On Friday, May 21st, 2010, I drove to the Salt Lake Municipal Airport to celebrate my birthday by renting a Cessna 172 to go fly for an hour or so, do some touch and gos in the pattern, and see what activities might be happening at the airport.
I must admit, although it has long been a tradition for me to go flying on my birthday since I earned my pilots license in 2002, I needed to remain current with the FBO and my 90 day obligatory flight date was soon approaching. Ever since 9/11 most FBOs (fixed base operations) require a pilot to rent from their fleet of airplanes as least once every 90 days or suffer the penalty of having to go up with one of their instructors and do a bunch of power off stalls, steep turns, and other maneuvers in order to fulfill their requirements for insurance coverage. Pure BS if you ask me. But, I don't complain too much because some FBOs require you to fly every 60 days. Anyway, I'm not going to get pissy about FBOs because they're all just trying to stay in business and without them, General Aviation airports and flying would soon disappear. After all, if the US Government sees an opportunity to grow and tax it's citizens whenever a crisis happens, why shouldn't every business in America follow it's lead and increase their profit centers by claiming their increased fees are based on the tragic events of 9/11. Surely, you can't argue with someone when they blame their woes on 9/11. It would simply be Anti-American.
So, it was on this day that I planned on getting up in the air and hone my skills with a few varied touch and gos and simulated emergency landings. After several greased landings I was lifting off for quick cross wind when I called traffic and reported my intentions. No sooner did I release my ptt(push to talk) than I saw a little silver rocket go shooting past my one o'clock on it's way downwind. The pilot immediately responded to my call by declaring he was on the downwind. I reported him in sight, pulled back power to give him some separation and then turned downwind to follow. Follow--yeah, right. While I was looking off my nose cone for little silver rocket man he called his final approach and as I looked to my two o'clock I saw him touching down on the numbers. 'What the hell was that all about' I thought to myself. There was no way he could be touching down when I was barely abeam mid field. But, he was, and so I continued on my right downwind and prepared for another uneventful touch and go. Two more trips in the pattern later and I called a full stop and taxied in to the FBO.
After tying down the Cessna 172, I grabbed by flight bag and made my way back to the Salt Lake Air Center (FBO) to pay my $150 and call it a day. But as I neared the fuel island I saw the little silver rocket parked and being fueled by the owner. I immediately recognized the plane as the Van's RV7 model, an experimental, fully acrobatic plane, made from a kit designed and sold by Van's Aircraft out of Aurora, Oregon. I knew the tail section of the plane intimately because less than four years ago I had ordered the $1,500 kit and built it in my garage in Thousand Oaks, California. It was my dream to eventually build the entire airplane but work and life somehow gets in the way and priorities have to be met first. So there I was, being pulled like a magnet toward the owner of the RV7. The owner was rancher up from Sodona, Arizona whose wife had tagged along and after we shared a mutual admiration for the plane he proceeded to tell me how he normally cruised about 180 mph and burned about 7.5 gallons an hour on his frequent trips to Salt Lake and back home to Arizona. She was slippery and smooth, efficient and reliable. What more could any pilot ask for. I walked away from that conversation mad as hell. Inside of course. After paying my bill at the FBO and getting in my truck to head home, I called my brother Blaine who is also a private pilot and told him to call me immediately.
Let me say now, I love flying the Cessna 172--nearly every pilot in the last fifty years most likely did some form of training in her. They are wonderful airplanes, consistent and true. But in nearly every pilots life, there comes a time when you wanna go faster, NOT fly straight and level, and hold a stick in your hands and not a yoke. The difference between flying a Cessna 172 and an airplane like the RV7 could be compared to driving an old ford station wagon and a new ZR1 Corvette. I get chills just thinking about it. Yes both a station wagon and a Cessna 172 can get you to where you're going but as the old saying goes, it's not about the destination as much as it is about how you get there. Give me the 'Vette or the RV7 any time and I promise you I'll arrive at the same destination with a big wide grin on my face instead of the 'damn--that was a long trip' look on my face.
We met for lunch and I told him that it was about time we got serious about flying and build the RV7 as soon as possible. I told him I wanted to be flying our own RV7 two years from that day. And so, we committed to do so and I then set out to either order the wing and fuselage kit directly from Van's or find someone willing to sell theirs. So when I got home less than an hour later, I jumped online and made three postings on the Vansairforce.net site to guys who were selling their wing and fuselage kits.
I then, out of habit, went to the local website ksl.com which has an awesome classified ad section and looked under the "Aircraft" listings. I was stunned when I saw within the first ten search results a listing for a 1/3 partnership on a Van's RV7 based out of Ogden-Hinkley KOGD for $3,500 plus a monthly payment amount. The plane was beautiful, white with red underside and accents, and I could tell by the photos this one was a beauty. I immediately called Jeramy, the partial owner and arranged for a meeting that next day. My brother and I drove up on Saturday morning to meet Jeramy, the RV7 and of course I brought cash in hand. I was stunned at how beautiful she was. Clean lines, impeccable workmanship, a beautiful hanger, and a retired Air Force flight crew chief as a possible partner. How on earth could things get any better? I offered him cash to hold my spot on the plane until I could meet, Sam, the second owner of the plane but was told my cash wasn't needed to hold the plane. Jeramy gave me his word that I was first in line and if Sam gave his okay, we had a deal. I was worried because five years previous I had lost out on a 172XP complete with hanger at the Camarillo, California Airport KCMA to a pilot who stole it out from underneath me. But Jeramy assured me his word was his bond and I felt I could trust him.
The following morning I returned to the airport to meet Sam and take N4811E for a test flight. Sam was super nice, down to earth and easy going and as passionate about flying as Jeramy was. He was nice enough to take me up in N4811E for our first flight together and we flew for an hour and half. More about that first flight in a separate posting. Needless to say, when we got back to the hanger, we went over a partnership arrangement with the three of us agreeing on terms and just like that, I handed them my portion of the agreed upon 1/3 of expenses to date and I was an RV7 owner.
Pinch me, kick me, wake me up in the middle of the night and tell me I'm the luckiest man on the planet. Thank you, Jeramy and Sam for bringing me on as a partner. Let the adventures begin!
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