Hi folks,

I am based in Western Australia but work in the bush pretty much all over the place. I am building an RV - 4. I already have some hours in Tiger Moth and Chipmonk but am way out of currency and never did my navs. I reasoned that I would worry about all that once I had my RV and that time as about nigh.

I have a lot of down time at work and it is the perfect setting for study.

I would be interested to do as much of the theory as i can on line. I would be interested to find out how many others have a need for the "distance education" style of training for aviation theory.

Regards to all

Mark

www.rv-4builder.blogspot.com/

Hi Mark,

Welcome to the site! It must be amazingly satisfying to build your own aircraft. I have immense respect for the skill and dedication that such a massive task would need. Great stuff.

There is a lot of interest in distance learning for aviation theory. When we did the demo tour earlier this year there was very good feedback from every school we visited and private interest has been high as well.

Thanks for your application to the beta test by the way. Feedback from someone studying in remote places all over the bush is exactly what we're looking for as well.

Cheers,

Rich

Cheers Richard,

building a plane is a huge task both in itself and in the way it interacts with life's ups and downs. It is actually a bit of a shock to realize I will soon have an airplane to fly rather than a workshop full of bits of metal. Daunting but exciting. I just did a run up the Gunbarrel Highway for work and all the way I was thinking about how soon I would be able to repeat the exercise at 200 mph rather the 70 kph. All those cool places to visit.

Looking around the site it seems many of the posters are indeed spread over countryside. Quite a few in Perth. There is definitely a huge on line content delivery - certainly be perfect for my lifestyle.

It is wonderful the way technology enables the tools for very powerful multimedia creation capacity to be affordable to the everyday person. I was involved with community TV and we were able to put to air some very presentable programing. The EAA website has some marvelous "How To" programming on diverse aspects of homebuilding. I had a fiddle about with Moodle whilst I was between jobs and found it easy to use and very configurable.

I consider myself pretty good when it comes to the theory of flying stick and rudder wise but know absolutely nothing about the Flight Rules and procedures side of things. It always has been tricky for me also since most tuition is aimed at prospective commercial pilots. My RV - 4 is absolutely minimum instruments so most of the texts refer to instruments I don't have. The flying I am planning on doing will be "I Follow Roads" for pleasure and some for work.

I definitely don't want to wind up as a maverick hillbilly sport pilot. I want to be able to gain the respect of the Geophysics pilots for my professionalism. Those guys are the best !

Looking forward to realizing this stage of the dream !

Regards

MArk

Gidday Mark and welcome to the forum. I've always had a soft spot for the RV4 and although I've often been offered the chance to fly one, as yet I've never got around to it. Your post makes me feel I'd like to change that. I have never actually built an aeroplane but we did do a very thorough rebuild of the Pacer. Go to 'General' on the main menu and 'Piper Pacer VH-MBT' on the sub menu. It took us six years to completely rebuild it from the basic fueslage frame to the fnished product. We have had an absolute ball flying it over the last five years. I'm sure you will have the same experience when you finally get your project off the ground.

We are not likely to have BAK/PPL available anytime soon as online courses, so your best bet for PPL would be home study using our BAK and PPL books along with help with specific questions via this forum. Thanks for posting - keep us informed. How about some pictures of progress as you go!

Hi Bob

thank you for your kind welcome.

Quite a while back I helped to rebag a Tripacer and I thought it was a brilliant little plane. Quite a change from banging rivets.

I have a blog about the RV - 4 on

rv-4builder.blogspot.com/

with a builder's log of sorts. Mostly my ravings and pontifications.

I was chatting with the guys from Bunbury Flying School and they recomended I purchase those books and forge ahead with the study in my own time.

The only thing about the RV - 4 that will be a barrier is that it cant be flown from the back seat and I cant fly anything from the either seat till I am back up and current.

I am really happy I decided to build the 4 though since a lot of the flying I do will be solo. I built it with a bit of attitude in that I wanted it very basic - once the wiring is done you will see it is very "Tonka Toy" mine site style.

I look forward to interacting with the other students whilst studying / revising my PPL stuff.

Kind Regards

Mark

Enjoyed your blog. The RV is looking great, although I have learned that just when you think you have made some progress - someone moves the goal posts! By the way, I did all of my initial flying training in a Tiger then thought I was in Biggles when I got my hands on a Chippy. Ah yes - they were the good old days! I still enjoy flying a Tiger, but I must admit I wouldn't like to own one. Maybe the good old days were not that good after all.

Woot! Got my tailwheel endo on a chippy! Heaps of fun

I count myself as very fortunate indeed to have been able to hire Tiger 37 from the Aeroclub in Jandakot after being endorsed in it by John Bird an old school Tiger and Anson pilot.

There is a lot about airplanes flying technique that makes sence for all of them but it only really becomes apparent why, when flying the Tiger. I am watching a pair of guys rebuilding one at Serpentine and it is a huge job. More airplane than the average bloke can keep on his own.

You are dead right about going onto the Chippy ! Going from things like real tree point landings and airstarts and loops that barely make it over the top, to the delightfull delicacy and nimbleness of the chippy.

Any aircraft the average person can afford must be a compromise and the RV - 4 does it for me. I especially wanted it bare bones and big switches like a Tiger. Practical to x country and slow enough to land in the outback strips. The real difference will be the finesse required to aerobat. The Tiger too much drag and the RV too little.

I think the old days were pretty good but I am a little young to have "owned" them. I was however savvy enough to see the opportunity to benifit from the experince of flying those classics. It's a bit like valve radios and reading Poetry to your lady friends. There was a very good reason for those thing no one seems to do any more.

I will have to go over and order some Text Books to get the study started. I am just ending this swing and getting ready for one more before Christmas.

Hi captainellzy,

your post popped up whilst I was typing. You are in Perth ? Would that have been VH - RWI ?

Gday,

Yeah sure was RWI at RACWA, doing my comm training there at the moment. Where do you normally fly?