LadiesLoveTaildraggers

New paint job on my spinner!

I’ve been dreaming about a new spinner for my Rans S7 for months and I can’t tell you how excited I am about finally getting the job done! Boyd and I have way more hours invested in planning, sanding, taping, more taping, and painting than I ever dreamed possible.

Oh, so cool!

It still needs a little work but it turned out pretty darn cool.

Opened the hangar door tonight for the unveiling. Not a soul around to admire it! (:

My “vanilla” spinner was painted perfectly but seemed like such a waste of space – it need a little pzazz! But it wasn’t just the spinner that needed attention, the top and bottom cowl had seen better days and were in desperate need of a touch up.

Wow, it's amazing what a fresh paint job can do!

Painting the spinner came in 3 steps…

"Periwinkle blue" all over to match the trim on the Rans for the first color coat. No taping yet.

Then we taped it and sprayed the white. Sorry, no picture though.

And the last color sprayed was the yellow.

It had to dry overnight which was a painfully long time to wait to see what it would look like!

But 24 hours later I was as happy as I could be screwing it to the mount and finally getting to stand back and admire it!

I’m in love!

:)

There are a few spots that need some dry sanding but for the most part it’s done. Of course, the hangar’s a wreck since we’ve been almost living in it for a week – probably time to vacuum (i.e. take the leaf blower to it again). Love my hangar gas grill! It’s been grilled brats and turkey burgers all week, lots of peanuts, Frito’s and diet cokes! Rule of thumb…. if you’re in a hangar, all junk food is legal. Diet when you’re home!

Saturday's almost here and I guarantee you, I'm flying and showing this baby off!

Hello everybody! Fall is officially here and I’m counting on some nice, dry, cool flying weather for awhile. I had a very busy summer flying every chance I got and I don’t expect that to change just because the weather is changing. My great niece Kaylise and sister-in-law Regina were in town last month and Kaylise couldn’t wait to get a ride in an airplane. She argued that her brother was her age when he got an airplane ride … like I was going to say “No”?!

Kaylise & me

Boyd’s Mooney 231 was sitting right there and I think she was thinking “that’s pretty cool, let’s go in that!”  I had to convince her how great a ride in the Rans S7 was going to be. I think I finally won her over when she realized the difference between sitting in a side-by-side airplane was having to look around somebody else to see out. You just can’t beat a tandem, stick airplane!

 

Kaylise having a good time wearing her headset. I've got my new Halo headsets on which are comfortable & quiet but I won't be wearing them with the doors open. They're so light they'd probably get sucked right out the door.

Kaylise was thrilled to get belted in, taxi out to the runway and watch & listen as I did the run up.  She was as excited and happy a passenger as I’ve ever had and sooooo disappointed when I told her we were heading back to the airport.

Nice ride

A couple weeks later I flew to Marion, Indiana for the Fly-in/Cruise-in and ended up doing an interview with local WIWU TV51. It was kind of fun being interviewed by a woman reporter and her woman camera crew! I may not have done a great job but they sure did! They made the rounds that day interviewing pilots and attendees for their 30 minute TV program “Crossroads” – here’s the very short “commerical” version if you’d like to take a look. The temperature was a sticky 98 degrees that day!

Keep on flying and having fun doing it girls. Life goes by fast and we’re only here once. Leave with no regrets.

Hey everybody, I’m getting some great flying in these days in my Rans S-7!!  I’ve adapted to the amazing rate of climb I get on solo take-off (1300′ + fpm) at 65 mph and the equally astounding rate of climb I get even with hefty passengers in the back (900′ + fpm). Right after I bought it, I’d pull the stick back to 60 – 65 mph and it’d climb so steep I’d hold my breath and just hang on! I knew it was going to have great performance but after flying nothing but the Champ recently, it was a shock! I loved my Champ but the two of us never set any Rate of Climb records!

Departing 16 at MQJ

The Rotax 912 engine runs smooth but I make a lot more power adjustments to keep pitch and altitude than I ever did with a Continental.  The Rotax hums along straight and level at 5200 rpm at 112 or so and burns 5.2 gallons an hour. I’m just as happy zipping around no where in particular at 4900 rpm at 4.0 gph.

Touch & gos on 16

I’m constantly surprised how well it glides and wonder if I’d feel the same if the engine actually quit!

Love this shot!

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Pretty near perfect evening to fly!

Haven’t flown with the doors open yet, but its coming!!

The Indy Airshow starts today at KMQJ and runs through the weekend. Laura Stantz will be flying a T-6 Texan. Come on by hangar 508-14 & 508-16 and say hi and have a hot dog with us . http://www.indyairshow.com/

Judy

With no warning, the day I’ve been dreading arrived today. I’ve worried about today for too long and tried to figure out a way to keep today from happening, but when it was all said & done, there just wasn’t any stopping it. I sold the Happy Champ today. OK, I admit it’s not the end of the world when you own an airplane you dearly love and you have to sell it, but it’s really hard.

It seemed like I was saying goodbye to my best friend today

You know I bought a beautiful Rans S7 a few weeks ago and am tickled to have it and thrilled with its performance. So the Rans got moved into the hangar where the Champ used to be and I was out of hangar space. There just wasn’t any way around having to sell it — had to pay for the Rans and couldn’t wear our welcome out at our friend’s farm strip where they were temporarily hangaring the Champ – in style I might add! (thanks Phil & Tess!)

Here I am with the new owner of N7569E, Jerry Keller, and his friend who told Jerry I had the Champ for sale.

If there’s anything that makes me happy about selling it, it’s knowing that Jerry (a CFI) is buying it to teach his family how to fly; his wife, Jane, his children and his grandchildren all want to learn how to fly and Jerry wants to teach them in a taildragger!… on a grass strip!!… and it’s only 38 miles from me so I can stop in anytime!

Jerry mentioned since women are going to be flying it, maybe the "Ladies Love Taildraggers" sticker on the tail can stay!

I can’t resist adding a few pictures of some of my fun spent flying the Happy Champ. I think you’ll understand why I dubbed it “happy” – it made me, and everybody else that got a ride here and there, happy too. Some of my many, many fond memories of N7569E……

2009 at Sparta with Diana Votow

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2009 flying to breakfast with Celia

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2009 giving rides to the girls from South Africa & friend Darlene

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Off to fly formation with my daughter Jessica. Boyd, Craig & Justin flew circles around us in the Mooney!

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2010 Family portrait

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2010 Winter Flying - heat wide open!

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2010, Darrell at Shelbyville helping me with those long, cold hoses at my favorite spot to refuel

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2010 Giving Kristie a ride - I was 19 the last time I gave her a ride. She was terrified then but liked it a little better this time, really!

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2010 Young Eagles Rides

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2010 Weekend mother daughter trip in the Happy Champ visiting Katie

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2010 Susan and I celebrating my birthday -just flying around - 2 champs, 2 happy pilots!

So, we said goodbye today. It gave me a tremendous amount of pleasure for almost 4 years and flying it I found the kind of happiness you’ll never get with your feet on the ground.  Even though I’m sorry to see it go, owning it was a great experience and I wish the very best to Jerry and his family as their fun begins!

Judy

P.S.  Jerry, I’ve stopped crying now.

Gals, send me your flying pictures or I might have to resort to more Rans pictures and ME! I’ve added a new email address to receive your pictures, updates, and whatever you’d like to send me, so feel free to forward to LadyTaildraggers@gmail.com when you can.

Until then, this the latest on how my Rans S7 is breaking me in. It’s been a way bigger transition than I expected. I actually thought I’d hop in, recognize there were a few minor differences in the way it flies from what I’ve flown before, and it’d be a piece of cake. Not so! Here’s what I’ve figured out so far….

- It only weighs 690 pounds empty so there’s a whole lot of rocking around and pitching going on if the air’s not pretty smooth. Riding in a kite comes to mind.

- It’s a slick little guy and it takes a little planning to slow it down without gaining altitude. I’ve made some adjustments and am now slow flying it by the time I hit the pattern, keeping it slow all the way around. With not much power and some airspeed it’ll stay up there forever. After the floats came off, it was running 500 RPM too high and would taxi at 20 mph unless you held the brakes. Those extra RPMs in the air caused all kinds of havoc trying to get the power back far enough to land. Last week Boyd set the idle RPM to the minimum - now it will actually decend, with a little coaxing!

- There’s no such thing as no bounce landing gear on a Ran S7. Slicking it on is not impossible but you’re always going to know you’ve arrived. That wonderful feeling you get when you grease one on and aren’t even sure you’re even rolling, I have not yet experienced!

The gale force winds (I'm known to exaggerate) subsided for one night and I finally got a "feel good" flight in!

That’s the highlights so far. I had a great flight last night and was dreaming about really green, short grass strips in my sleep so that’s a good sign!!

It’s been another big week in Indy. The airport I’m based at, Mt. Comfort Airport, had a name change and is now officially “Indianapolis Regional Airport”. It was changed because the 2012 Super Bowl will be in Indy and the airport wants to make sure potential fly-ins recognize us as a possible destination for the big event. Nobody asked me but I’m thinking, if I’m flying into an unfamiliar city, I’m going to look at a Sectional or Area Chart, pick the airport I want, and who cares what the name is! Anyway, the big story here is, I’m getting that whole name change thing down pat flying my new Rans around the pattern. YES, it’s flying, on gear – not floats – and I’m impressed with its performance!!

Here’s how it went:

With a little help from our friends, we went from this....

to this…

....OMG....

then this….

Eeeks, this is worse....all I could do is pace...

Oh, please don’t fall on that beautiful belly!!

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But the guys persisted…

Tadaa! And it finally looked like this!!!

Luckily they are good friends (and husband!) who I thank very much for their willing help.

And lucky for me they work for food! You can never go wrong with fried Chicken!! Thanks to Phil Jones, Ray Taylor, Boyd Birchler & Dennis Hutchinson for all their work.

I finally got to fly it yesterday and after we got a few bugs worked out – I was not disappointed! I picked up almost 25 mph from amphibs to gear and it climbs like a bat outa hell. Unbelievable. Really. We’re still getting acquainted. I’ve only got a few landings in her but the last couple I was pleased with. Thank heaven we’ve moved to daylight savings time and we can all hang out at the airport a little later now. I’m going to need the daylight to practice!

Good news! My Rans S7 is finally in Indy and tucked into its new hangar!! I’m happy as I can be today but you may not have recognized me yesterday, the day I figured out how to fly it and brought it home. It was one incredible roller coaster of emotion day; elation…. anticipation… anxiety… excitement… nervousness… and that’s just the beginning! Oh the joys of airplane ownership.

Even though I was hoping for blue skies and warm temperatures for my “figure out how to fly it and get it home day”, Manoquia, Wisconsin was cold, had a dusting of snow and low ceilings in the morning. I started out taxiing it around and all I can say is, visualize a big ol’ shopping cart taxiing around and toe brakes instead of a rudder . It’s got 6 little wheels and they wanted to slide across the dusting of snow and weren’t always interested in heading the direction I wanted to go.

Fuel stop at DeKalb, IL on way to Indy. "That guy sure nailed the landing", comment made by a couple guys on the ramp before they saw a woman get out of it. Of course I got a kick out of hearing about that one! :)

The first couple of landings I had an overwhelming urge to pull the power, flare and do a full stall landing and that’s a bad idea. By the third landing I was figuring it out – left some power on and flew it in flat and raised the nose ever so slightly right before touching.  Amazing – it worked! I did a few more touch & goes getting a better feel for how it flies and waited for the ceiling to come up to 1,000 agl. By noon I was off and on my way for my 500 mile southbound trip home.

I was trying to get a picture of the float and wheel near Kankakee

I flew out of the low overcast somewhere around Wausau and had a little tailwind to boot. I had to stay low that first leg of the trip but was happy to climb a little higher when the weather started clearing further south. At least I was happy till a cloud layer decided to form at 2,000′ agl and the updrafts and down drafts started picking up. Talk about getting beat to heck, I had a good couple hours where I was hoping those boats hanging underneath me (make that floats) were hanging on there tight cause I was sure getting tossed around and didn’t want to lose them on the way. Luckily, the bumps eventually eased up and my new little buddy and I got to spend some quality time together over the flat farm lands of Indiana.

Happy news -it’s official – it’s mine!! I now own this lovely Rans S7 Courier longtail! It’s a done deal and I don’t believe it myself yet. I think I’m still in shock! We finalized the deal this afternoon and the annual is tomorrow. I haven’t even got to fly it yet because it’s out of annual but that’s all going to change on Sunday.  I’m REALLY anxious to see how it flies on the amphibian floats.

Judy's Rans S7

Boyd and I are at Minocqua, Wisconsin right now where the Rans has been based. The weather’s not going to be great tomorrow anyway with snow and high winds gusting to 40 mph forecast so might as well get the annual out of the way. If all goes well, I’ll get a few practice landings in Sunday and head back the 500 miles to Indy.

Judys New Rans S7 Full Lotus FL1260 amphibious floats

Wish me luck ladies as my adventure unfolds!

It's COLD in Wisconsin right now!

You may have heard my husband’s a Mooney guy; he’s owned 4 of them and if there’s ANYTHING you want to know about them, he’s your man. Last Sunday he was one happy guy as we pulled his 231 out of the hangar at 6:30 a.m. and loaded up for a 1,000 mile round trip cross-country flight. This was a flight with a mission and sometimes ya just gotta get there fast!

Can you believe the ice is 2 feet thick right now in Wisconsin (and you can drive the airport courtesy car on it)!?!

We’re talking Indianapolis, around Chicago, up into northern Wisconsin, back to Greenbay, across Lake Michigan, down the Michigan shoreline and back to central Indiana. Wow – lots of flying and one really great day!

Really cool to see all the fishing shacks on the ice

So what were we doing wondering around 4 states covering a lot of ground fast?! Well, you can bet there’s a “new” taildragger involved! The pre-flight inspection is done, I’ve made the offer, the offer’s been accepted and now its just a matter of finishing the deal. At this point, everything’s looking good for this weekend. I’m checking the weather hourly and hope to make the trip again in the Mooney – only one way this time!  As soon as my name’s on the title of the shiny bird, I’ll be flying it home and will be posting pictures!! So if you’re asking “what is it?”!! Sorry, I really wish I could tell. I’d really love to but I’ve got to wait till I’ve sealed the deal!!

OK, so this isn’t exactly big news, but a great birthday that involves taildraggers just has to get some face time!  I’m actually amazed any kind of flying happened at all since I’ve been on jury duty all week, meaning I was calling in every evening to see if my number “13″ was called.  I slipped by Monday and Tuesday with the last number called being “12″, knowing that on Wednesday, my birthday, they would call me for sure. Do you believe they jumped to “16″ and I was off the hook, leaving me with one single obstruction to a perfect birthday – WORK! Well, one quick email and I got that checked off my list and finally, a fun day awaited.

I called my good friend Susan Theodorelos, Waco owner and pilot extraordinaire,  and suggested she take a long lunch so I could meet her at Moraine Airpark for lunch. Not only did she take a long lunch, she took the entire afternoon off, borrowed a 90 hp Champ and away we went for a 2-Champ, fun flying afternoon!

Well, maybe it has Susan’s name on the title but sure would be nice if every airport courtesy car looked this hot!

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Here’s the Happy Champ doing what it does best!

So the break down; MQJ…Shelbyville…Norris Field (quick grass strip visit)… Moraine Airpark… Red Stewart Airfield… Middletown… buzz Norris Field… back to MQJ. Wow, what a great day and made it home before the sunset so no turning into a pumpkin today!