Jay Honeck
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2008
- Messages
- 11,571
- Location
- Ingleside, TX
- Display Name
- Jay Honeck
- Home Airfield
- KTFP - Ingleside, TX
(I posted this originally on Van's Air force, but now realize that I was preaching to the choir. They all know Tom! Therefore, I'm reposting it here, since there may be people on POA like me who wanted an RV, but were not experienced homebuilders and did not know where to begin.)
As many of you know, Mary and I have been searching for an RV-8A since last winter. Somewhere along the way, someone -- methinks this group's very own GEICO -- recommended that we hire Tom Berge, of Minneapolis, to help us evaluate an aircraft we were looking at in Minnesota. (We were long-term aircraft owners and pilots, but new to the homebuilt world.)
That went extremely well. Although we did not buy that first aircraft, Tom was extraordinarily helpful, and his RV expertise was in evidence from start to finish.
Since then, Tom has helped us in a thousand different ways, and I wanted to give him a big thumb's up recommendation here on Pilots of America. He is truly a "one stop shopping experience", helping us with initial evaluation (looking at photos on the internet, specifications, etc.), physical evaluation (prebuy inspections), test flying, purchasing, modifications, delivery, AND transition training!
And, I'm glad to report: Success! Tom spent the last four days with us in Texas, teaching us how to fly our amazing new (to us) RV-8A! Earlier today we delivered Tom to the big airport in Corpus Christi, where he rode the executive mail tube back to his home in Minnesota.
Before THAT, however, Tom helped us to find our new plane in Vermont, where he spent a couple of days working helping us work with the seller and evaluating the plane from stem to stern, top to bottom. After we decided to buy it, he helped with the transaction from start to finish -- and then flew the plane back to his home base in Crystal, MN, where he spent a week making modifications to it so that Mary could fly it.
These mods included installing quick-adjustable rudder pedals, which made it possible for my, er, "height challenged" (5' tall, in heels) wife to reach the rudders, while still allowing the plane to work with my 6' frame. Then, because we're both pilots and didn't want to feel helpless in the back cockpit, we had Tom install a back-seat throttle, and rudder pedals.
Then, the "while we're at its" started. As long as it was all apart, we had one of the TruTrack autopilot servos rebuilt, cuz the altitude hold "null zone" was non-existent. (It kept saying either "trim up", or "trim down". It was never "happy" -- now it is.) Tom also installed a baggage door arm that holds the door up nicely. And we had the plane annualed. And we installed the aftermarket front axle.
The list seemed never-ending, but with Tom's help each modification was carefully weighed for cost and benefit, and done quickly, efficiently, and correctly.
The fuel tank pick up tube service bulletin had not been complied with. Tom fixed that -- a real job. He replaced most of the phillips screws in the airplane with stainless steel Torx and Allen screws, making future disassembly/assembly SO much easier.
And then, finally...it was done, and time to deliver the plane to our island off the coast of Texas. That was a fun flight, dodging weather all the way from MN to TX.
Then the fun REALLY began! Transition training.
Mary and I are not inexperienced pilots -- we've flown coast to coast, Canada to Mexico, for two decades -- but it's always been in spam cans. Cherokees, mostly, but with a sprinkling of rental Cessnas and our beloved old Ercoupe. Needless to say, transitioning to the little RV-8 was fun and exciting, as we went from a waffling old mini-van (the Piper Pathfinder, with an O-540 out front) to a little fighter plane!
In retrospect, both of us agree that, of all the CFIs we've known and worked with, Tom is by far the best. With Mary, especially, he knew what to say, and when to say it, to make her feel at ease in the plane -- a plane she was nervous about flying from the get-go. He was patient, and very, very knowledgeable. Because of his excellent training, I feel competent and ready to fly our new airplane anywhere -- and so does Mary.
Better yet, he spent his last few hours with us teaching me how to perform basic maintenance on the plane. We've always done everything the law would allow us to do to our certificated planes, so I'm no stranger to grease and tools, but the RV is a whole new world. Tom patiently demonstrated how everything went together (and came apart), so that we are now happily ready to perform oil changes, brake jobs, etc., without fear of screwing up too badly!
In the end, the best part is that he's become a trusted friend. Tom is just an all around good guy, whom I trusted implicitly from the moment I spoke with him on the phone. We never had a contract, and, in fact, I never met him in-person until he delivered our plane -- yet he flawlessly performed complex evaluation and delivery procedures thoroughly and on-time.
He is truly one of the good guys in aviation, and I can HIGHLY recommend his services.
Now...here's a picture of our pretty new bird, in her temporary quarters. (Until we sell our Cherokee Pathfinder.) We've christened her "Amelia", and you will soon see her at a fly-in near you!
As many of you know, Mary and I have been searching for an RV-8A since last winter. Somewhere along the way, someone -- methinks this group's very own GEICO -- recommended that we hire Tom Berge, of Minneapolis, to help us evaluate an aircraft we were looking at in Minnesota. (We were long-term aircraft owners and pilots, but new to the homebuilt world.)
That went extremely well. Although we did not buy that first aircraft, Tom was extraordinarily helpful, and his RV expertise was in evidence from start to finish.
Since then, Tom has helped us in a thousand different ways, and I wanted to give him a big thumb's up recommendation here on Pilots of America. He is truly a "one stop shopping experience", helping us with initial evaluation (looking at photos on the internet, specifications, etc.), physical evaluation (prebuy inspections), test flying, purchasing, modifications, delivery, AND transition training!
And, I'm glad to report: Success! Tom spent the last four days with us in Texas, teaching us how to fly our amazing new (to us) RV-8A! Earlier today we delivered Tom to the big airport in Corpus Christi, where he rode the executive mail tube back to his home in Minnesota.
Before THAT, however, Tom helped us to find our new plane in Vermont, where he spent a couple of days working helping us work with the seller and evaluating the plane from stem to stern, top to bottom. After we decided to buy it, he helped with the transaction from start to finish -- and then flew the plane back to his home base in Crystal, MN, where he spent a week making modifications to it so that Mary could fly it.
These mods included installing quick-adjustable rudder pedals, which made it possible for my, er, "height challenged" (5' tall, in heels) wife to reach the rudders, while still allowing the plane to work with my 6' frame. Then, because we're both pilots and didn't want to feel helpless in the back cockpit, we had Tom install a back-seat throttle, and rudder pedals.
Then, the "while we're at its" started. As long as it was all apart, we had one of the TruTrack autopilot servos rebuilt, cuz the altitude hold "null zone" was non-existent. (It kept saying either "trim up", or "trim down". It was never "happy" -- now it is.) Tom also installed a baggage door arm that holds the door up nicely. And we had the plane annualed. And we installed the aftermarket front axle.
The list seemed never-ending, but with Tom's help each modification was carefully weighed for cost and benefit, and done quickly, efficiently, and correctly.
The fuel tank pick up tube service bulletin had not been complied with. Tom fixed that -- a real job. He replaced most of the phillips screws in the airplane with stainless steel Torx and Allen screws, making future disassembly/assembly SO much easier.
And then, finally...it was done, and time to deliver the plane to our island off the coast of Texas. That was a fun flight, dodging weather all the way from MN to TX.
Then the fun REALLY began! Transition training.
Mary and I are not inexperienced pilots -- we've flown coast to coast, Canada to Mexico, for two decades -- but it's always been in spam cans. Cherokees, mostly, but with a sprinkling of rental Cessnas and our beloved old Ercoupe. Needless to say, transitioning to the little RV-8 was fun and exciting, as we went from a waffling old mini-van (the Piper Pathfinder, with an O-540 out front) to a little fighter plane!
In retrospect, both of us agree that, of all the CFIs we've known and worked with, Tom is by far the best. With Mary, especially, he knew what to say, and when to say it, to make her feel at ease in the plane -- a plane she was nervous about flying from the get-go. He was patient, and very, very knowledgeable. Because of his excellent training, I feel competent and ready to fly our new airplane anywhere -- and so does Mary.
Better yet, he spent his last few hours with us teaching me how to perform basic maintenance on the plane. We've always done everything the law would allow us to do to our certificated planes, so I'm no stranger to grease and tools, but the RV is a whole new world. Tom patiently demonstrated how everything went together (and came apart), so that we are now happily ready to perform oil changes, brake jobs, etc., without fear of screwing up too badly!
In the end, the best part is that he's become a trusted friend. Tom is just an all around good guy, whom I trusted implicitly from the moment I spoke with him on the phone. We never had a contract, and, in fact, I never met him in-person until he delivered our plane -- yet he flawlessly performed complex evaluation and delivery procedures thoroughly and on-time.
He is truly one of the good guys in aviation, and I can HIGHLY recommend his services.
Now...here's a picture of our pretty new bird, in her temporary quarters. (Until we sell our Cherokee Pathfinder.) We've christened her "Amelia", and you will soon see her at a fly-in near you!
