This past Tuesday I finally got an RV ride! Me and my dad flew to the unnamed airport where his friends have their RV's. We flew in formation, which is similar to how the U.S Navy Blue Angels or the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds fly in airshows. We were only 10-15 feet apart to the nearest plane to us and it was awesome! My favorite part though was when we broke off the formation and we did a huge formation barrel roll and pulled 3-4 g's. After about three of those, I puked, and that pretty much ended the ride. To me, it was worth to experience the higher-than-usual g-forces and to see the world upside down in a plane. I did get to fly the plane for a few minutes before though, and I got some really good videos of the rolls. It was the best day of the project, and I have all of the RV squadron for doing that for me. I can't wait to go pull some more g's with you guys again!

I have finally started building the model of part of the tail section. In just an hour of working on it with my dad, I learned how to use a lot of the many tools in the work space and a few sheet building skills that I can use over the summer and the following years to help my dad with building his actual plane. Below are pictures of what the model looks like in the beginning and in the end. I will soon be posting pictures of my own.

Source: Vans Aircraft

                        

Source: aclog.com

The "RV" Squad!

Last weekend I flew with my dad down to Eufala, AL to eat lunch with my dad's friend and what I call the "RV Squad" since my dad's friend and his friends all have a Van's RV. I learned a little bit and my dad let me do the pre-flight inspection of the plane, which was fun. But I was really excited because we finally found a time for me to go up with the "RV Squad" and do some aerobatics! I'm also going to be able to fly an RV and throw it around and do a ton of aerobatics. I'm going to be taking a lot of videos for that as well. In preparation for that day, I have researched types of G-forces and the effects of g-forces on the human body. One example is a g-force known as a +Gz, which acts by pushing you down from head to toe (a common g-force experienced in aerobatics). It forces blood to flow away from your head, which can lead to becoming unconscious. This is also why pilots may pass out in g-force training videos.

I was supposed to go flying in the RV-7 last weekend, but the weather conditions weren't great and so we couldn't go. So in the meantime I will have to go flying in the other plane at Auburn University Regional Airport. I am officially starting the building process next week because I cannot get enough time this weekend.

Tomorrow I will go flying again and we are actually going to fly up to Peachtree City. It is not a long flight, but I will be flying copilot with my dad, so I will still get to learn a few things. I am also finally going to start helping with building the plane. Peachtree City is also where I will be flying in the RV-7 and learning aerobatics.

Today we finally went flying for the first time since 20% Time started! I learned the pre-flight inspection, in which you would look all around the plane for problems and test everything to make sure it's working right. When we were flying, I learned how to use the trim to adjust the pitch of the plane so it you can fly level without having to constantly adjust it. I also learned how to use the rudder pedals to taxi to the runway. Another simple and basic skill I learned was a bank. A useful skill I learned was a stall and stall recovery. However, the fun part was experiencing 0 G's, or being weightless. Overall, it was a fun day and I learned a lot just in an hour or two.

Math and Science in Aviation

Tomorrow I will finally be flying for the first time for the project. This past week, I learned a lot about math and science in aviation. I will still be learning a lot more math and science throughout the project, but for now I will share what I have learned so far. 

Finding Slope and Climb/Descent: I learned that you can find the slope and rate of descent or climb of an aircraft. 

Scenario: A plane is descending 300 feet per mile at a speed of 120 mph. The plane has to reach a certain altitude to be able to start the final descent. 

1) The goal is to convert ft/mi to ft/min, so first we plug in 300 ft per mile. The slope of the descent is 3 degrees. (1 degree=100 ft/mi)

2) Now we put 300 ft/120 mph to begin converting. To start, divide 120 (speed) by 60 (minutes in an hour).

3) Next, we put 2 mi/1 min since 120 divided by 60 is 2. Then we multiply the top number by number of feet the plane descends every mile (300)

4) Finally, we figure out that the plane descends 600 feet every minute. 

This skill is important in aviation because if the plane in that scenario only had ten minutes to descend an unknown number of feet for whatever reason, you could figure out that the pilot has to descend 6,000 feet in that time span of ten minutes. (600 ft/1 min x 10 min=6,000 feet/10 min)