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Jorgen
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Posted Tuesday, August 20, 2013 @ 05:08 PM  


I took off before a rainshower came in over the field. Online radar showed a substantial CuNim right on my Southwesterly track, along the left wing in the picture. I opted to try a westerly course were it looked like it cleared after the front with some evening glow over the clouds. I didn’t dare to go “on top” without IFR equipment but the low stratus clouds turned out to be a little bit lower than convenient- I can’t say I enjoyed the ensuing 15 minute dash in cloudbase at 500 ft low over the dense woods. After som wrestling with the GPS (anyone else also usually get stuck in some obscure displaymode in similar situations?) and the map I changed course south again, cloudbase dropped even further but wasn’t there some light in the west?

Suddenly I was in the clear and entered CAVOK and a beautiful evening scenery. I set a straight course for home and increased to max cruise since sunset was imminent.

I actually had plenty of time to get home and also an almost full Moon to guide my way the last bit home. The bicycle ride home from the strip as the wind died down was without rain and very enjoyable. Inline commuting works well with a Fournier, but as I said before I recommend knee- elbow-, wrist protection and helmet, plus some training (especially braking) before. But next time a coldfront decides to intervene on my commute I’ll probably take the car I think- or re-schedule!

May the 4's be with you/ Jörgen

Bob Grimstead
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Posted Friday, August 23, 2013 @ 10:42 AM  

Hi Jorgen,

Thank you for those superbly atmospheric photos.

Been there, done that, myself, on occasion in my youth, but less so nowadays

Please keep on sharing your Fournier experiences with us, especially for those of us who are temporarily grounded.

Yours, Bob

Jorgen
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Posted Saturday, August 24, 2013 @ 04:14 PM  

Thanks Bob, "superbly atmospheric" is precisely the expression. On the last picture you can see the groundfog that I struggled through far away on the left. You learn as long as you live. Sorry to hear you're grounded again, I hope it's not your back?

Summer in Sweden has been exceptional this year with a persisting highpressure during most of July so I've had some more interesting commutes that I will report on later!

May the 4's be with you/ Jörgen

Bob Grimstead
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Posted Saturday, August 24, 2013 @ 08:13 PM  

This time I'm grounded by aluminium corrosion on the aileron operating arms, and my incompetence at reading an engineering drawing to repair them.

It's coming along, but very slowly because I also have other distractions, like having to find and organise re-location of aeroplanes and hangar to a new airstrip after, I think, 28 years, because the farm's being sold by the offspring of the deceased original, decorated, ex-wartime pilot owner.

It has generally not been a good year for me and my flying, despite lovely British weather also this summer.

Since 26th January I have flown only two Fournier sorties, and not one single display, which is really disappointing, and as you know, not at all like this normally 100-hour per year Fournicator.

Perhaps things will improve. I live in hopes.

Happy Fournier flying to all the rest of you.

Yours, Bob

Jorgen
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Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2013 @ 11:22 AM  

Hi Fournieteers,
It’s time to sum up this year’s Fournieromuting. I have had the privilege to commute on a weekly basis lately and a bit more distant, making Fourniaerommuting an ideal, well almost ideal way to do it. By car it’s a 7 hour, 400 mile drive up north from where I live so when the high-pressure type weather persisted for most of July the RF 4 was an easy choice for the trip. The weather was a little gray during the first leg, but still CAVOK. I landed for refuelling at Roland’s (surely you remember his heroic trip home from the UK last year) strip, which incidentally is situated almost exactly on the halfway mark. I finally got an opportunity to check his 4 out, which recently got the Swedish registration “SE-TRX”. Excellent shine and it was really nice to meet up with Roland even though it was a bit brief since I wanted to get going to have all the daylight I could get for the second leg.

The straight track to my destination crosses lake “Vänern”, Sweden’s largest lake, about half Lake Eire in size. Luckily, there’s an isthmus on the middle were the actual distance over water is “only” about 25 kilometers. I was in luck, the sky cleared as I neared the lake and I could easily climb to 4000 ft giving me a comfortable glidable “engine-out” margin for the crossing.

When I reached the north-shore penninsula “Värmlandsnäs” I could identify the area southwest of the point where we sailed the Swedish Championships in Skatesailing last January on miles and miles of absolutely smooth, black ice. Alexander Sahlin who won his 20th title claimed he’d never seen such good conditions for championships before. He probably had a hunch he stood a good chance of winning, or maybe he always brings a bottle of Champagne in his back pack when he’s sailing… It felt neat to be back on the same spot where we had such good times recently.

May the 4s be with you/ Jörgen

Jorgen
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Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2013 @ 12:15 PM  

The flight up the river and fjord towards the vicinity of the Norwegian boarder was beautiful and it felt great to enter the circuit at “ESKV”, a quiet but excellent airport with 3300 ft tarmac, located 2-3 kilometers outside of the town. I borrowed a bicycle, as you all know I use bicycles all the time to visit and bring gas to the 4.

The right honorable blokes at the local flying club arranged a spot in the hangar for me where I gratefully moved in. The sharp eyed can perhaps notice that the main gear tire might have slightly low airpressure? Sure enough- next day I had a flat tire…

Luckily enough I found enough tools to lift the 4 and dismantled the main wheel with surprisingly little difficulty. More luck- it turned out that the neighbor to the airport has a tire shop and agreed to fix the tube for ten bucks. He did- but almost lost his right thumb when he re-inflated the tire- the wheelbolts failed and sent both the wheel-halves flying skyhigh!!! (I’ll start a new thread on that in the maintenance section) Even more luck- I found some replacement bolts in a local store and it’s been working great since then. I strongly suggest to exchange the wheel bolts at regular intervals, maybe 2-300 hours or so, it’s not a difficult job but consequences of wheelbolt failure at the wrong time could be quite severe.

A tip for the “wheel-on-off”-job: a copperhead mallet ( = soft, easier to work with than a piece of wood in between) is excellent for banging the axle pipe back in with little risk of denting the edges of the pipe which might make it bind and obstruct next time you need to remove it.

May the 4s be with you/ Jörgen

Jorgen
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Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2013 @ 12:25 PM  

“XST”s former owner (then “G-AVNX”) James Hallam from the UK and I are good friends and have kept in touch. It has however been a few years, but during this particular week I suddenly I got a text from James asking “-where are you? I’m in Sweden flying skydivers, can you come and help me blow the froth off a couple?” It turns out James was at “ESGS” airport on the Swedish west coast- a mere 30 minutes flight from “ESKV”! Fournieteers evidently have ceratin mental abilities not entirely described before. After tending to work Saturday morning I biked out, jumped in the 4 and spluttered over to “ESGS” in absolutely stunning summer weather. After landing at the airstrip filled with skydivers, tents, flags etc I taxied to a somewhat more remote corner and tied the 4 up. Just as I was finished James landed in a Vortex swirling cloud of dust with the Long-nose Beech King Air “The White Beech” with a huge gaping door in the back to kick skydivers out in the most effective fashion possible.

I arrived just in time for one of his last lifts before refueling so I sat in as Co-pilot. Lots of bells, whistles, switches’n’stuff, but still flew like a decent aeroplane and turbines do have impressive power. We chattered lively on the intercom, catching up with all that had happened since we last met. The view was spectacular with the Swedish west coast archipelago beneath us and the mountains and fjords of Norway in the North. Just as we started to get high enough to see the curvature of planet Earth, James levelled out, the Skydivers gave us a “Hang Loose”- and out they went…..

James nosed over quite steeply and made it back down to beat some of the Skydivers to it in a huge, sweeping left turn.

My comment “-What’s the rush, Mate? Is there a 109 on our tail?” put a grin on James face. Later I (for some reason) got a discount on a tandem jump from 12000 feet so if I ever have to leave an aeroplane it won’t be my first time skydiving. In the evening we had a nice meal with lots of frothy beverages together with most vacationing boating people on the nearby docks of “Strömstad”.

May the 4s be with you/ Jörgen

Jorgen
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Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2013 @ 12:35 PM  

Next morning I treated James to a reunion with “XST”. He did a splendid display of aerobatics and as you can see he’s still suffering from the chronic, Fournier-induced “Silly Grin” syndrome. “-What a fantastic way to start the day!” he exclaimed and made me promise to phone him first if I ever contemplate selling the 4.

I took off for a splendid flight back to ESKV in excellent weather where I went “on top” most of the way.

The weather continued to be extremely nice the next week and I enjoyed kayaking and boating in the light summer evenings with sunset around 11 pm.
When it was time to fly back home the high pressure still held and I had good cloud base all the way with spectacular cumulus clouds along the west coast of lake Vänern.

I could use the lift to boost my cruise speed zooming along at cloudbase level. I refueled at “ESGE” and on climb out I was aided by a huge cumulus literally “sucking me up”. The rest of the trip I had nice weather and blue skies.

May the 4s be with you/ Jörgen

Jorgen
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Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2013 @ 12:48 PM  

Next trip was too a place along the same track but not quite as far north, I could make “ESGT” in one leg in just over two hours. I had OK visibility and cloudbase so navigation was easy, I might even have managed to keep out of controlled airspace. Jonas Granath from the local flying club met me at the airport, had arranged a hangar spot, arranged for a visitors key and even drove me up to work-fantastic hospitality! Next day I borrowed a car and a jerrycan and topped “XST” up. After intense 24-7 work for a stiff week I headed out to the airport for my flight home. The forecast was not very good for VFR flying, an unstable airmass promised lots of shower activity. At the airport I was pleasantly surprised to see that “Swedish Airforce Historic Flight” was parked on the apron with Saab SK 60, AJS 37 “Viggen” (frontline fighter in the 70-ies) and J 29 “Tunnan” ("the flying Barrel", frontline fighter in the fifties). I made my preparations as a regional Saab 340 took off.

As I waited in the comfort of the clubhouse for the huge CuNims in the south to clear my path (internet and precipitation radar is really useful for detail planning and timing of VFR flights) I was delighted to enjoy the start-up and subsequent take-off of all three vintage military jets- the wait wasn’t boring at all!

The J 29 Barrel took off towards a huge CuNim but actually made a left turn out before entering the soup.

After a couple of hours wait I took off towards the south and was lucky to find my track just between showers with cloudbase of 2000 ft, more than adequate. My luck held, I flew between showers all the way but as I neared the controllzone around “ESTA” airport a huge CuNim blocked my track.

I was lucky again, the westerly wind managed to clear the shower to the east just in time for me to pass just west of it and the “ESTA” TWR reluctantly allowed me to cross the controlzone without a transponder so I was able to maintain VFR. It felt good to bike home after that little adventure.

May the 4s be with you/ Jörgen

[Edit by Jorgen on Wednesday, January 1, 2014 @ 11:40 AM]

Jorgen
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Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2013 @ 12:58 PM  

Next commute it was time for “ESKV” again, this was in September so weather was more of a factor. Forecast was so-so, but after talking to the meteorologist (who said “-it should be possible to punch through flying VFR”) I decided to fly. Cloudbase was mostly around 1500 ft and the showers were frequent, but although visibility dropped inside them it was still possible to fly VFR.

I landed at Roland’s strip again after punching through a shower just south of the downwind leg, and luckily Roland’s hangar (that he is currently fixing up) is big enough to host both “XST” and “TGX” so we waited in shelter while the shower passed as we fuelled XST up and downed a quick cup of coffee.

I took of towards the south and made a low pass over the strip as I turned north again, Roland is waving outside the hangar. He later told me that the weather caved in after I left with a lot more showers.

As I neared lake Vänern and my crossing towards”Värmlandsnäs” I was lucky again- the weather cleared and I was able to climb to 4000 ft before the crossing just as I wished.

It was a beautiful flight up along the peninsula and along the fjord towards “ESKV” where I made a smooth landing on runway 19.

May the 4s be with you/ Jörgen

After unpacking I pushed “XST” into the hangar helped by my good friend Peter who drove me to town and loaned me his bicycle.

Donald
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Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2013 @ 01:23 PM  

As ever Jorgen, great tales and wonderful pictures.

I had my last flight of 2013 on Sunday , nothing special, just a tour round my locality but I did want to take advantage of the good day and squeeze one in before the new year.

It's a little early to give details quite yet but I hope soon to also be able to ride my bike to my hangar to fly the RF3. No, I'm not moving closer to the airport but things are in motion to move the Fournier closer to me. I'm looking forward to that.

Have a good New Year.

Donald

Jorgen
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Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2013 @ 07:14 PM  

Thanks Donald,
nice to hear you got a flight in this late in the year, I hibernated the 4 this november. "Bicycle Fournication" is perhaps a weird way of getting to the airfield, but somehow it feels logical to combine those two energy efficient ways of transportation, don't you think? I have some more left of this years commuterstories:

The next day the weather was even better with perky looking cumuluses so naturally I went up and “saved some gas”. It was late in the day after work but I got a half hour gliding before the day closed in on me. I managed to glide back to the airfield and did a very successful gliderlanding where I managed to turn onto the taxiway and rolled out until I had only a 100 meters to push ”XST” to the hangar.

Let me introduce my good friend and Honorary Fournieteer Peter Adrian, who spent a lot of time flying Fourniers in Oerlinghausen, Germany in the 60-ies and 70-ies just at the edge of the Teutoburger Wald. He married a Swedish girl and lives close to ESKV spending most his time nowadays sailing- on ice during the winter (you can perhaps imagine how we met!) and on liquid water during summer. He built “Thor Viking”, a replica Viking era sailing ship, and with the exception of some polypropylene ropes and the Dacron sail we used sailing technology from a thousand years ago!!

When it was time to fly back home it was late September and the weather was predictably not that great for XC VFR flights. Nevertheless I took off after some intense planning, were I tried to prepare myself for various options in case weather caved in on me. I had some 1000-1500 ft of cloudbase- just barely legal for planned VFR and the radar showed some rather large areas of precipitation along my track.

May the 4s be with you/ Jörgen

Jorgen
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Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2013 @ 07:35 PM  

I was reluctant to cross the isthmus of lake Vänern on just 1500 ft, but my friend Jonas who was strategically placed texted me that there was some clearing of the weather in the southwest so I decided to follow lake Vänerns west coast. Just north of “ESGT” I encountered a huge Cu shower/squall line that I decided to try and punch through since I had pretty certain observations there was clearer weather ahead. I had to descend lower and lower and visibility shrank considerably, soon I was at below 500 ft and had perhaps 2 km visibility.

If it wouldn’t have been for the fact that this happened to be farmland with harvested, landable fields everywhere I would have turned around, but I did punch through and was able to climb back up to almost 2000 ft before crossing the western part of lake Vänern.

Last bit of the leg sported substantial headwind, some showers and cloudbase at 1500 ft. I landed for refuelling at ESGE where a Chipmunk pilot coming up from the south reported low cloudbases but better visibility along the coast, so I opted for a southwesterly course to get to the coast. After about 15 minutes I encountered a white wall of precipitation, I tried to pass through it but it was quickly evident that this was not passable- visibility almost disappeared. I quickly executed a snappy 180 degree turn and came back out. Now what- return to ESGE and wait it out? Cloudbase was 1500 ft (which didn’t feel all that high over the dense woodland stretching everywhere) but on the other hand visibility was 9999. My true track would have been almost due south, I decided to follow the front towards the southeast.

The front was a straight, white wall and it felt odd to fly along it at fairly low altitude. After almost an hour it seemed like the cloudbase sank and visibility deteriorated. I set a new course for ESMG towards the east, knowing that they have a huge hangar but also that public transportation to and from the place is miniscule.

Halfway there over lake “Bolmen” I saw how visibility improved in the south and took up course along the front again. Maybe I could reach ESFA, an airstrip just beside a train station? As my hopes elevated I spotted a tendency for a clearing in the previously totally dense front I had flown along so far and- lo and behold- was able to punch through! The remaining 45 minutes was a piece of cake with good visibility and cloudbase still at 1500 ft. You can see the light of the sunset mirrored in the "Öresund"-straight far away in the southwest and the last CuNim vacated my strip just as I arrived!

So as you can see I’ve had some very inspiring Fournierflying this year. May all Fournieteers past, present and future one’s have a safe and very happy 2014!!!

May the 4s be with you/ Jörgen

Bob Grimstead
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Posted Wednesday, January 1, 2014 @ 09:00 AM  

Hi again Jorgen,

A very happy New Year to you, and thank you so very much for sharing your 2013 Fournier flying with us all. The photos are great, and your descriptions are very vivid. I do remember a little about Sweden, its terrain, topography and weather, so with a couple of quick glances at Google Maps I was able to follow your flights all the way, with a fair imagination of how it must have been for you.
I really enjoyed your account, particularly so because sonce 26th January last, my own Fournier flying has been precisely one ten-minute gentle aerobatic sortie last July. Thanks to you, I have been able to vicariously live some Fournier flying to uplift my spirits a little.

As I write this, my hangar is merely a jumbled pile of steel on a rain- and wind-swept concrete taxiway, and my lovely aeroplane is completely dismantled into several dusty piles and boxes. I have run out of money, so this week will be spent on formal applications for all the many modifications, so that the paperwork ties up with the aeroplane's condition when it is done.
Next week I shall have to start writing articles again, sell the Land Rover, advertise surplus stuff on eBay and so on to pay for further work.

Meanwhile, do see this thread below on wheel bolts. This is a very serious and recurring issue, and I urge all Fournicators to inspect their wheel bolts regularly, and to change the nuts every time you undo them, and replace the bolts every few years.
Either on the ground or in the air, failure of those bolts is common, and can be very dangerous!

http://sbeaver.com/cgi-bin/fournier/cutecast.pl?session=U2QHE86LR0EwkqtmNV5oOETrNe&forum=11&thread=730

And now I wish all fellow Fournier fans an excellent flying year ahead.

With very best wishes to you all, Bob

--------------------
Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV

Jorgen
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Posted Wednesday, January 1, 2014 @ 12:28 PM  

Thanks for your kind words Bob,
I'm sorry to hear about your ordeals. I think Henry Ford is credited with saying; "-When everything seems to be going against you, remember that Aeroplanes take off and land against the wind." I hope and pray that 2014 will be a better year for you and all of us.

The wheelbolts are certainly a serious issue, and the incident got me thinking. You can imagine my curses as I discovered the flat tire, but it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Or as James put it when we discussed it during our Saturday-night debriefing: "-She was obviously trying to tell you something!"

COmpared to all other aviation related checks and maintenance issues, there is a list of special considerations for 4s (in no particular order):

-Wheelbolts
-Lubricating the trim wire
-Wipe oil of the belly after each flight (I'm thinking of your cockpit floor- and the spar...)
-Clearing the ventilation holes in the tail behind the tailwheel.

...and there's of course more. I guess we should start a new thread on that...

May the 4s be with you/ Jörgen

D. Porter
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Posted Wednesday, January 1, 2014 @ 01:41 PM  

Quote:
Originally posted by Jorgen
Luckily enough I found enough tools to lift the 4 and dismantled the main wheel with surprisingly little difficulty.

Hi Jorgen,

I can't tell from the picture how you lifted the fuselage to remove the wheel.
Just curious as I will be doing this job in 2014. Seems like either an engine hoist or jacking from below can be used.

Don

Bob Grimstead
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Posted Wednesday, January 1, 2014 @ 03:40 PM  

Hi Don,

There used to be a whole thread on jacking and wheel change, with several alternative methods of raising a Fournier, but I can't find it using the 'search' feature.
Maybe it disappeared when we had that server problem.

Meanwhile, there is some info here:
http://sbeaver.com/cgi-bin/fournier/cutecast.pl?session=5qlnDC9E1ALHi1nRuOGGOqxXux&forum=11&thread=746

Yours, Bob

--------------------
Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV

Donald
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Posted Wednesday, January 1, 2014 @ 05:04 PM  

I find I have no pictures to post but my method for the RF3 is pretty rudimentary.

I have a trestle to lift the tail and a wooden frame to go under the underwing skids. That frame has two supports sized to fit under the skids only when the tail is raised. It's cross braced both laterally and longitudinally and atop the legs has short, shallow channels fore and aft to capture the skids.

The tail is first lifted on to the trestle to raise the skids then the frame goes under the skids. Next the trestle is removed and the aircraft allowed to settle into the frame channels. At this point the main wheel is still on the ground.

The final component is an anchor bolt let into the floor under the tailwheel. A strap through a snap link to the anchor bolt and around the tailwheel lets me pull the tail downwards to lift the main off the floor. I usually put smaller supports outboard under the wings just so I don't accidentally tip the Fournier off the frame.

Looking at the photo of SE-XST I think Jorgen may have used a similar method for there looks to be a strap around his rear lifting handles down to the pallet truck.

[Edit by Donald on Wednesday, January 1, 2014 @ 05:09 PM]

Jorgen
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Posted Thursday, January 2, 2014 @ 00:51 AM  

Hi FOurnieteers,
I think this is the thread you were thinking of Bob:

http://sbeaver.com/cgi-bin/fournier/cutecast.pl?session=rUvX8VJSdSLMNRODfQb3CHNJi9&forum=11&thread=330

Don, Donald, you are correct. I lifted the tail high enough to almost stand the 4 on it's nose and put something under the tailwheel. I then used the pallet truck to put two pallets under the skids, then I parked the mallet truck under the tail with a strap to the extended tailhandle.Then I simply tensioned the strap until the main gear lifted off the floor. There are many ways of doing it and this was a makeshift, improvised way since I wasn't "at home". I suggest everyone maintaining a 4 get familiar with how to lift the 4 and how to remove the main gear as described in the thread above. It's not really difficult once you find tools to do it and as we concluded it needs to be done every now and then.

May the 4s be with you/ Jörgen

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Flying "The poor man's Spitfire"
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