some flying during my building downtime. I looked at my logbook and realized it had been five years since I’ve flown. I had no idea it had been that long. I’ve kept my medical up to date during that time, but I’m sure my “skills” have deteriorated.

Yesterday I finally got back in the left seat. Flew a 172SP for an hour and a half to shake out the cobwebs. I think I need a couple more hours to feel comfortable again before I do a BFR (Biennial Flight Review) with my instructor.

The fun part about the flight was that this particular plane had the G1000 panel. I’ve never flown behind an EFIS system. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to feel comfortable with the screen layout. It was very easy to scan the airspeed and altitude tapes overlaid on the horizon. The one thing I was not comfortable with was all the other systems and their operation. All the various buttons and knobs used for comms, navs, changing views, etc. That will all come in time though. The instructor handled all the comms for this flight so I could concentrate on getting back into flying.

I am planning on having a glass panel of some sort in the RV-10, so it is good that I’m learning to fly behind one. Garmin offers an experimental version of the G1000 as the G900X , but I have a feeling that will be too expensive for my budget. But, who knows.

I am thinking of using the building downtime to get my IFR ticket. Cheaper insurance and more time built up before needing to find insurance for the RV-10. That will suck some of the money I’m saving to get the fuselage kit, but I can live with that so long as I’m doing something other than sitting here waiting to move back to Illinois.

The plane has been moved to storage in Illinois. Long trip, but glad it’s done. Obviously won’t be making any progress until we are moved back there.

Only good thing is that I can now park my truck in the garage again.

One more thing. If you need a truck rental, use Budget instead of U-Haul. U-Haul sucks. You can read why here on my personal blog.

Taking advantage of the long weekend coming up over the 4th of July, I decided to move the kit back to Illinois while I had the chance.

Rented a UHaul, got storage reserved back there and got a plane ticket for the trip back here to Phoenix.

I was trying to decide if I should do it this early in the move process (house not sold yet), but the day job is preventng me from getting any building time lately, so I figured I’d get it out of the way.

Looks like there will be no more building for me until at least late fall. Oh well. It will give me more time to save up for the fuselage kit.

Therese and I were in Chicago last weekend. We had to visit the Ryland Design Center and pick everything out for the new house in Crystal Lake, IL.

While we were there, I took the opportunity to visit Poplar Grove Airport and get a hanger tour from Steve Thomas, the Manager. Poplar Grove is an extremely builder-friendly airport. I like the environment. The only thing I am wary about is the rental t-hangers are not insulated. I have a feeling that it would be mighty cold and drafty during the winter months.

I haven’t decided yet if I will rent one right away and use it for storage. I would like to get the tail and wings moved back there before we actually move, but I may just rent storage space back there for that purpose until I really need a hanger. Since we’ll have a three car garage and a full basement, I may not actually need a hanger until the wings need to go on. The only risk I take is the possibility that no rental hangers will be available when I need one.

It’s looking more like late in the year before the house will be done, so after the wings are complete in a couple months, I’ll be stuck with nothing to do until we get settled in back there. I don’t want to order the fuselage until after we are moved. Oh well, may be a few month of down-time.