Sam James & his RV-4.5

Sam James & his RV-4.5

Spent the morning in La belle & had breakfast with the RV Legend-

Sammy James

Sammy was really accommodating and allowed me to try on his custom Fastback, Slider RV-4 (.5). I was concerned about switching over from the tip-over traditional RV-4 style to a "Slider" with that forward canopy roll bar in my face.

There was a cool story behind the Navy Wings mounted on the dash...

Here is a view of the slide

View of the latching system in the open position.

Back up to Lakeland. This is the current state of affairs with my bird...

Im trying to get an idea of the lines that the fastback would have.

I m going to need to remove this roll bar and either modify it or replace it if i am going to use the canopy rails for the sliders.

I have seen the earphone jacks for pilot and passenger places in this location and like the idea of the centrally located position. I will need to find and alternative location for that ELT antenna though.

Look at all those HOLES!!!

There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the existing fuel pump or selector but if everything else is getting replaced... and I'm in here... I might as well. I have had my eye on one of those Andair valves with the anodized handle.

The passenger floor had been riveted down and I don't feel like redoing it so I plane to mount the electric flap motor on this bulkhead. I have seen it done before and I like the idea of being able to access it easily if need be.

Im slowly adding to the collection of "Removed"parts. I do not think Im going to put that throttle back in. At least not in the front.

I know Im getting ahead of myself a little but I took delivery of my new Vetterman's exhaust today. It looks great and I cant wait to hear how it sounds. I was test fitting the pipes and it seems that the provided hardware is a different size than what my block requires. It had been a long day and Ill check that more later. Maybe I'm just tired.

Hopefully removed for the last time. There she sits, waiting for that final fitting and to have all her veins and arteries hooked up. Thats is my old climb prop in the background. It an unknown make and pitched way to aggressively but it got me home in a pinch and was a lot of fun around the local patch.