Look Good, Fly Good!

We had so much fun with the black RV Nation t-shirts, we thought we would add to our collection by getting some white ones printed up and offering them for sale. They really look nice. If you are interested in sporting some cool gear and representing one of the fastest growing aviation communities in the world, please just click on this link, RV-Nation, and go to the Pilot Shop. You can order and pay right there. If you get one, please make sure and send me a pic of you sporting your new gear, and I will post it on my website at www.rv-nation.com and on the Facebook website as well. Thank you for your support, and keep that RV Grin out for all to see. :o)

-- Buzz --

Experimental Aircraft Fly-in Event Raises Money for Student Scholarships

RV Nation, based in Sherrills Ford, NC, is an organization comprised of experimental aircraft owners, builders, and enthusiasts from all over the world. It was created by Scott Brown, a South Charlotte Middle School math teacher and Science Olympiad coach, to revive the grass roots of flying as well as to generate aviation interest in today’s youth so as to preserve the sport of experimental flight for generations to come.

In his endeavor to increase young people’s interest in flight, Brown has developed programs designed to attract and engage students with the fields of Aviation and Aerospace. One of these programs is the RV Nation Aviation Scholarship Fund that provides scholarships to outstanding high school students wanting to further their post-secondary education in the fields of Aviation or Aerospace.

RV Nation hosted their first fly-in the weekend of November 6th at the Deerfield Resort, a beautiful flying community located in the Cumberland Mountains of LaFollette,Tennessee, on Norris Lake.

Attendees enjoyed the many Van’s Aircraft RV experimental aircraft (from which RV Nation takes its name) that flew in for the event from throughout the southeast, including places in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

Everyone enjoyed an outstanding smoked BBQ lunch while listening to “Shake Ragg”, a local up-
and-coming southern-rock and country band. The day was filled with great entertainment, aviation fun, food, and fellowship, all the while raising money and interest for the RV Nation Scholarship Program. When the day had ended, over $500 had been raised for student scholarships.

“It was our first fly-in”, said Brown, “and for the first one, I think we were very successful. The money raised from this event will all go towards our Aviation Scholarship Program. Needless to say, I am very excited about that”.

Brown and his wife, Dr. Tracy Brown, a child psychologist and university professor, are also in the process of developing summer camps designed for kids entering into the 6th, 7th, and the 8th grades. These camps are designed to focus on designing, building, creating, and testing, similar to events competed in for the North Carolina Science Olympiad. “We are excited to hold our camps this coming summer,” said Brown. “The camps are aligned with STEM directives and activities (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), and will be high energy and a lot of fun for all the campers.
The kids are going to have a blast!”

For more information, please contact Scott Brown at rvnation.scott@gmail.com.

Shake Ragg

Van's RV Nation - Join Us On Facebook

Love your Van's RV's? We do too! Join the fastest growing Van's RV enthusiast group on facebook. See the latest pictures from Fly-ins, chat with other RV pilots, builders, and enthusiasts, and join in the excitement of building or owning a Van's RV Aircraft. Here is the link to RV Nation. Hope to see you there!

--Buzz

RV Nation Fly-in

Article in the South Charlotte Weekly Newspaper

Flying High!

Posted by CarolinaWeekly on October 30, 2012 in Education | 0 Comment

Travis Brown and his dad, Scott Brown, a teacher at South Charlotte Middle School, are building their own airplane, inspiring Scott to help create interest in experimental aviation through his upcoming aviation magazine, “Plane Crazy.”

Scott Brown loves teaching math to his seventh-grade students at South Charlotte Middle School. It’s definitely a passion of his.
But being bound to a classroom wasn’t always his dream job. In fact, this is just his second year teaching middle school students – a much different perspective from the aerial view Brown had as a pilot for 16 years.

Now, Brown is combining his two professions to help encourage science, technology, engineering and math in the classroom while creating a larger interest in aviation worldwide.

Brown’s vision started with his son Travis, a 14 year old who lives in Catawba County, Brown’s home. With more than 30 years in the aviation industry and a love for experimental aviation – specifically designing and building planes – Brown was excited to find that his passion was rubbing off when Travis showed interest in experimental aviation himself, asking his dad for the opportunity to build a plane together.

“All of sudden, recently he said ‘Dad, I want to build an airplane.’ I was kind of floored,” Brown said. “I would never expect that from a 14-year-old boy.”

His son’s interest helped spark an idea to help bring back enthusiasm to experimental aviation, Brown said. That’s why he hopes to spread his passion through an aviation magazine called “Plane Crazy.” His idea comes after starting his blog, www.buzzbarnstormer.com, an avenue for Brown to share memorable stories through his aviation career. But after nearly 600,000 hits and interests from fellow experimental aviators, Brown saw a need for a different avenue.

“Most of the magazines out there right now when it comes to aviation all went corporate because that’s where all the money is at,” Brown said. “I understand that, but I’m not trying to make a lot of money from my magazine. I’m just doing it because I love doing it. I’m doing this just because I love flying and I really want to see kids get involved like what my son is doing.”

“Plane Crazy,” set to release in early 2013, is a grassroots magazine that will focus on the people who build experimental planes and will exist to promote interest in aviation to younger generations. Brown hopes the magazine will provide a platform for experimental enthusiasts to share ideas, strategies and tips about building. Brown says he has enough followers to produce 25,000 copies of the first quarterly magazine, to be distributed throughout the United States and Europe, plus select airports.

So far, Brown found his story ideas and topics by visiting fly-ins and airshows all over the East Coast, taking notes and pictures as he goes along.

“It’s really phenomenal stuff,” he said. “It seems aviation is kind of dying off.  I just want it to be fun again – get it back to grassroots aviation, like building and designing airplanes.

“I’ve got a bunch of friends all over the world that are wanting to contribute. I want the magazine to be about the people that are buying them. It doesn’t really mean too much until it’s about the people that are reading the thing.”

Brown and Travis are currently building a Van’s Aircraft RV-4, where Brown is teaching his son how to use the tools, read the plans and how to construct properly. So far, they’ve constructed the tail and are working to start the wings.

And since Travis was part of the inspiration, Brown says he’d like for his son to have a part in the magazine.

“I’ve sent articles about him building a plane,” Brown said, adding that most of the content has already been sent to local graphic designers. “When I told him he would be inside the magazine, he was really excited. I’d like for him to eventually have his own section. I think if I can get him to a place where he can write about building a plane in the magazine, he’ll be really excited because his words will be in print and he gets to work on his writing skills.”

In the meantime, Brown says he’s using the same principles that are involved in airplane building and design to help students at South Charlotte Middle. As the Science Olympiad coach, he says many of the building events for competition involve similar physics and mathematical concepts that are used in aviation, where he hopes to share his magazine with his
students.

Building A New RV4 Extended Baggage Compartment

After about a year of flying my RV4 and being frustrated that I couldn't carry anything in the baggage compartment for being too small, I decided to finally do something about it. I had heard that many builders had taken the rear baggage compartment bulkhead out and continued the baggage compartment back to the rear of the plane. So, this is what I set out to do.

There were many things to think about when making a change like this, the biggest of course it a weight and balance issue is created. I started thinking about when I travelled, what were the items that I could not fit into my RV? The heavier luggage I never had any difficulty with, because it always was stored in the larger bin area behind the rear seat. But once that area was full, things like pillows, sleeping bags, my 2 person tent, and extra pair of shoes, and things of that nature were the items that would not fit.

These items were not really heavy. If I were to place my pillow and the far aft of the plane, followed by my sleeping bag, then the tent, and all the other stuff being lose, more towards the front, that would put all light stuff in the rear of the plane and all heavier stuff towards the front. Hmmm, sounds like it could work. But the wise thing to do at this point, would be to calculate the weight and balance for the aircraft, and then calculate what the extended baggage compartment would do to the weight and balance. Then, if everything was ok, determine the limitations.

So, that is what was done. Here are the calculations with the added extended baggage compartment.

Notice for the ARM I used 165 for the extended baggage compartment. I used this number because there was no way all the weight of an item placed back there would be at the 170 mark. Therefore, moving the center of the possible furthest aft weight up to the 165 mark seemed more plausible. I used all weights at their maximum to see what it would do to my CG, and as you can tell, the CG still was at 73, well within limits. I very rarely, if ever, carried bags that weighed 50 pounds, and never in my life carried a pillow that weighed 15 pounds.

So, now that the numbers were acceptable, what about the construction of the extended baggage compartment? I removed the aft baggage compartment bulkhead. This provided access to the rear of the plane.

Some things to consider at this point were....1) I did not want to build anything that would hinder the operation of the control rods for the elevators, 2) I still wanted to have access to all moving parts in the rear of the plane for inspection purposes, 3) I did not want to hinder the static ports that were located above the longerons in the next bay back.

Taking all of these things into consideration, I proceeded to make a shelf out of aluminum sheet that was braced with stiffeners, the same way we stiffened the control surfaces like the rudder and the elevators.  This worked out nicely. Then I riveted a brace to the further aft bulkhead so that it would hold the new shelf in place. Fitting my body back into the baggage compartment was a real challenge, and on the more-times-than-not occasion that I squeezed myself back into that God forsaken hole, just to realize that I had forgotten a tool, I became very good at waiting for the next passer-by to hand me my tools.

I drilled holes into the longerons and bolted the sides of the extended baggage compartment to them, so that I could remove them later for inspections. Once everything was bolted in place, the last piece of the puzzle had to be installed. There was still a gaping hole at the rear bulkhead where baggage, shoes, or anything else I could have back there, could find its way to hinder the movement of the elevator control rod. I considered how I was going to close this area up for sometime, as climbing back into that abyss was not desirable, as well as resting my 200 pounds on that shelf would not be favorable as well. I decided upon a better route. I purchased a 3 inch piece of foam, and made a pillow out of it that who fit very snugly into place at the rear bulkhead. The pillow could not be pushed through the hole, as it was a firm foam. I put the same material on it as my seats, and decided to embroider my seat logo on it as well just to give it that personal touch. It worked like a charm and was super easy to install, requiring just a broom handle to push it into place.

Carpeting on the new shelf helped to dampen the noise coming from the back of the plane, and helped to make it more esthetic.

Here is a picture of the finished product for my extended baggage compartment.

My new extended baggage compartment turned out really nicely. With all the added space, I could easily carry a set of golf clubs (accept I don't golf), but more apres peau, I could carry my gas powered Go-ped scooter strapped in place, so that I had cool transportation when I arrived at my destination.

I hope that this helps you with building an extended baggage compartment in your plane, but I will also strongly advise that you calculate the weight and balance numbers on your plane first, as all experimental planes are different.

Happy building!

-- Buzz -- RV Nation