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RF4D s/n 4093 VH-HDO printer friendly version
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Bob Grimstead
Captain

Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
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Posted Tuesday, August 2, 2011 @ 05:25 AM  

VH-HDO’s History (so far – 2022)
VH-HDO has 1400+ hours (over 400 of them mine) and a rather chequered history. It was originally F-BPLB, s/No 4093 (so it was the 93rd RF4D).
I think its first flight was on 6th December 1968, although the French log books start on 18th December, with 9:20 already logged (presumably production test flying and ferrying from Dahlemer Binz).

Although I do have the original French log books, I know little of its early life, other than that it has had at least five propellers (five wheel-up landings?) while in France, although remarkably and to this day (March 2022) it still has its original Rectimo engine, No 198!
The right wing was broken on 18/10/1970 at 315 hours, after "aircraft made forced landing in a field as a result of drop of pressure." (oil pressure, presumably). Also the main wheel leg fork was replaced. This work took four months.

During this period I think it was operated by the Aero Club of Orne.

Here is a photo of it in its original red-and-white scheme with a diminutive but cheery-looking Frenchman standing beside it, presumably either Monteiller or Voyer, whose names appear in the log books repeatedly after May 1971.

It last flew in France on 21st October 1980, with 715 hours logged, and was apparently imported into Australia in a container in 1982 with another RF4 and a two-seat RF5. Its first Australian flight was on 22nd January 1983. In December 1990, at 763 hours and 22 years old, it was re-covered in Victoria with Stits HX 90 Polyfiber.

Subsequently owned by Lionel Carrick, and operated from Tyabb, Va, it was bought and ferried to Serpentine in November 1999 by John Chesbrough.

[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Sunday, February 27, 2022 @ 05:37 AM]

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

Bob Grimstead
Captain

Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2027

Click here to see the profile for Bob Grimstead Visit http://www.redhawksduo.co.uk Send email to Bob Grimstead Send private message to Bob Grimstead Find more posts by Bob Grimstead Edit or delete this message Reply w/Quote
Posted Sunday, March 25, 2012 @ 09:13 AM  

At that time it had 820 hours and was operated by a syndicate of mostly gliding pilots from Serpentine WA (the homebuilders’ airfield). One by one these guys pulled out of the syndicate, leaving the most keen member, Damien O’Reilly as sole owner.

I bought it from Damien in February 2004 with 1006 hours on it.

I have since flown more than 400 hours in it, mostly doing aerobatics, including displaying at the Red Bull Air Race World Series Final, Perth, in November 2007 and 2008 and April 2010. I got the upper wings and tail painted in the sunburst scheme soon after buying it.

Also see:

I landed it with the wheel retracted in October 2007.
http://sbeaver.com/cgi-bin/fournier/cutecast.pl?session=wPc9Iitv4bcLgQoOOZJvNuoIbs&forum=12&thread=339

Fortunately the damage was only minor, and repaired within the week.

HDO now appears in several video clips on YouTube on my FournierBob Channel (including 'Topless Fournier', in which it flies open-cockpit).

In early 2012, during my ownership it had flown 500 aerobatics sorties in 280 hours of aerobatics, plus a further 50 sorties and hours of general flying, positioning and cross-countries.

Yours, Bob

[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Saturday, September 5, 2020 @ 10:58 PM]

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

Jorgen
Captain

Gender: Male
Location: Lund, Sweden
Registered: Apr 2007
Status: Offline
Posts: 833

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Posted Sunday, March 25, 2012 @ 03:44 PM  

Thanks Bob,
outstanding contributions on the history of our great little mounts.

On a side note, I have collected some documents regarding whether you need to chock-load check the engine after a "minor" prop strike. Rectimo claims they have never seen a chock-loaded engine after a propstrike (and from what I gather there has been many prop strikes with RF 4s, it seems easy to forget the wheel) provided the strike was made with a wooden prop. It just struck(!) me that a large part of that statistic might be derived from VH-HDO!

And since you claim you have done your best to spank the life out of that very same engine without suceeding, I think it's a great testament that the claim from Rectimo might have some truth in it.

Just got back from some Fournication today, that £@&%¤# fog lifted for today but is said to return tomorrow.

May the 4's be with you/ Jörgen

Bob Grimstead
Captain

Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2027

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Posted Saturday, December 17, 2016 @ 04:49 AM  

An update on HDO (The Blue Angel) in December 2016.

HDO has now flown around 1,400 hours, still with that original, 48 year-old, 1,500-hour lifed Rectimo engine. Almost all of that last 400 hours was flying full-on, full-throttle aerobatics.

I have just completed the annual inspection, and there is still no trace of metal or any other debris in its oil. Compression might be down a tiny bit — probably mostly because of minor corrosion on the valve faces and seats because of all the hours she stands idle every six months, although I do fill both the sump and the cylinders with Aeroshell 15w50 to minimise this.

Here she is joyfully aerobatting last week:

I have a couple of displays in prospect again this season, and this time I'll try to keep you all updated in a more timely manner.

I also plan to re-cover her fuselage in Oratex 600UL during January, and possibly re-install her bigger, 1,750 engine in February, depending on displays and other possible Fournier committments.

Yours, Bob

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

Bob Grimstead
Captain

Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2027

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Posted Sunday, February 5, 2017 @ 02:46 AM  

Hi Guys,

I don't know whether this will work, but it should be a link to my Dropbox, where I have stored Steve Monti's footage of my New Year's Day display 2017

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xryfjlx9lxni727/Bobs%20Air%20display.mov?dl=0

On-board footage should be here — Fin-cam:
http://youtu.be/YT9498hgM2A

Cockpit-cam
http://youtu.be/bptnt-WJY8k

I do hope that all works.

The sequence was...

Downwind on A-axis Half reverse-Cuban (lost from this clip, which starts with...)
Into wind Loop, Avalanche, Barrel roll, Stall turn (hammerhead)
Downwind super-slow roll, half flick (snap) reversal
Ballistic aileron roll, quarter upward vertical roll, canopy-down humpty-bump, quarter downward vertical roll, Axial roll, half-Cuban
downwind, quarter upward vertical roll, canopy-down humpty-bump on to B-Axis, stall turn (hammerhead), quarter downward vertical roll to downwind, two quarter-clovers into wind
two loops, avalanche, flypast waving to the crowd.

Yours, Bob

[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Sunday, February 5, 2017 @ 03:18 AM]

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

SteveBeaver
General

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Location: Columbus, Ohio - USA
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Posted Sunday, February 5, 2017 @ 05:43 AM    YIM

Videos work well for me Bob
Bob Grimstead
Captain

Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2027

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Posted Sunday, February 5, 2017 @ 11:01 AM  

Thanks Steve, That's great. I've never linked to Dropbox before, so I had no idea whether it would work.

How's your re-cover going?
Will you be starting a thread on the Maintenance pages?

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

SteveBeaver
General

Gender: Male
Location: Columbus, Ohio - USA
Registered: Jan 2007
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Posted Sunday, February 5, 2017 @ 11:04 AM    YIM

It has ground to a halt with outside temperatures of -12C (10F)
Jorgen
Captain

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Location: Lund, Sweden
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Posted Sunday, February 5, 2017 @ 01:01 PM  

Yeah,
we've also had temperatures less suitable for painting and fabric work, but I'm headed for Texas tomorrow. Nice videos Bob!

May the 4's be with you/ Jörgen

Bob Grimstead
Captain

Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2027

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Posted Monday, February 6, 2017 @ 10:10 AM  

Boy! Those temperatures make me realise how fortunate I am!

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

Bob Grimstead
Captain

Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2027

Click here to see the profile for Bob Grimstead Visit http://www.redhawksduo.co.uk Send email to Bob Grimstead Send private message to Bob Grimstead Find more posts by Bob Grimstead Edit or delete this message Reply w/Quote
Posted Saturday, September 5, 2020 @ 11:18 PM  

I hadn't realised it's been three years since I last updated this thread on HDO's history.

It now has new fuselage fabric, the correct shape of side cheatlines and forward curve and blue cowlings to conform more closely to the original factory colour scheme.

And of course I now have my new engine smoke system.

Here is a fairly lo-res screenshot of a clip taken during my practice flying last week.

More to come, I hope, Bob

[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Sunday, February 27, 2022 @ 05:34 AM]

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

Bob Grimstead
Captain

Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2027

Click here to see the profile for Bob Grimstead Visit http://www.redhawksduo.co.uk Send email to Bob Grimstead Send private message to Bob Grimstead Find more posts by Bob Grimstead Edit or delete this message Reply w/Quote
Posted Friday, January 19, 2024 @ 11:01 AM  

So, with both wingtip and centerline smoke, HDO looks pretty good these days...

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

Bob Grimstead
Captain

Gender: Male
Location: Perth, Western Australia or West Sussex, England
Registered: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Posts: 2027

Click here to see the profile for Bob Grimstead Visit http://www.redhawksduo.co.uk Send email to Bob Grimstead Send private message to Bob Grimstead Find more posts by Bob Grimstead Edit or delete this message Reply w/Quote
Posted Saturday, January 20, 2024 @ 01:02 PM  

Here is The Blue Angel VH-HDO as it now looks in 2024 with fuselage and fin re-covered in Oratex fabric, the cowlings painted blue, the side cheat lines as near to the original shape as I can get them and a stripey rudder because Karen likes a stripey rudder and who am I to argue?

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

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