S-19 Progress Report from RANS
July 1, 2009

Rans update posted here.

I'm Back In Business!
July 1, 2009

I called Michigan Sandblasters and asked about having my fuselage sandblasted. An hour later we were loading the fuselage on the back of the truck!

I leave for a trip tomorrow and get back Sunday evening. They are going to deliver it back to me on Monday morning and I'll get right to priming it. After the fuselage is primed with Superflite two part epoxy primer, I'll move it to the other side of the garage and start re-covering it. Then, I can move a wing into the paint booth. The plan is to spray primer on the wing in the morning, then spend the day covering. By the time I have both wings primed and painted, I'll have the fuselage recovered and it will be ready to move into the booth for painting. Things are moving along nicely now.

S-19 Brake Line Routing
July 1, 2009

Chris posted a few pics, sent to him from RANS, of the S-19 brake line routing. If you're wondering how to route the brake lines, here's some good pics!

Team RANS
June 29, 2009 by Randy Schlitter

"Team RANS wins RAAM beating all other 4 man teams and 3 eight man teams! The race showed how important aerodynamics is to racing. Congrats to Team RANS on a historic victory, and thanks to all who supported the effort, either by blogging or flying over the racers and wagging your wings."

Aveo Group Buy is Back
June 28, 2009

It seems there was some confusion at Aveo about who authorized the RANS CLAN Aveo group buy. The head honcho at Aveo has assured us that they appreciate the opportunity that AveoMidAmerica is offering to us with these group buys and has not only made sure everyone at Aveo knows that they support us, but they apologized for the misunderstanding and even went a step further-they are extending this group buy until July 26th!

AveoMidAmerica is offering us a discount on the new 9-24v L.E.D. nav/strobe lights, the Aveo Ball Vents, and the new EyeBeam cockpit light. More information is available here as well as the order link.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete Works for Planes Too!
June 27, 2009

Patience. It's something I just don't have. Thank goodness I'm not a doctor. The following story is what not having patience leads too. This whole process started with me getting some grit in the paint when I painted a couple of tail pieces. If I had patience, I would have solved the grit problem and then started painting the fuselage. Maybe I thought the grit would magically disappear? Or maybe I figured if I ignored the problem it would go away? What ever the reason (no patience) I wanted to get the fuselage painted. I was just too excited to get the fuselage painted and start working on the panel and wiring, etc... Read the rest of the story here.

Rotax Price Increase
June 25, 2009

Just a reminder that Rotax is increasing prices by 5% on July first. If you think you will need an engine sometime soon, you might want to order it now and save a bunch of money.

Icom Rebate Program
June 25, 2009 (posted by Tom Prevost)

Icom has a new summer rebate program for it's radios. View the original post by Tom Prevost on the RANS CLAN forums here.

Early Monday Quiz!
June 25, 2009

The Monday Quiz! for June 29th is now ready for you. how much do you remember about engines?

AVEO Group Buy Has Ended
June 24, 2009

Airplane Painting
June 24, 2009

If you've been following my painting progress, you will know about the grit problem I'm having. I was using a Citation HVLP with poor results. I decided to go with a different setup. I purchased a DeVilbiss GTi 620G HVLP spray gun and then went to Harbor Freight and bought all the fittings and filters I'd need to use the new gun with my Sears air compressor.

The new paint gun looks to be very high quality, but comes with very poor instructions. It came with little pieces and 'things' that the instructions never mention. I bought my spray gun with the DeVilbiss disposable paint cups and those too came with no directions. Even though there are only a few parts, I'm not completely sure I have it connected to the gun properly.

Today I am going to mix some paint and play with the gun a little testing air pressures and gun settings. Once I learn how to use the new gun and figure out the best pressures and needle settings, I will finally be able to spray the last coat of white on the fuselage. Then after the white dries, I can mask off and paint the red on the bottom and sides. Things might actually start moving along now.

RANS Bike Race and Air Support
June 23, 2009

Here's a link sent by Randy that shows ETA's for the remaining time stations. This should make it easy to for anyone wanting to do fly-bys or cheer the team on from a street side position. "We are holding up pretty well in first place!", says Randy.

http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/raam/rcracerfcmap.php?s_N_Year_ID=&s_N_Entry_IDx=1479

Calling for Air Support along RAAM Route
June 20, 2009 By Randy Schlitter
 

Today at 4 PM Pacific Time, a team of 4 RANS bike riders will begin a race, in fact a Race Across America (RAAM). The link is to the web site, showing Time Stations all along the route. Our hope is you will look at the site and find a TS or several near you and offer you support by cheering the team on. 

This can be done several ways:

1.    Fly over the team and wag your wings. The team and road crew have been alerted that any small plane will be taken as a RANS plane showing support. Please stay within the FAR’s.
2.    Fly low over the team and drop encouraging notes on small rapidly biodegradable paper. Please stay within the FAR’s and EPA regulations. 
3.    Study the route finding place where airports and courtesy cars are nearby and fly to that airport and jump in the car and rush to a street corner to wave the team on. Please stay within FAR’s and State highway laws of that particular state.
4.    In all cases take video or still shots to post on RANS CLAN or send to us to post on several of the bike online mags. Please stay within the FCC and SAG regulations. 

The team runs a single rider at a time, and will rely across, and this means they will be covering ground pretty fast, as much as 25 MPH average we hope, yes, that is 25 MPH average on a bike! We build some fast bikes!

If you can offer any form of support for this every one at RANS and Team RANS will be grateful. This race has been one of the most prolific events we have ever participated in bike-wise, and we hope for some good results, like first place would be nice! I hope you can show your support in one way or another and have some fun flying at the same time, after all isn’t this what we build our planes for? 

Italics provided by our legal department…I would like to stay within my &*%$@ limits with those guys….

-Randy Schlitter

RANS Factory Tour and S-19 Demo Flight
June 16, 2009 by Bruce Fox

Google Map Starting to Fill Up!
June 15, 2009

The Google map is starting to fill in which is great! As you can see the pins are now color coded. You can select the color of your pin when you place yours on the map. Here's a guide color guide:

S-4/5...purple
S-6...green
S-7...yellow
S-9/10...orange
S-19...blue
S-12...pink

Click the link below the map to visit the map and add your pin. Instructions here.

 
View RANS CLAN Members in a larger map