Vans Visit

I heard that a test flight at Van’s is supposed to be the most expensive free flight any pilot can make. After the flight, nobody can help but buy an airplane. So we headed down with a few other friends to the Van’s factory at KUAO in Aurora, OR to put this to the test.

Getting there was half the fun, and most of the battle. Our plan was to take our group of 10 from Renton (KRNT) in three airplanes — two BEFA 182’s and Bernardo’s RV-6a. We would get to the airport around noon, pre-flight and fly down as a formation, landing a little before our scheduled tour time of 2 p.m. Unfortunately for us, one of the 182’s we reserved had just been grounded for a faulty voltage regulator, and all the BEFA Renton airplanes were unavailable for the afternoon. The only airplane that we could take was one of the the few 172’s BEFA keeps up at Paine Field (KPAE) in Everett. Wes, the General Manager of BEFA, had this to say of our predicament —

Never rely on general aviation for getting you somewhere when you have to be there.

With those words of advice, and with a drive to Portland in the horrific I-5 Friday traffic looming, there was only one option: fly to Paine and pick up the 172. I hopped into the RV-6a and headed north to grab the airplane, pre-flight it, fly down, pick everyone up, and then launch for Aurora.

Fortunately, the airplane was in good condition, it just needed a little bit of avgas for the trip there and some reserve. With the lower useful load of the 172, especially since it was the heavier 172SP model, I wanted to put in only the minimum amount of fuel to conduct the flight safely.

We took off as a formation from Paine, broke over Bellevue, and arrived individually at Renton. Everyone loaded up, we did a formation briefing, and then launched as another dissimilar formation of GA airplanes. The flight to Aurora was pretty uneventful. Except my door wasn’t fully closed, so that gave us some grief trying to close it in flight. I truly dislike Cessna doors.

Mt. Rainier though the door that wouldn’t close.

Bernardo’s RV-6a in front of Mt. Rainier. Photo Justice Devara.

Our dissimilar formation.

Parked outside of the Van’s factory. Photo Justice Devara.

We arrived an Aurora almost an hour late. After landing, shuting down the engines and taxiing up to the factory, one person in our group called up his friend to let him know we arrived. His friend is Rian Johnson, the Chief Engineer of Van’s Aircraft. Rian met us at the front desk and then led us into the factory floor for a tour.

Since 90% of our group are aircraft engineers, there was some serious nerding out. Conversation quickly became technical, and covered topics like manufacturing methods, structural fatigue testing as it relates to determinate assembly, control surface design and structural load cases. This is by no means an exhaustive list. The factory is impressive in its scale, especially for being only on the experimental and LSA side of GA. It’s clear that they are making a lot of these kits and no surprise they’re the largest manufacturer of kit aircraft.

Part way through the tour, I split off from the group while everyone else walked through the sheet metal manufacturing section of the factory. Even though that looked very interesting, I was about to go on the RV-10 test flight, so I wasn’t terribly disappointed missing it.

Touring the facility and picking up slack. Photo Justice Devara.

After signing the obligatory waver, I hopped into the factory RV-10 demonstrator that was pulled out the hangar for the test flight. In the right seat was Ken Scott of Van’s. After starting up the engine, performing a quick run-up and calling the traffic, we rolled out onto the runway.

Ken advanced the throttle. Even though the airplane was a little weighed down, it still accelerated nicely and was airborne in less than 700′. It had had a very assertive climb gradient and was certainly more enjoyable and confident than the SkyChicken we flew down in. We turned crosswind and then onto a leg flying about 45º away from downwind. By the time we were midfield, we were at 3000 MSL, which gave us an average climb rate of about 1300 fpm from the moment we left the ground. After leveling off, I was able to take the controls and performed a couple steep turns which were pretty easy and predictable. Next we did some slow flight. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take it to the full stall as Ken took over before that occurred. Miguel said the same thing, so it must be a company policy. After the stall, I started looking for the airport. To my surprise we had flown pretty far from it, flying about 12 nm away, a result of both the winds and the speed of the airplane. Coming back, I handled the descent and Ken performed the landing. Ken put it down pretty much on the threshold and stopped it in less than 500′, which was quite impressive.

Justice hopping in the RV-7a for a test flight with Rian.

My test flight profile from CloudAhoy.

While it was great getting a test flight, and I was really happy how the airplane performed and handled, I was disappointed how little I got to fly it. There wasn’t anything with the airplane that would prevent me from wanting to build one, but I would have liked to fly it a little longer and in more challenging regimes than just a steep turn. I have been on a Glasair Sportsman test flight, and I found that one to be much more complete. I was able to fly from the left seat, perform a takeoff, a full stall, and a landing during a day when there were some pretty strong crosswinds. As a result I got a better feel for the Sportsman than the RV-10. Hopefully I’ll be able to find someone in the Seattle area who would be willing to take me up in their -10.

After Miguel got back from his test flight, it was time to grab some gas and head back. Since we were flying at the magic hour, that period just after sunset when the light is soft and colorful and everything looks amazing, we decided to fly past Mt. St. Helens for some pictures on our way to Renton. It’s difficult to fathom the enormous energy in the eruption that took out the north face of the mountain.

Checking out the RV-12 before leaving.

The whole group in front of the Van’s factory.

Bernardo’s RV-6a in front of Mt. St. Helens (front) and Mt. Adams (back)

Bernardo’s RV-6a in front of the Mt. St. Helens caldera.

The SkyChicken in front of Mt. Rainier.

Sunset and the RV-6a.

If only that was the end of the story. We still had a plane to ferry to Paine field.

The plan was for me to fly the Chicken to Paine, and Miguel would fly the BEFA Citabria up to pick me up, then we’d go get dinner. Unfortunately, the battery was dead and the starter wasn’t turning the engine at all. Miguel let me know over the radio to take off and he’d catch up while I put the plane away. I took off with Bernardo and we landed at Paine. While I started to put the plane away, I get a text from Jenn saying that Miguel would be driving up instead. I call Miguel and learn that instead of the Citabria, he was going to take the Long EZ, Miss Adventure, to Paine. Unfortunately, the EZ was no longer airworthy.

Long-EZs have a unique landing gear configuration. While the two main gear below the wing are fairly conventional, the nose gear is retractable. By retracing the nose on the ground, the airplane self-chaulks, or “grazes” in EZ parlance. While the nose gear is extended and unloaded, the airplane tends to want to fall backward. This is normal of all EZs. Placing the main gear further back would require the canard to work too hard on takeoff and the airplane wouldn’t rotate. So the light nose gear loading is required of the design.

On this day, the EZ had no intention of resting on the nose gear, and instead tipped back during the preflight. Fortunately, the propeller stopped the fall, but it damaged one of the blades beyond repair. No more flying today.

Even with this turn of events, there was still a lot to like about this day. It just meant that instead of this trip making us start work on one airplane, it’s two airplanes.