April 18, 2021 - RV Mania at Essex Skypark
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Today was an eventful glorious day at the Skypark. We have two new RVs on the field. Mark B. flew his brand-spanking new RV-8 in last night from Oregon. It is loaded, with a beautiful metallic gloss paint job. Chuck B. brought back his new (used) RV-7A today from the Richmond area. Finally, Charlie G. passed not one, not two, but three flight exams today: Commercial (in the Stearman), Flight Instructor and Flight Instructor Instrument. On his 18th birthday!
Below, Mark's RV-8 spent the night in Chuck's hangar.
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Mark and his new bird. Now the fun begins!
Mark built it out in Oregon in a builder-assist program. The workmanship is beyond outstanding.
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| Charlie is quite an accomplished young man, having earned his Pilots Private, Instrument, Commercial, Flight Instructor and Flight Instructor Instrument, all before or on his 18th birthday. Not to mention he is proficient on multiple aircraft types: Cessna 172, Stearman, RV-8, RV-7, Decathelon, Champ, Archer and probably more. Bravo Zulu! |
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The pickup of Chuck's RV-7A turned into a social event. Mark B. flew down with me in his back seat. Chuck, Rich and Brian C.flew down in Rich's 172. Mugsy in his RV-8 even joined us in flight over the Rappahannock River. Mark and I spotted him ahead of us on ADS-B, we established comms and he quickly joined on us.
We were headed to Merlin Aerodrome, a grass strip airport community southwest of Richmond. I knew the seller, Matt T., and have been to Merlin Aerodrome a few times over the years.
Here Mugsy is off our wing. The flying weather couldn't have been much better: warm, mostly sunny with light winds.
Some of you may be asking yourself why I did not fly down in the RV-7. I would have, of course, but the plane is all torn apart for the annual conditional inspection plus the installation of a backup SD-8 allternator.
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Overhead Merlin Aerodrome.
A glider was over the field when we arrived. You can see the towplane right by our left trailing wingtip.
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| Safe on deck at Merlin. It has been quite some time since I have seen active glider operations at an airport. |
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| Parked at Merlin in front of Matt's house. |
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Matt briefing Chuck and Brian on the RV-7A. Left to right: Brian, Chuck, Matt.
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| Matt has a hangar to die for. Huge -- you could probably fit five RVs in here, the RV-7A and big RV-10 fit easily -- with the electric hangar door. Even a nice bathroom. |
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Why is Matt selling the RV-7A? Because he upgraded to this airworthy RV-10. Yes, it does need a paint job.
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| Rich and I checked out the RV-10 since we are building one. Speaking of which, we are on hold with the RV-10 project, having done as much as we could and now waiting for the Quickbuild Fuselage and Finish Kit, both ordered a year ago. The Chinese Flu has really disrupted the lead times on the Van's kits. |
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| With the rear seats removed, the RV-10 is incredibly spacious. |
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| Matt's house and hangar. Nice! |
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Merlin was bright green on this pleasant spring day.
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| Mark had to leave early in the RV-8 so I rode home with Rich in the 172. Chuck and Brian (an instructor and experienced RV pilot) flew back in the RV-7A. |
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Brian and Matt went for a short familiarization hop in the RV-7A.
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| Chuck and Brian taxi in. |
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| And there it is: the RV grin! Chuck will have a lot of fun in his new bird. |
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Chuck's RV-7A being pushed into its new home.
There are now seven RVs at Essex Skypark: an RV-7 (mine), RV-7A, two RV-8s, RV-4, two RV-12s. And an RV-10 under construction. Not bad considering there are only 35 or so planes at Essex Skypark.
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