#vans aircraft
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RV or not RV
It's Super Bowl Sunday 2024 - last year we were happily working our kit and taking a break to enjoy two football teams and Rihanna on TV and the Superb Owl on the web.
It's one year later and for eight months of that year we have been questioning our life choices and Vans Aircraft.
In late June / July Vans issued a Stop Building directive, since they finally took the cracking of laser cut parts (LCP) seriously.
In July Greg went to Oshkosh and got the feeling that yes, there was a problem, but everything was still under control.
We had a serious chunk of money in the build and we wanted to believe in a company with stellar reputation of taking care of its community.
There was very little information forthcoming.
Then, on December 4th, the news Vans had entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and shit went to poo.
Their bancruptcy is focused on reorganization. They intend to reject our existing contracts. We need to file a claim or we need to agree to new contracts - 32% more on kits, 12% more on engines, 3% more on propellers.
Basically they've got our money and they've got us over a barrel.
In two days time we need to decide whether to stick with the build or walk away.
It's fucked.
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#low approach#aviation#learn to fly#flying#flying experience#private pilot#sport pilot#vans aircraft#pilot#pilot training#aviation shorts#aviation flying#low approach landing#low approach take off#Youtube
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RV-7 on floats headed into Aurora state airport, OR
#Van's Aircraft#RV-7#Kit plane#homebuilt aircraft#amateur built airplane#sport plane#float plane#flying
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Dutch master-builder Erik Zwaan made this model of the DC-4 'Skymaster'. It was part of the KLM fleet from 1946-1959. Created by top-designer Cor van Haasteren, published by Paper Trade, scale 1:50. Available via zeistbouwplaten.nl
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Boeing B-29 Superfortress | Recalling the Hiroshima event, post-war, and...
#youtube#b29#b 29 superfortress#van kirk#enola gay#hiroshima#atomic bomb#paul tibbets#b29 bomber#pacific war#ww2 history#wwii history#airplane#aircraft#aviation
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Here's the other lil guy who was waiting their tirn to take off after the Cessna. The Vans RV kitplane are a very fun and well mannered species. Decently fast and very efficient with their all modern Rotax engine too. They're currently all the rage in the world of small planes. I'd definitely fly one again
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The Van's RV-8A is a tandem two-seat, single-engine, low-wing homebuilt aircraft sold in kit form by Van's Aircraft in USA, Limbaži, Latvia, June 10, 2024. Photo by D.P.
P.S. The aircraft is registered in Latvia...
#Van's RV-8#Van's Aircraft Inc.#made in usa#aviation history#Oregon#Limbaži#Latvia#airshow#aircraft#Baltic States#original photography on tumblr#daily life#free world#road trip#sunny day
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i love living by the airport
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youtube
"'Cause we belong
In a world that must be strong"
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Join Recognized Flight School to Learn to Fly in Los Angeles
When you have prepared yourself to learn to fly Los Angeles, you should search for the top and reputed flight school or academy where proper flight training is provided by certified flight instructors. Before completing your registration, you need to know about the training timing, duration, charges, and clear your doubts (if any). By doing so, you will be learning in professional way and from experts who have proven track record. If you are going to join the recognized flight school to learn to fly in Los Angeles, you should know about the support provided like:
· Availability of certified flight instructor Instruments and Complex Airplane Endorsement
· Certified flight instructors
· Instrument rating
· Private Pilot certificate
The top flight schools also offer Biennial Flight reviews and instrument proficiency checks. For aspiring pilots, it is important to select the right and best flight school with the best flying lesions in Los Angeles.
If you don’t have any knowledge or idea, you can go online. It is counted as one of the convenient ways to enhance your experience of choosing the best one by knowing about them. Check all details and get the right solutions according to your specific needs. You can contact from anywhere and get the right training.
Continental Aviation is a recognized flight school in Los Angeles providing training from Van Nuys airport. Your satisfaction is an achievement for them and they leave no stone unturned in providing with the right solutions. So, what you are waiting for, stay in touch with experts and get the right support to become a trained pilot.
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3/23/2024 - a good time to be home working on flaps
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Legendary Pilot Bob Pardo, Who Pushed A Damaged F-4 With His F-4 Over Vietnam, Has Died
December 20, 2023 Military Aviation
Bob Pardo
Bob Pardo in a 2017 photo by Senior Airman Ridge Shan. In the background, Pardo's Push in an artwork by S.W. Ferguson.
Bob Pardo passed away earlier this month at the age of 89. With his Phantom, he pushed a crippled F-4 outside the enemy airspace in one of the most heroic missions in the history of military aviation, known as “Pardo’s Push”.
“Pardo’s Push” is the name of an incredible maneuver carried out during the Air War over North Vietnam that, over the years, has become the symbol of heroism and a demonstration of courage and contempt for danger.
March 10, 1967.
Captain Bob Pardo is flying in an F-4C with Weapon Systems Officer 1st Lt Steve Wayne. Their wingman is the F-4C flown by Captain Earl Aman with Weapon Systems Officer 1st Lt Robert Houghton. The two Phantoms of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, based at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, are assigned the task to attack a steel mill in North Vietnam north of the capital Hanoi.
During the approach to the target, both F-4 is hit multiple times by enemy’s anti-aircraft fire. The North Vietnamese flak causes significant damage to Capt. Aman’s aircraft whose fuel tank begins to leak fuel forcing the crew to abort the mission. While hit too, Pardo’s F-4 is able to continue its mission.
On their egress route, at 20,000 feet, Aman and Houghton determine that they do not have enough fuel to reach a tanker or Laos, where they could eject and avoid capture. Although his F-4 is still efficient and has enough fuel to reach a tanker, Pardo decides to remain with his wingman.
At a certain point, while still inside North Vietnamese airspace, Aman’s Phantom flames out. To save Aman and Houghton, Pardo decides to do something he believes no one has ever done before: he attempts to push the other F-4 to Laos.
Initially, Pardo tries to push the other F-4 by gently making contact with the drag chute compartment. However, turbulence interferes with the maneuver and after several failed attempts, Pardo opts for an extreme solution: he instructs Aman to lower his tailhook, then he positions his F-4 behind the other Phantom leaning his windscreen against the tailhook. The contact is made but the “solution” is quite unstable and, as a consequence of turbulence, Pardo needs to reposition his F-4 every 15 to 30 seconds. Nevertheless, the push works and rate of descent of Aman’s Phantom is considerably reduced.
As if the situation was not complicate enough, Pardo’s F-4 suffers an engine fire, forcing him to shut it down.
Try for a second to visualize the situation: a flame-out F-4 is somehow pushed by means of its tailhook by another F-4 powered by a single engine. In enemy airspace. Incredible.
Ezoic
Pardo pushes Aman’s F-4 for another 10 minutes until his Phantom runs out of fuel too. With both planes safely inside Laotian airspace, at an altitude of about 6,000 feet, the aircrews of both F-4s ejects (they will be rescued by SAR helicopters and evade capture).
Although he saved another aircrew, Pardo was initially reprimanded for not saving his own F-4. Until 1989, when the episode was re-examinated and both Pardo and Wayne were awarded the Silver Star.
Retired Air Force pilot Lt. Col. Bob Pardo poses in front of a static display model of an F-4 Phantom II, one of the many fighter aircraft he has flown, at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., Dec. 12, 2017. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Ridge Shan)
Pardo and Aman both continued serving and retired from the U.S. Air Force in the rank of lieutenant colonel. Years later, after learning that Aman had lost his voice and mobility because of Lou Gehrig’s disease, created the Earl Aman Foundation that raised enough money to buy Aman a voice synthesizer, a motorized wheelchair, and a computer. The foundation later contributed to raise funds to pay for a van, which Aman used for transportation until his death. In other words, Pardo never left his wingman behind, not even after retiring.
Ezoic
Noteworthy, as told by John L. Frisbee in his 1996 article for Air Force Magazine, Pardo’s push was not the first time a U.S. pilot pushed another jet out of enemy airspace: in 1952, during the Korean War, fighter ace Robbie Risner pushed his wingman out of North Korea in an F-86. However, pilots were ordered to refrain from attempting the hazardous maneuver again, and the episode had faded from memory and was almost completely unknown within the Air Force by the time Pardo and Wayne pushed Aman and Houghton outside of North Vietnam’s airspace.
Bob Pardo passed away aged 89, on Dec. 5, 2023. His courage and ingenuity, along with the legendary “Pardo’s Push“, will be remembered forever.
About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
@Aviationist via X
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Patriotic RV-10 at the Coolidge Arizona Fly-In
#Homebuilt aircraft#Kit plane#Van's Aircraft#RV-10#General aviation#Light aircraft#Patriotic livery#Airplane#Flying
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Flying Officer B.P. “Squirrel” Nutkin of 266 Squadron RAF, seen here in a Hawker Hurricane Mk I flown by 266 during the Fall of France.
As the British Expeditionary Force were driven back by Guderian’s Blitzkrieg, 266 was badly mauled while keeping Luftwaffe bombers away from the Dunkirk beaches, losing enough Hurricanes that it re-equipped with the Supermarine Spifire Mk Ia just in time for the Battle of Britain.
Nutkin, resisting what was already becoming known as "Spitfire Snobbery", was one of the last 266 Squadron pilots to convert from his Hurricane. This snapshot, therefore, must have been taken at some time in mid-June 1940, between the end of Operation Dynamo on 4th June and the official start of the Battle of Britain on 10th July.
*****
It was during the BEF’s final withdrawal from Dunkirk that Flying Officer Nutkin, already with two kills to his credit, made ace in an afternoon and won his first DFC.
He was section leader of Red Section - comprising himself, Pilot Officer Tom E. Brock and Pilot Officer J.R.M.E. Fisher - providing top cover for the evacuation, when on 2nd June 1940 they found themselves up-sun from a raid directed against several of the “Little Ships” (civilian vessels with volunteer crews).
Red Section executed a perfect “bounce” that caught the enemy completely off guard, six Luftwaffe aircraft were shot down, and Nutkin personally accounted for two Junkers Ju.87-B Stuka dive-bombers as well as one Messerschmitt Bf.109-E4 from their escort.
(Representative images, not actual footage)
“Squirrel” Nutkin finished his RAF service in 1946 with the rank of Wing Commander. It’s widely believed he was promoted no higher after saying “Nuts!” to Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, even though this turned out not to have been an insult, merely a misheard comment about which bar snacks were running short in the Officers' Mess.
Regardless of explanation, Leigh-Mallory - always notoriously pompous about his own image and reputation - made a disparaging entry in Nutkin’s file and refused to amend it. His later death in an accident meant the unwarranted black mark was never deleted.
This didn't concern post-war fledgling new airline BEA (British European Airways), and Nutkin joined them directly he left the Air Force…
…going on to become one of their senior captains before transferring to Transatlantic service with BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation).
During a layover in New York he met and later married Cicely van Gopher of the New Hampshire van Gophers, and on retirement from flying made a fortune in forestry.
“Some people can’t see the wood for the trees, but for some reason I'm quite good at both.”
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Was just visited by this cute little homebuilt Vans RV-9.
I think I'd like to build on jn the future too they're such neat little planes with excellent performance in terms of handling, speed, efficiency, and range.
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