Hello Everyone,
Well, I started to put together this update in Aug. Somehow it was "overcome by events" and I never did get it published then. I will publish now and follow it up with an update that will cover the 4th quarter of 2025.
In this update:
1. Builder Update with Francis;
2. AirVenture 2025;
3. WI Property Work;
Since my last update I have not gotten a lot of Prowler related work
done. That was mostly due to having to get my brain back into the books
and get prepared for re-qualification training. I completed requal
training in May and then did my required observed legs in June. That
got me back to work for a few weeks in early July , just prior to my summer vacay for
AirVenture. AirVenture was a great time again - as always! Once
AirVenture was over and I had a few days to recover - I did a lot of
work on the WI property to get the pole barn ready to (hopefully) put a concrete
floor in, soon.
That's the short version of my 3rd quarter of 2025. Here's the long story........
1. Builder Update with Francis - After the great start to building his fuselage in the last update, Francis continues to make fantastic progress on his Prowler. Here is his start on the tailwheel operating gear:
Here's more of the forward tailwheel operating gear:
Here's a shot of his work on the aft empennage above the tailwheel compartment:
Inside of the aft of the tailwheel compartment:
The lower rudder hinge mounting work:
More tailwheel compartment framing:
Overview of the aft empennage framing:
The area referred to as the "turtle deck" above the tailwheel compartment and just below the vertical stab:
That's about where Francis left the project when he took time off for a vacation with his family this summer. And, this year, Francis took them to.......AirVenture 2025! Well, not their whole vacay - but they did make it for Wed, the Wed night airshow and Thursday. How's that for a segue?
2. AirVenture 2025 - It was another great year at OSH! The weather was pretty good, overall, and the aircraft and events did not disappoint! Bryan arrived on the Sunday prior this year. I wanted to join him, but got delayed. I bought a new truck to pull my RV with this year. Before I could use it, I had to fabricate a new adapter to mount my 5th wheel hitch to the new truck. Here's what that looked like:
And, here it is all installed in the truck:
On Tues before the show, I finally got hooked up, pulled the RV out of the addition and got on the road to Camp Scholler:
Here is our campsite as Bryan and I started getting it set up on Tues:
One of the very first arrivals to the show was the U2:
What an interesting and amazing machine:
Pratt had their engine test bed 747 on Boeing Plaza most of the week:
Another beautiful inhabitant of Boeing Plaza:
This was a first for me. I believe it's the de Havilland Vampire:
This is a fantastic aircraft:
Another cat:
Kyle checking out the C2. I'd never seen one of these in person before:
Goodyear had two airships at the show this year:
Tuesday was Taco Nite and we got the gang together for dinner:
This was a newcomer. It got quite a bit of attention!
It was nicely done!
Doc and Fifi were both at the show this year. Fifi was on Boeing Plaza and Doc was giving rides out of ATW (flying over the show all week).
More Boeing Plaza:
The F22's and the F35 were in the house again. They did airshows each day:
This is a rare bird:
One of my faves:
The F9F, again. Cannot get enough of this plane!
Classic:
The warbirds had a very good turn-out this year!
If I could have any plane that I wanted................
There was a great F4U showing this year! Almost a whole row:
Wed night, Bryan got us some great seats, right up on the flight line. Here's some of the crew:
And, here is the French contingent. I was so happy that Francis was able to bring his family and make it to AirVenture this year. Here's your truly, Francis, his wife and son:
This year's night airshow(s), in my opinion, are the best I've seen yet. Every year, recently, the show incorporates airplanes with fireworks and/or lights, ground fireworks, drones and diesel fuel "bombs." However, this year, they added lasers to the show! I think this was a "first" for the night airshow. You can see them here:
This is good:
There were many segments of the night airshow this year that included all the aforementioned facets - all together at the same time. Like this:
And, this year's finale was spectacular:
Like I say every year - if you can only go to AirVenture for one day - make it Wed or Sat. The night airshow is worth the cost of admission all by itself!
With the Wed night airshow a success, the kids all had to pack up and hit the trail to get back to their jobs and lives. Here is the youngest daughter taxiing out of KOSH with Kyle. That's them in the blue on white Cherokee behind the fella in the yellow shirt:
They flew together to the west side of MSP and then Crysta flew the rest of the way back to home in CA from there by herself. The oldest daughter and her hubby left later the same day. Then, later on Thurs, Francis and his family left for the remainder of their vacay in the US.
The rest of the week was a bit more lonely after all my "crew" departed the AOA. Eventually, the end of the week was upon us and Bryan and I closed out another year at "the show." Here is the last day "at camp" as we are both packed up and about to depart:
3. WI Property Work - After the show I took a few days to recover. Then, I had a list of things that I wanted to get done on the Wisconsin property before I had to leave for the summer. The first, quick job I tackled was to put down a rubber dam under the garage door in the new RV addition to keep the rain water from running under the door:
Then it was on to bigger fish. After building the RV addition last year - I needed to pour some concrete that will hold back the floor of the original pole barn. I made the RV addition with 14 ft walls and I had to excavate down below the floor grade on the East end of the pole barn in order to put the floor of the RV addition low enough to get the 14 ft walls it needed. This will make sense when you see the pics below. So, there was work to do there.
Also, I really wanted to get the property set up so that I could stay in the RV (inside the RV barn) and run the RV septic into the property septic system. There was plumbing to be done! But, not before a lot of digging! I started by digging up where the septic riser came into the pole barn. From what I understand, the pole barn was placed over an area where a manufactured home used to sit. So, the septic was there, but it came up out of the floor of the barn about 3 ft from the South wall.
Here is a pic showing where I dug out around the septic riser in the floor and started digging a trench along the wall of the shop towards the RV addition:
This is after I cut off the riser and glued in a reducer and an elbow to run the septic pipe in the trench:
So, the idea started out to be just running a septic pipe to the RV addition. But, I have also been wanting to put a small restroom in the pole barn (there currently is nothing). So, rather than have to dig up the septic pipe in the future and add plumbing for a bathroom, I decided to put in the risers for all the normal stuff now. At the height of destruction it looked like this:
In there are risers for toilet, vanity, utility sink, shower, vents, etc., etc. When it was all done it looked like this:
Eventually, the plan is to put a heated floor in the pole barn and then I will frame in a wall around these risers to make a small bathroom. This will be the layout:
Here is where the septic pipe and water pipe go through the wall into the RV addition:
Here is a quick video that gives a good overview of the septic operation:
And, it works! I used it a few times this fall and when I winterized everything on the RV in Oct.
With the plumbing all done, I could start on the retaining walls between the two buildings. Here is the first section of the retaining wall that I dug out, formed and poured:
I had to put in the plumbing first so that pour the concrete around the plumbing as necessary. Eventually, the heated floor will cover the tops of the retaining wall sections and the plumbing there.
Digging out in order to place the forms for the second section:
Half way done!
On the outside, I had to excavate the area outside of the pole barn to install the exterior forms on the 2nd half of the job. This is where you can see the difference in height between the pole barn floor and the floor in the RV addition:
The second half in progress:
And, all 4 sections between the posts are completed:
That doorway will eventually have a door that will allow access between the RV addition (unheated) and the main pole barn (heated area).
One last project was to complete the exterior walls. The steel supplier for the RV addition screwed up the order and cut all of my wall sheets about 6 inches too short. So, they supplied me with some 9" panels and I was able to simply install them at the top of each exterior panel:
[Sidebar: The company did offer to take all the short panels back and provide me with the correct ones. However, by the time I discovered this last fall, I only had a few weeks of construction time remaining. With a 30day lead time to get new panels, it would have meant that I wouldn't have been able to get the walls on last fall. So, I opted for this as an acceptable solution.]
That's all for this update. I'll be putting together the update for 4th quarter 2025 next - in the next couple of days. Thanks for stopping.
