Jim's RV 12

The Trip to Vans
I decided to make the trip to Vans for the rest of the plane when I bought it. It's just up to OR so it seemed like a good idea. I knew they would have the kits ready in December but the west coast weather is such that I fly most of the year so I didn't believe weather would be much of a problem. When they called the weather wasn't too bad and there was a front moving in for the trip but the commitment was made, the trailer reserved and time taken off work, so I went. Turned out to be the blizzard of 2012 and the 9 to 10 hours up turned into a 20 hour drive. What was going to be a quick day up and a day back ended up to be 3 days - pretty much like everything else on this plane - just takes longer than you expect. Now that I'm home safe with $24k of parts I don't regret it but I won't make that trip again until the plane is flying and I can fly to Vans.

There are three mountain passes to get to the Portland area and all three were snowing. The first pass at Mt Shasta had us holding for three and a half hours at Dunsmire while wet sticky snow just piled up.

This put a huge dent in the travel time and I made it as far as Eugene at 3:00AM, pulled in and got a room. After three hours sleep I hit the road because I wanted to make it back down to the passed before night. Vans was cool. Took a quick look around the place and loaded up the truck.

Inside of Vans

If I ever do build again the quick builds seem the way to go. You can unpack the fuselage and make airplane noises the day they deliver. I also saw a 12 that was pretty much complete off to the side. It had some wrinkles in the empennage skins. I don't know if it's the one that I read about on VansAirforce, (I hope it's not a common problem - search thin skinned bird) but Vans was committed to figuring it out. I cleco every hole and work my way out from the center they way I was taught. Aluminum does stretch and when you use a gun you really see it. So the truck is all loaded for the trip home and off we go.

The Photo Op

They had already scheduled the main spars for the shipper and we could have thrown them on top but there was no need to push the envelope. It was bad weather for the trip home and forecasted to get worse so let the professionals deal with the snowy roads.

I made good time back down to Medford - Grants Pass was a non-issue. Snow but no chains required. At Ashland they had us waiting again and reports were that the CA-CHP had closed I5 for an accident. It was only 3PM and I knew if I could get out of the passed by 6 or 7 I'd be fine. Well it didn't quit work out that way. They shut down the passes at Yreaka for blizzard conditions and made us all get off the freeway. I thought about waiting it out in the truck but decided to be conservative (as any good pilot should) and not let get-there-itis cloud my decisions. I'd only had 3 hours sleep in the last two days and had precious cargo so I drove back up to Medford and got a room. Turned out that everything opened up again at 8:30 PM but I had the room so I just decided to keep it on the ground and get some rest. I hit the road again at 4AM in hope of beating the mad rush of traffic that was sure to come when all the rest of the folks got back on the highway - a good decision. Chained up at Syskiyou pass (truck, trailer and used 4 wheel drive) and it was pretty much a none event. The rest of the passes were easy. I kept the chains on the trailer (cables actually - there on and off in 3 minutes) and kept it in 4X4 for the rest of the trip. A note to anyone driving in this weather. It's better to drive 30 mph than 0 mph. Every pass had an accident. From jack-knifed big rigs to overturned SUV's.