March 13, 2026
I have been fighting, for a long time, a couple of the sheeves on my Spinlock deck organizers getting jammed up and no longer spinning freely. I gave it a half-hearted effort in the past and eventually moved a line to a sheeve that still spun. Today was time to address it properly. It was not obvious from the Spinlock…
October 29, 2025
One last latte, the purchase of a 5-gallon jug of water (emergency supply), and the return of the marina key – and we were off! About 8:00am we untied the dock lines and made out way out past the huge Carnival cruise ship. Fairly quickly the clouds filled in, the winds were light so we motored around the south point…
June 3, 2025
All in all it was a pretty uneventful Condition Inspection. It helps immensely to have a large hanger, that is well lit, and all the tools. Plus this year I became a bit more organized, I put together Flambeau Outdoors 5003 Fishing Tackle Boxes to keep all of the various supplies in one spot. Typically I perform my Condition Inspection…
January 30, 2025
I’ve been a subscriber of Savvy Avaiation’s SavvyAnalysis since I completed my build in 2021 and from day one it was such a value to have an expert available to ask questions. This is an amazing resource at an inexpensive price! A question came up after a flight a few days ago, first a bit of a back story, I…
August 1, 2024
After a quickly breakfast everyone headed to shore separately. Adrian and I had plans to help Mon fix his solar/battery issue. After doing research overnight we both came to the conclusion that the panel wiring was exceeding the solar controller maximum voltage. In a divide and conquer, Adrian took on rewiring the panels while I cleaned up the dirty connections…
May 29, 2024
Each Condition inspection I have battled the reinstallation of the Matco brakes. The issue is that there is almost no room to get the inside brake pad lined up and start the bolt. I’ve spent upwards of 40 minutes getting one bolt started, frustrating and a total waste of time. I’m embarrassed it took me this long but I finally…
April 30, 2024
Not thrilled about the 5:00am departure after three hours sleep but what are you going to do. Around 5:15am we motored our way into the sunrise. Soon we found 15 knots of wind (unfortunately 25 degrees to port) and with the Main at Reef 1 and Jib the engines were pulled way back. As the morning progressed, we lost our…
February 6, 2024
Well I was lucky, it happened just after fueling up at my home airport. As I twisted the locking tab it broken off into my hand. Huh. Maybe I had them too tight or maybe the composite material is just not up for the job. Regardless I needed to find the parts to get it fixed. Searching I found that…
November 8, 2023
It was a beautiful morning and soon the paddleboards were in the water, as we headed to a farm and lookout spot 300 feet above us. Reaching a dock, we started the climb up 270 odd stairs. Other than a few loose and rotten boards, that we managed to avoid, we were soon on the top of the hill and…
October 24, 2023
Up at our normal 5:00ish. There were some sprinkles of rain around 3:00am and again at 5:00am so with that help and a bucket with detergent I cleaned the caked on salt from the passage off of the windows and hatches. Morning coffee and a breakfast for me led to some texting home before the morning weather check. Looks like…
July 29, 2023
Another interesting and fun year at AirVenture, punctuated with beer, learning, and soaking up the experience with like-minded folks. Speaking of learning, thanks to DanH for his training on the Spotted Cow tap and for organizing another great evening with RV builders. Now on to what else I learned: Vic Syracuse (Base Leg Aviation) I ran into Vic while he…
June 15, 2023
I struggled to find a simple guide to understand the various Kavlico sensors and relevant service bulletins, here is my consolidation of that information. Relevant Links: The issue was outlined by Larry, N38LA (RV-10) back in 2020 on this VansAirforce post: Link The Garmin Service Bulletin: Link The Dynon Service Bulletin: Link The Van’s Service Bulletin: Link Original Sensors on…