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John Dudkoff flew his RV-6
for the first time July 4, 2004. John's aircraft was the subject of
one of our Chapter meetings just over a year ago, where we saw his
superb handy work up close. John's aircraft could rival anything that
comes off the production line in terms of quality and finishing. |
Nov 27, 2008: Monthly Chapter Meeting at John Abbott College: Investigation report on a Cirrus aircraft accident near Greenland while crossing the Atlantic, by Joe Galliker, and, uncontrolled airport procedures with Doug Remoundos.
December 11, 2008: Xmas dinner. Location to follow...
Lecture Series: Frank Hofmann's lectures are for pilots and/or (potential) aircraft owners
Upcoming
Topics:
- Aircraft design and wind-tunnel testing
Other
Items:
Young
Eagles Webcast/Webchat
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From our August 2004 Newsletter:
John Dudkoff and C-GEZT fly!
by John Dudkoff
I finally got my aircraft (RV-6) into the air this summer. On July 4th,
Bruce Olson from the St. Lazare Flying Club took off in C-GEZT. Bruce
has extensive tailwheel experience and had test flown a number of RVs
in the past. My flight experience (PPL) was mainly on Cessna 152 &
172 aircraft, with a few hours on an Aeronca Champ.
The aircraft engine was overhauled by Aero Sport Power in Kamloops, BC and had only 1½ hours of break in time. I ran the engine for a short duration prior to first flight to check for leaks and proper operation. The recommended procedure by Aero Sport Power was to run the engine at 70 to 75% for at least 10 hours, wait for the oil consumption to stabilize and avoid prolong taxing. Bruce did a great job in assessing the taxing characteristics quickly. Although I did check the brakes and the tail wheel steering mechanism prior to this step, you still feel good when you actually see them working! The high-speed taxi and take-off roll was very smooth. When the aircraft flew down the runway I said to myself, it actually flies! Watching the aircraft flying overhead and then land was a monumental moment. Again, Bruce brought the aircraft in smoothly and made the entire first flight look easy.
I now have 18 hours on the aircraft and have soloed the aircraft, thanks to Bruce's help. I plan on discussing the flight testing and training on C-GEZT in future newsletter articles, however I would like to thank a number of people for helping me over the years on making this project a reality.
My wife, Marie Chantal, who helped with the riveting, and was my other set of hands during the construction phase, not to mention her patience.
Stan Michaleski, who helped me on many occasions, ranging from fuel flow testing, aircraft movement exercises, to the person to call when I needed some immediate help.
JC Audet helped with the riveting of my top wing skins prior to my move to Seattle, Washington.
Jean Francois Avon was another riveting assistant, who helped with the bottom skins of my fuselage.
Louis Beaulieu helped with the first engine run and first flight test preparations. Louis is an AME and Engineer (Bombardier) and was a big help with the engine runs.
John Buhmann helped with the aircraft weighing, fuel tank leak checks and was a big help in first flight preparations.
Eddy Dumalo helped with the compass swing. Thanks Eddy for helping me
find Magnetic North!
Alan Eames helped with the "hanging of my engine". Thanks Alan
for not dropping the engine!
Thanks to Frank Hofmann, Neil Goldberg and Jack Geall and present and
former directors for the technical info over the years.
And finally…
C-GCUN (Jack Bannon, J.P Chartrand and Gerry Conrad) Thanks for taking
great air to air shots of my aircraft on the second flight!
An update on filght testing appeared in our October 20045 newsletter.
