Author: The Flying Dutchman

I am a man who loves Christ, loves my wife, loves my family, loves my church, and loves aviation. In that order.

Hangar therapy

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Faith2 Comments

What a week this has been. There were family problems, work problems, thank God there were no church problems. In fact my church has been a great help this week. For the first time in recent memory a church has helped us. Bless them. It was kind of a bell curve, the week started out good, got worse as it went on, then ended as good as it started. My wife and I got to go out to dinner alone for our wedding anniversary, which was very good. I feel I cheated her though, because my mind was still racing a mile a minute from this week.

But today my mind was freed and returned to normal. The best therapy besides prayer for me is aviation. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t get to fly today. It doesn’t matter that I spent the last two months building elevators that I can’t use. What matters is that I was able to spend a few quiet hours at the airport in my hangar working on my plane. It’s dirty and dangerous work. Dangerous to your eyes and fingers anyway. But the cares melted away with my vixen file, my bolts and bearings, my tin snips and clecoes. There is almost a poetry to drilling, deburring, dimpling, priming, and riveting. It somehow restores me. When I do it, I feel normal again. Though it is not normal for most men to build airplanes. But to me it is liberating.

Dreaming is almost as fun as doing. I have almost as much fun planning my flights as I do executing them. Even now I am trying to decide where to go after I have flight tested my elevators. Someplace close like Los Banos, or farther away like Oceano where I can walk onto the beach and watch the waves for a while. In the end it doesn’t really matter because it’s the journey I have come to enjoy much more than the destination.

Here’s to the journey.

Flight safety

On By The Flying DutchmanIn AviationLeave a comment

I recently completed my Biennial Flight Review or BFR as it’s known in aviation circles. You see, when you get your driver’s license, you take a driving test and that’s it. You may have to go back to take a written test from time to time but you probably won’t have to take the driving test again as long as you live. In aviation it’s different. You don’t get a pilot’s license per se, it’s a certificate of demonstrated ability. You must periodically demonstrate that ability, in fact, every two years.

A BFR consists of recurrent training with a Certified Flight Instructor or CFI. The CFI must spend one hour with you in ground instruction where regulations, aeronautical knowledge, weather, charts, and the like are covered. Then you must spend one hour in the air doing… well whatever the CFI senses your weak areas are… that’s what you do.

I got through the ground portion easily enough. It’s always the flight test that gets me. It’s not that the manuvers are that hard, it’s just that I don’t fly a Cessna 172 that often. After flying an RV-4 for two years, a 172 handles like a big truck with manual steering. I plunked it on the runway twice and then made one good landing. I think the CFI signed me off just to get me out of there.

🙂

I hate doing it but I know it is all about flight safety. I really enjoy this hobby but I always have to remember that aviation is “terribly unforgiving of any carelessness or neglect.”

Beware, dear son of my heart,
lest in thy newfound power thou seekest
even the gates of Olympus….
These wings may bring thy freedom
but may also come thy death.

— Daedalus to Icarus,
after teaching his son to use
his new wings of wax and feathers

Amazing phone call

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Faith2 Comments

I’ve refered to him as the man of sorrow and the agnostic Calivinist, he is in fact my father and I received an amazing phone call from him the other night. He said he just called to let me know that he’d read through all of my postings on this site and was very proud and respected me for the journey I had taken and shared through this site. I was stunned. Some of what I wrote under the assumption that it would never be read by family. After all I cleverly hid my words in a blog on the Internet. Who’d ever think to look there?
However, true to his nature, he didn’t take offense at anything I wrote but instead took my words in the spirit in which they were intended. Something I don’t often get to experience. My response was genuine, and without any pretense of hiding behind humor; thank you.

I told him that it’s still my hope that he will join the journey one of these days and I relayed as such to him. I can’t remember the response I got exactly but it wasn’t “NO!” So from now on, whether he likes it or not, I shall refer to him as the man of hope.

Thanks again, Dad. I love you.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:1-5

More RV-4 work, more RV-7 work

On By The Flying DutchmanIn RV-4, RV-7Leave a comment

I worked some more on my RV-4 elevator. I spent most of the day getting very little accomplished on it. It’s almost ready to rivet. I need to get some smaller nails for the close quarter dimpler I have. You use a pop rivet tool, some dies, and a nail to dimple a rivet hole. Once these last few holes are dimpled it’s ready to start riveting the elevator spar to the skin.

I also did some work on my RV-7 horizontal stabilizer skeleton. I alodined the ribs and spars and other raw aluminum stock that goes on there. I have found that the best method when using alodine is to just pour it in a basin and soak the pieces in it. I tried a trick using a long plastic bag to alodine the longer parts but had mixed results. When it comes time to alodine the vertical pieces I may look at a different technique. Here are some pictures of the final product. You can see I need to refine my technique. It’s good enough though and won’t be seen by the general public anyway.

Forward side

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Aft side

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The quality of mercy is not strain'd

On By The Flying DutchmanIn PoetryLeave a comment

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.

— William Shakespeare

Would that I could write such as thus. 🙂

Not because of anything we had done

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Faith2 Comments

I’ve been pondering my position on salvation lately after some discourse with a friend over the Internet. I cannot move myself away from the position I have taken. Why should I? I can find no good reason. This was once upon a time a position I fought tooth and nail against and simply could not bring myself to believe. I believe it now. My friend is now in the same position I was in a little over a year ago. The debate is: did I choose God, or was I chosen by God?

The Bible provides enough ammunition for both sides of the debate. Or so it would appear. I have come to find that I didn’t really understand the Bible until I realized that I was chosen by God. Scripture makes more sense as a whole with this new understanding. For instance, how does the man who believes that he chose to follow God explain the following verses from Titus 3:

“Indeed, we, too, were once stupid, disobedient, and misled. We were slaves to many kinds of lusts and pleasures. We were mean and jealous. We were hated, and we hated each other. However, when God our Savior made his kindness and love for humanity appear, he saved us, but not because of anything we had done to gain his approval. Instead, because of his mercy he saved us through the washing in which the Holy Spirit gives us new birth and renewal. God poured a generous amount of the Spirit on us through Jesus Christ our Savior. As a result, God in his kindness has given us his approval and we have become heirs who have the confidence that we have everlasting life.”
(God’s Word translation)

“Not because of anything we had done…” What does that mean? Does that only refer to Mosaic Law? Or does it refer to our choosing God? Don’t you do something when you take a decision?

This is the fundamental problem with Arminianism. If we choose to accept God through Jesus, then how do we explain all the verses that talk about God choosing His special people? Choosing His disciples? The Bible speaks of God’s choice again and again. Yes there are passages about people here and there choosing to follow God. But how did they come to make that choice? Let’s face it, sin is fun! Lust, debauchery, drunkeness…what’s not to enjoy? Sin is pleasurable to the physical body. What could possibly make us want to turn away from that pleasure, deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus?

God regenerating the heart of man and giving him the option of choosing God. That’s the only answer I can come up with. Can someone show me where this is wrong?

RV-7 Horizontal Spar

On By The Flying DutchmanIn RV-7Leave a comment

I started work on the empenage of the RV-7 today. As compared to the RV-4 the RV-7 is like building a lego airplane. Progress for today was to mount the spar stiffener and the elevator hinges. This involved putting clecos in every third hole and then reaming all the other holes to final size (#30). I then moved the clecos to the reamed holes and reamed all the remaining holes.

Here’s a picture of the progress for today.

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Left hand elevator almost done

On By The Flying DutchmanIn RV-4Leave a comment

The bulk of the work on the left hand elevator is now done. All I have to do is add a little more lead to the counterweight and then attach the fiberglass end tip.

elevator1.JPG

I was a little intimidated by the lead counterweight but it turned out to be fairly easy. What I ended up doing was lining the counter balance ribs with aluminum foil as a form for the molten lead. I bought a couple 2lb lead fishing weights from a local bait shop. I then melted them down in a stainless steel measuring cup and poured the lead into the ribs and let it cool in place. I’ll need to repour it though because I have to put a nut and bolt to hold the the weight in place. Having already done it once it won’t be to intimidating next week when I finish up.

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Below is a picture of the rod end bearing cut out on the front of the elevator. An acquaintance on an internet form I belong to thought it looked a little chewd up. Hopefully it looks better now.

elevator3.JPG

Elevator repairs coming along

On By The Flying DutchmanIn RV-4Leave a comment

For those of you who have been keeping track, some cracking was discovered on my left-hand elevator trailing edge.  This was a fairly common problem with the early RV-4 kits.  After consulting with the aircraft kit manufacturor, I decided upon rebuilding the elevator with thicker skins. 

At this point I am now almost done with the left hand elevator.  I just finished mounting the elevator bearings which took some uncharactaristically careful measuring and cutting on my part.  In the photos you can see the bearings and the horizontal stabilizer hinges I had to match the bearings up with.

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Here are the holes with the platenuts already revited on

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Here’s the bearing installed in the nutplate, also shown is the jam nut

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Here are the hinge fittings that I had to carefully match the bearings up with.  Normally when building the entire empanage you would not drill the final positions of these fittings until you had matched them up with the bearings.  I didn’t have that luxury but it still turned out pretty well.  I had to oblong one hole a little but you it doesn’t affect anything, the nutplate provides all the strength.

Steve the Baptist

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Faith4 Comments

Actually Steve was a Baptist but is now a reformed Prebyterian pastor. He is also an all around good guy and friend who baptized me this past Lord’s Day. That’s Sunday for all you evangelicals out there. 🙂

Here is a video of the event:


The story behind my baptism at age 40+ is that no one in my family could remember whether I was baptized or not. Everyone *thinks* I was baptized. I *think* I was baptized. Unfortunately I can’t find any baptism records. No one remembers for sure. Because I’m not sure, I asked to be baptized FOR CERTAIN. So a baptism party was organized by our intrepid Pastor, Steve. I had asked for full immersion in a river but apparently he didn’t have one of those in his backyard so the next best solution seemed to be the swimming pool that he did have in his backyard. There were three other families who wanted their their children baptized so the kids and ol’ Mr. Van (The Flying Dutchman to our aviation fans out there) each took turns coming up out of the water.

Afterwards we we had snacks and fellowship in the best tradition of church functions worldwide. The kids splashed around in the baptismal font…er… pool, and the adults sat around and… yep, talked. Steve’s wife Wendy graciously cooked a delicious dinner for the baptism families that night and we enjoyed a sing-a-long after dinner.

This was a seriously, and spiritually fun and fulfilling day. As we drove home my kids were kind of bummed out that the fun-filled day was over. I rememinded then that we look forward to eternity, spent rejoicing in the presence of our Lord with all of God’s elect.  That is going to make this day seem about as fun as a dental appointment. Oops, we have an elder who’s a dentist, he seems to have great fun with dental appointments. Well, the rest of you know what I mean. 🙂