First 9 months with FXMI

Hi Gang,,, I thought I would add a little story I had written for a publication in November. Enjoy!!

So, you’re building an RV? Big Deal!

Its November, and I’ve just put away FXMI away for the winter. I’ve tallied up the flying hours from the end of April to the beginning of November and we burned fuel for 130 hours together. FXMI is owned by High Flight Adventures Inc. . I fly FXMI for High Flight and introduce young people to aviation with her. In 2009, we’ll be doing the same thing, only we will also be flying Terminally ill children so they too can experience the wonder of flight, before they are called home.

This is the story of the first nine months love affair with my aluminum mistress. I had been interested in Red Star aircraft for sometime, but I had never had an opportunity to fly in one, or even get close to one for that matter.

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The storey begins in August of 2007, I was the air boss at the Classic Air Rally in Ottawa Ontario. Dan “Bandit” Fortin, was flying his CJ at the Rally. As Air Boss, we had several opportunities to cross paths and talk. I started explaining to Dan that I loved the Red star ships, yak’s and cj’s, but I couldn’t afford one. Instead I was building an RV8 to fly and sell to raise funds for my CJ.

This is where the story really starts. After telling Bandit I was building an RV8, he exclaimed “So you’re building an RV8?. big fat hairy deal” Now, I could tell by the mischievous grin that Bandit was having some fun with me. I had expressed an eager interest in the CJ6 to Bandit, and he invited me aboard to sit in his ship and make airplane noises. Now, I was getting excited. Bandit was very eager to share all kinds of information about his mount. Bandit did warn me though, “if you sit in my airplane, you will want to fly it.” Well,,, duh!! That was the point wasn’t it? Not quite he said, the problem is that if you fly it, you will buy one. Hmmm,, that was a meaningful comment, I suggested that he was full of,…Well lets just say it wasn’t aviation fuel I was referring to. Besides, I had some gas money to burn. Lets go flying!

September 2007, Bandit and I have co-ordinated a flight in his Cj6. I drove down to Montreal from my home in Ottawa and was given the royal treatment. Bandit did the walk around of his airplane with me, stopping to point out all of the subtleties of our beautiful aircraft. Oh yeah,, then I got to spin his prop by hand, for what I thought was 573 blades. To the uninitiated, pulling the prop through uses muscles don’t use very often. That was fun,, but the royal treatment usually means you don’t get dirty. Wrong. The next royal thing I got to do was clean up the oil mess on the floor. We took off and did a max performance climb. We then flew away climbed to 3k feet and did an aero routine. What a blast. Bandit then let me fly her from the back seat, I landed her at another little airport. Bandit said I flew her real well, but he was sure taxing her would bring me back to earth. The entire time, “Bandit” couldn’t stop laughing. After about 4 minutes of gut busting laughter from the front seat, he took over, suddenly his airplane behaved like an airplane again. He let me do the take off and away we went. We returned to his home base, I filled up his plane as promised and we had lunch. Guess what dear reader? Bandit was right. (yes I have since put that in writing so he can prove it to his loving wife that he has been right at least once.) I had to have one. Bandit let me know there was one for sale in Montreal and he could arrange to “show” it to me.

October 2007 FXMI was in Montreal and not too far away from Bandit’s airport and Bandit arranged a flight for me with its owner. We flew some formation, with some killer extended trail. We landed, I sat in what was to become my airplane for 10 minutes just shaking my head, the boys said I kept mumbling “she’s gonna kill me” over and over. I thanked Marcel Deschamps for his time and started looking in earnest for my new CJ. I put my RV8 project up for sale at a fantastic price so I could get rid of it quickly.

November 2007, after having looked at many CJ’s available to me in the U.S., I concluded that buying FXMI was the best deal for me. She was extremely well looked after, she was 2 hours away, Marcel would keep her in his hangar all winter long, and he was throwing in an engine and a bunch of parts. Dealing with Marcel for the purchase of the airplane was a dream, lots of integrity and no B.S. We concluded our deal, I gave him a deposit, and I waited for what seemed an eternity for April.

April 2008, woohoo!! The snow is almost gone, High Flight Adventures has finished buying FXMI from Marcel, and I’ve taxied her for 1.5 hours to learn the intricacies of the braking system. End of April is fast approaching, and I have to do a photo shoot with the local newspaper that is covering High Flight Adventures. I arranged to do 3 hours of transition training with Bandit. We then flew back to Bandit’s airport together. Bandit landed and let me continue in the circuit some more. After 4 more controlled crashes, he called me on the radio and said I can come down now. I shook his hand, got in my airplane, and flew my new CJ home! What a rush, buzz, insert adjective here. We did the photo shoot the next day, I flew her around for the pics, landed and promptly forgot to shut off my air valve. Rookie mistake. Bandit advises me what to do, and another problem solved.

May 2008, Easton. I was introduced to formation flying with the Eastern Raiders. What a crazy, fun group of guys. Bandit had given me my ground school over a couple of days back home. Day 1, Mozam jumps in my back seat and we go do a 45 minute ride. Awesome experience. My second ride I go down in the chocks with no air. Mort and Marty troubleshoot my plane and determine the QS2 valve is shot. This is where it gets good. It is said that the boys at the Flying W, will arrive on their own time, and are always late. Well their help was generous and timely. These guys got the part out of Mort’s shop and had it flown down from Jersey in a Mooney so I could fly again the next day. What a great bunch of guys, you can always count on Mort, and the Flying W boys. I get up and running again just in time to do the mass formation. It is decided, I’ve got what it takes. They carefully place BAM BAM in my back seat to fly the rejoins and I participate in a 20 ship mass formation. What a rush, buzz, insert adjective here. We all meet up at the local watering hole for a great meal, and Kangaroo Court. I am charged by my mentor with breach of protocol, and general stupidity for the transponder screw up back in KBTV. I stand in front of the court and my peers. Take a swig of “truth serum”. I give testimony, and I’m found not guilty for reasons of insanity. The tables are turned on my tormentor, and he is found guilty of not providing a proper pre-flight brief. Woohoo!! Justice is served. Lots of charges are bantered back and forth, and we all have a great time. Again, I have to point out that the Eastern Raiders are a great bunch. A good time was had by all. The next day its time to wrap it up, and Bandit and I and Charlie reverse our course. We leave Charlie in KHPN, and I leave Bandit abeam KBTV and fly home with my wife.

June 2008. Bandits North part 3. Bandit organizes a great fly in, sadly the stars conspire against him and he ends up with 4 participants. Myself, Primer (another newbie named Mike Kirk), Mike “Blade” Filucci, and Bandit himself. . Primer, Blade, and myself banter back and forth and we learn that we are all pretty much kindred spirits. All aviation types with a taste for Scotch. The next day, we start our formation training, Bandit in my back seat, Blade in Primer’s back seat. But wait, we can’t yet because we are in IFR conditions. It lasts all day (Friday), we retire back to Bandit’s place and we drink Scotch, eat Steak, and tell each other lies. Bandit’s wife Julie is a most gracious hostess and takes great care of her charges. She puts up with us just long enough for us to get a little inebriated and then says goodnight, and runs away. Thanks Jules! Saturday dawns like the previous day, ceilings slowly start to increase, we get some formation practice in finally. More Formation practice and we wrap up, and say “gday”. Blade fly’s home commercial. Primer and I, “Hoser Flight” fly in Formation back to Ottawa, Primer continues on to his home.

July and August of 2008, FXMI and I flew a bunch of kids and adults for the High Flight Adventures. Introducing many children and adults to the wonder of flight. At the same time, I am becoming intimate with my aluminum mistress. I am slowly learning all her little nuances and habits.

September 2008. OPD3. This has got to be an article by its self. How can one begin to explain how much fun you can have at this event. Flying into the little town of Sanford, Maine at 130kts, 200 feet off the deck to drop pumpkins out of your ship onto a target, that is floating on a little pond (lake) in the middle of town. Woohoo!!! More formation training, camaraderie and general debauchery. (after flight ops of course). I didn’t drink much Scotch on this one, but DaBear and I and our 2 GIB’s saw the inside of a couple of beer bottles.

October 2008 Easton Fall edition. Formation training, I got my wing patch. I got really sick, my airplane went down with a sick pop off valve. Okay, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. This edition of Easton, we had 7 more CJ’s, we had 5 T-28’s and 6 or 7 T6’s to play with. The formation training and flying was awesome. Thanks to Ski, Blade, DaBear, Judge, Bam Bam, Barracuda, Timmy (you know that ones gonna stick), Mort, Bandit, and all the rest of these awesome guys for helping me get my wing patch. Truly a great bunch of teachers and buds. Flew home, did my first night landing in the my CJ.

So readers, that’s it for the first 9 months. Lots of stuff left out for editorial brevity, you can imagine 130 hours in 9 months for a guy who has a full time job isn’t half bad, and you know there are more stories. I think it should be said that my love affair with FXMI was allowed to blossom because of the RPA, the Eastern Raiders, and all the other players that took this newbie under their wings and let me belong.

Cheers!