JdFinley.com

Fulltime RV Living Adventures

Sensenich GA Propeller

Those of you following my silliness know that I like to go fast as well as land on short back country airstrips. Those two things don’t often mesh very well. I suspect there is no ‘perfect’ airplane for such requirements. However; my little Vans RV-4 sure does a great job with it. The most significant… [Read More]

RV-4 Rewiring

The weather guessers were telling us that the weekend would be a bad one for flying. Both days?!?!? I know… crazy! That is nearly unheard of here in paradise – two bad flying days in a row. When I initially moved from the frozen tundra of the north to paradise, I nearly wore myself out…. [Read More]

Fuel Flow??

If you recall, I mentioned the installation of a fuel flow sender in the RV-4 back in this post while I was working on the fuel level. Since that post, I’ve gathered the bits I was missing and have done some work! The fuel flow sensor is made by Electronics International and is the FT6-… [Read More]

LED Aircraft Position Lights

Everyone knows the value of LED lights, right?? Much lower power consumption, much less heat, longer life, etc… A few weeks ago I noticed that my right wingtip position light on the RV-4 was not working. A new “aviation light” was about $35. How’s that for ridiculous!! A new SET – all three position lights… [Read More]

Introducing Bendit

youtu.be/KkCvyqL2jd4

With the previous flight ops at the Hacienda being such a big success, it was time to do it again! This time, some friends and I planned to meet for breakfast.  I’ll call them M&J. As always, the flight over western New Mexico is fabulous… These are are the mountains near Pie Town… We arrived… [Read More]

Flight Ops at the Hacienda

youtu.be/EtQP8lcwPdY

As most of you know, I have not yet landed on the new airstrip at the Hacienda. That said, I did do several touch and go’s some time back – nothing recently. It’s a combination of things. Firstly, getting the airstrip built takes time! Secondly, I haven’t been sure how well my RV-4 would perform… [Read More]

Fuel Remaining in Tank??

Having been away from the poor RV-4 for a while, some maintenance was necessary. When I purchased the airplane it had some very old fuel level gauges. One fuel tank in each wing so two gauges. These can be seen at the top-center of the panel in the following photo. Neither of them has ever worked… [Read More]

Two Fly-In Weekend

This past weekend I had TWO fly-in options.  What else could I do but attended both of them! Crazy!! I know… The first was the New Mexico Pilots Association Gila Fly-in at Reserve, NM which was Friday thru Sunday. The second was the annual Quickie/Q2/Q200 Field of Dreams Fly-in at Enid, OK which was Thursday… [Read More]

Pressure Recovery Wheel Skirts-Pants-Fairings

It was time to install the super-duper, aerodynamically efficient, pressure recovery wheel pants on the RV-4. So many terms – pants, skirts, fairings… It seems everyone refers to the things that cover the wheels/tires/brakes on a fixed gear aircraft slightly differently. They all make sense to me so I’ll just intermix them. You may remember… [Read More]

Lightspeed Sierra Headset

Some of my flying mates have been complaining – LOUDLY – that something was wrong with my aircraft communication. The electronic bits… not my mouth/English/verbiage bits… I’ve been using a Quiet Technologies Halo in-ear headset for a number of years and really like it. There is no clamping pressure on one’s head, it is very light,… [Read More]