Showing posts with label Van's RV Nation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Van's RV Nation. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
NEW RV-Nation 2013 RV Calendar
Get your new RV-Nation 2013 RV Calendar now! Date spread is from March 2013 to February 2014. This is one of the best RV calendars you have seen. Click below to order yours now!
Saturday, November 10, 2012
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.
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.
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| 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
--Buzz
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| RV Nation Fly-in |
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Article in the South Charlotte Weekly Newspaper
Flying High!
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.
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.
students.
Monday, October 29, 2012
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
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.
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
Sunday, October 28, 2012
RV8, Luca Style!
Here is a new video from my friend Luca Perazzolli in Italy. Really awesome flying! By the way, Luca won the First Place in the Experimental Aircraft catagory in Italy for his work on his RV8! Congrats to Luca! This video is really good, and set to some great scenery and music. Just click on his picture. Hope you enjoy!
-- Buzz
RV Nation
-- Buzz
RV Nation
RV Nation T-Shirt Sightings!!
The RV Nation t-shirts are selling all over the world, and fellow RVers are proudly displaying them in front of their beautiful RVs. Send me a pic of you with your RV Nation t-shirt on in front of your RV, or anywhere else for that matter, and I will post it here on Buzz Barnstormers, as well as on Van's RV Nation on facebook! Here are some of the pictures that have been sent it, arriving from places as far as Italy, to as close as North Carolina! Hope to see your pic up here soon!
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Join RV-Nation, The Fastest Growing Van's RV Organization
RV-Nation is an organization of Van's Aircraft RV and Harmon Rocket enthusiasts. Our mission is to grow experimental aviation by educating our youth about experimental aircraft, and to provide the means to further aviation and aerospace education for outstanding students. Funds raised by RV-Nation through merchandise sales, fly-ins, memberships, and donations are used to support the RV-Nation Aviation Scholarship Program, which creates student college scholarships and develops programs that provide hands-on aircraft building skills for high school students. Please join us in our endeavors to help pave the way for our aviation future.
Don't forget to mark your calendars for the RV-Nation Fly-in on October 6th at Deerfield Resort (TN44). We are really excited to announce the entertainment for the fly-in: Shake Ragg, a country, southern rock band that is quickly growing in popularity all over the southeast. We are very fortunate to have them play for us at our fly-in. This is going to be really fun and something you don't want to miss! Plan to arrive as early as 8:30 and enjoy the day of fun, friends, food, entertainment and, of course, great RV's! Airport frequency is 122.9. Make your initial landing your best on arrival, as it will be your automatic entry for the spot landing contest. The band will start around 1:00 and play until 4:00 or so. We will have a golf cart rally that that will begin around 12:00, and of course, some great food BBQ, baked beans, coleslaw, and peach cobbler will be served throughout the afternoon. There will be a Best of Show contest for best RV, so make sure your RV is looking its very best. We have great prizes for all contest winners. For those that want to camp with their planes, we will have an area set up for camping along with a little get together in the evening after things slow down a bit. Entrance to the fly-in will be 10/person and the golf cart rally entry fee is 20 per person. All funds raised by the fly-in support the RV-Nation Aviation Scholarship Program for outstanding high school students wanting to further their education in aviation or aerospace. We look forward to seeing you all there. In order to help us with our numbers for food, please send a quick PM to tell us you are coming.
Come join the fastest growing Van's RV Organization in the country. Visit us on Facebook at:
Join RV-Nation Here
See you there!
Monday, September 3, 2012
RV-Nation Aviation Magazine
Hey everyone,
As many of you may already know, I am getting ready to launch a free magazine that is designed just for my fellow experimental airplane enthusiasts. So that I can tailor to exactly what you all want to see and read about, please take a minute to complete my super short survey (7 questions to click an answer). It will help me know who the magazine's audience is and what you all would like to read about. Thanks!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/
As many of you may already know, I am getting ready to launch a free magazine that is designed just for my fellow experimental airplane enthusiasts. So that I can tailor to exactly what you all want to see and read about, please take a minute to complete my super short survey (7 questions to click an answer). It will help me know who the magazine's audience is and what you all would like to read about. Thanks!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/
Friday, July 6, 2012
New RV Nation T-Shirt
GET YOUR RV-NATION T-SHIRT, ON SALE NOW!
You can own an AWESOME RV-NATION t-shirt. Cost is only $17 for sizes medium through XL, or $20 for XXL. Shipping is just $8. Send your payment to paypal account at RVNation.edu@gmail.com, then please email me at buzzbarnstormer@gmail.com with your name, t-shirt size, and how many you would like.
All proceeds from the sale of these shirt support the RV-Nation Aviation Scholarship Program.
Here is the design. Also, check out Van's RV Nation on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/VansRVNation/. Hope to see you there!
Thanks!
Buzz
You can own an AWESOME RV-NATION t-shirt. Cost is only $17 for sizes medium through XL, or $20 for XXL. Shipping is just $8. Send your payment to paypal account at RVNation.edu@gmail.com, then please email me at buzzbarnstormer@gmail.com with your name, t-shirt size, and how many you would like.
All proceeds from the sale of these shirt support the RV-Nation Aviation Scholarship Program.
Here is the design. Also, check out Van's RV Nation on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/VansRVNation/. Hope to see you there!
Thanks!
Buzz
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Best, Funnest Cockpit I Have Seen
I have a Facebook page called RV Nation that allows all of us experimental nuts to talk about RV's and Harmon Rockets, and share pictures and ideas on how to build them better, safer, and most importantly, cooler. One day when I was surfing the net and chatting with one of my RV friends, Ian Hoyt, online, the thread of conversation settled on one RV8 that we had both seen recently, either in person or on the net. The RV8 had so many features and cool ideas, it has driven me to show all that follow this blog those ideas as well. So get ready to drop your jaw, and if you so choose to duplicate the efforts of the builder, get ready to drop a few bills as well. But the fame and fortune that will soon follow will be more than enough for your efforts.....well maybe not the fortune part.
The simulated HUD is directly above that. The black rectangular things on either side of the HUD are indexers, again from an F-16. The left one gives angle of attack (AOA) info and the right one is for in-flight refueling and nosewheel steering indication, neither of which I need. The mirrors are standard military stock, and the stick grip and throttle control are F-16. From the stick I can start the engine, trim the plane, communicate on the radio and disconnect the autopilot.
The ejection seat handles I just made out of wood and painted for static display at Oshkosh. I had started making an ACES II ejection seat out of aluminum, but gave up. I may someday resurrect the project."
The RV8 at hand had been built and developed over a long period of time, and in that development, had taken on an identity of its own. The name that was given to it, or that it had earned, was "Smokey". The proud owner and creator of this amazing craft is Don McNamara. I emailed Don and asked him all about his RV8 and all its cool features, and he was more than happy to talk about it a bit and share how he came about developing such a unique plane.
"Smokey" sports a military paint scheme, that of the Jolly Rogers F14 to be exact. But the rest of the features of this plane is all Air Force. (The Navy always seem to have better paint schemes for some reason, but that's about where it all ends usually....haha.) Gooo Air Force. But, I digress.
So, let's get back to the RV8, shall we? The interior of this plane is where all the fun is. For that I am going to give the honors to Don, in his own words, as he described his plane to me via email.
"While the paint scheme of "Smokey" is that of an F-14 Tomcat squadron, it's impossible to find cockpit parts from Tomcats because we sold them to the Iranians, and we don't want them to have spares. However, we sold F-16s to our allies, so parts are more plentiful. I picked up parts over the years at Oshkosh and on eBay, and more recently from an online F-16 simulator site. The ICP, for example -- which stands for Integrated Control Panel -- is front and center in the F-16 panel and directs what the pilot sees on the HUD, as well as other things. Mine slides over my Garmin 496 for static display.
The simulated HUD is directly above that. The black rectangular things on either side of the HUD are indexers, again from an F-16. The left one gives angle of attack (AOA) info and the right one is for in-flight refueling and nosewheel steering indication, neither of which I need. The mirrors are standard military stock, and the stick grip and throttle control are F-16. From the stick I can start the engine, trim the plane, communicate on the radio and disconnect the autopilot. The ejection seat handles I just made out of wood and painted for static display at Oshkosh. I had started making an ACES II ejection seat out of aluminum, but gave up. I may someday resurrect the project."
WOW! That is quite a plane, and quite an imagination to create, or should I say re-create, the cockpit of an F-16 into that of an RV8. Don is now sporting the "ultimate weekend warrior" plane per se, and I'd say that it looks down right awesome. I wonder if he has some other secret armaments in there that he hasn't told us about? Hmmm, maybe. I liked the ideas so much, in fact, that I want to implement some of these ideas in my own plane, a Harmon Rocket, when it is completed. I hope that I have the creativity and craftsmanship as does Don when I do.
Well, this particular blog entry was meant to be a lasting tribute to Don and his beautiful RV8 "Smokey". I hope that I have done the creator and plane justice, as his craftsmanship simply has been a work of art and his RV8 is just gorgeous. Great Job Don!
-- Buzz
RV Nation
-- Buzz
RV Nation
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