JdFinley.com

Fulltime RV Living Adventures

Glowing Red Bluffs

The mountains and bluffs of western New Mexico can be spectacular.  Many folks fly over this terrain at 12,000′ and during the middle of the day and completely miss the grandeur.  The colors jump in the right light – particularly red. At sunrise and sunset, the light strikes the bluffs and lights them up like… [Read More]

Hot Magneto Problem Solved

I finally found the problem (mentioned here) that was causing the left magneto on my Lycoming O-320 to be intermittently hot (active). Yay! I had searched and searched for the occasional problem. Traced wires, tested switches, and so forth. Finally, this past weekend, I was REALLY studying the P-Lead and magneto and the problem stuck… [Read More]

What happened to the Subaru Aircraft Engine?

youtu.be/wKgrYV3ZRGo

It is an interesting question. I invested no less than ten years towards the conversion of Subaru engines for aircraft use and have followed the movement closely for about fifteen years. In my opinion, I was successful – more on this later.  Why are we not seeing Subaru Aircraft Engines at fly-ins and magazines?  Where… [Read More]

Clouds on the Manzano Mountains

I shot the following photos flying to breakfast a few days ago.  I thought the cloud formations were very pretty (and bumpy). These are the Manzano Mountains in west central New Mexico that run along the east side of the Rio Grande river.  It is fairly typical to have cloud formations like these that seem to… [Read More]

Spectacular RV-4 Views!

My RV-4 friend and I had a wonderful flight recently that resulted in the video below. There are some spectacular RV-4 views in the footage. I sure wish video could capture the beauty, ruggedness, and glory of the terrain over which we flew. However; it cannot so I attempt to etch these memories in my… [Read More]

Survival Vest for Aviators

One of my flying mates is a formal Navy fighter pilot and experienced back country guy. In preparation for some of our backcountry aviation adventures this past year, he advised that I prepare for the worst.  This included a survival vest. I have learned that in many accidents, all that an aviator is able to… [Read More]

Grapevine Arizona Backcountry Camping Trip

A friend and I decided that we needed a dose of camping after our long and cold winter.  I know… it really wasn’t long nor cold. For us desert dwellers, it seemed like it was.  The best weekend opportunity seemed to be offered by the Arizona Pilots Association and the Grapevine backcountry airstrip located at… [Read More]

CFI Refresher

All FAA Certified Flight Instructors are required to complete a CFI refresher clinic every two years. This is generally called a Certified Flight Instructor Refresher Clinic (CFIRC or FIRC). Once again, it was my time to complete this course. I’ve tried a couple of different options in the past. One is an all weekend class…. [Read More]

Downhill Skiing and Aircraft

I previously discussed my desire to mix aircraft and downhill skiing (Ski Truck) and reported setting up my aircraft to carry my downhill snow skis (Ski Truck Epilogue), last week I got the chance to give the setup a whirl! I got the call from my RV-4 friend late in the afternoon that the following… [Read More]

In search of Christmas Dinner

Filling Christmas day with activities was priority numero uno for me. The day was not forecast to be great with some wind all day but doing some flying was important so I disregarded that little issue. Finding Christmas Dinner was high on the list of priorities! I had the engine heater setup the night before… [Read More]