What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

RV-7 N159SB Brian Chesteen (Brantel)

Brantel

Well Known Member
N159SB is finally worthly of a Virtual Hangar thread.

I call her finished as of 08/05/2011 even though I know they are never really finished!

It took 10 years for me to get this far. This kit started life as an RV6A and was converted after the 7 came out. Somewhere along the way I lost interest in the nose wheel!

I want to thank God for allowing me to reach my goal. I want to thank my wife and kids for the sacrifice and I want to send a special thanks out to Bob Dougherty, Tim McGinnis and my aunt and uncle Al and Johnnie Swann. Without any of these people, this would have never happened! VAF was there all the way!

The engine was built by Don Swords of Don's Dream Machines.
The panel was built by me.
The upholstery was done by Abby at Flightline Interiors.
The seat belt harnesses are CROW Camlocks.
The paint was done by Bobby Pott's of Tuscaloosa Interiors & Paint.
PPG Deltron 2000 Base/Clear
Redfire Metalic 5938
Arizona Beige Metalic 5584
Cloud White 4943

The DAR was Lonnie Phillips.

First flight was on 3/20/2010

Engine Lycoming O-360 Carbed
One Mag, One P-Mag*
Prop Sensenich FP Metal (Later converted to a new Hartzell BA CS)
Legacy D100/D120 EFIS/EMS (Later converted to a three Screen Garmin G3X System) (Later converted to a single screen G3X Touch, 796 with GDL39 3D setup)
TruTrak Gemini PFD Backup EFIS* (Later converted to a Dynon D6 EFIS)
Garmin GTN650 NAV/COM/GPS*
Garmin GDL39 Dual Band ADS-B Receiver*
Garmin GMA240 Audio Panel*
Garmin GTX23ES transponder*
Garmin 796 Portable GPS*
Icom A210 Com
Koger SunShade*
Dual LightSpeed Zulu Headsets*

*= added as upgrades after first flight.

DPP_1133.JPG


DPP_1135.JPG


DPP_1137.JPG


DPP_1139.JPG


DPP_1140.JPG


DPP_1142.JPG


DPP_1146.JPG


DPP_1148.JPG



Here is a YouTube video of a quick virtual tour. Be sure to check out the HD versions if your computer and Internet connection can handle it...

http://youtu.be/wqw5vHYrcZ0

DSC_0565.JPG


High Tech map of all the places N159SB has been:

Click it for an interactive version...

 
Last edited:
Excellent

That is great, and a beautiful paint job. You should be very proud. You have not only learned a ton and built a great plane but you have been an excellent guy to deal with here in vaf world. Many times over my build you offered some useful answers. It was all appreciated by me and others. Keep it up. Enjoy they beauty, fly lots and fly safe.

:)
 
Congratulations Brian!
I am truly happy to see your plane completed. You have made an enormous contribution to the RV community thru your expertise in avionics integration and willingness to post not only your questions but your advice also! Thank you for that. Your plane is beautiful, as is your family. They should be proud of you, as you should be of them for standing by you to achieve your dream!
Enjoy it now, you deserve it!

Best regards,

Jon
 
Excellent choice in colors. Nice aircraft.
Stand proud............. You sure deserve it.

Warren
 
Congrats, Brian! That paint job is fantastic! Now I can't wait to read your travel stories.
 
Thanks for all the comments guys!

I will answer some questions about the paint as soon as I get that info back from Bobby.

I took some interior shots today and will post em up this evening.

Here is a YouTube video of a quick virtual tour. Be sure to check out the HD versions if your computer and Internet connection can handle it...

http://youtu.be/wqw5vHYrcZ0
 
Last edited:
Here are some interior and panel shots for those that wanted them:

DPP_1157.JPG


DPP_1158.JPG


DPP_1159.JPG


DPP_1160.JPG


DPP_1161.JPG


DPP_1162.JPG


Note:

Panel was ripped out and replaced with the first test flight on 3/9/2013.

Here is a rendering of the current panel:



Not shown are:

Garmin GDL-39 Dual Band ADS-B receiver
Garmin GTX-23ES remote transponder
Vertical Power VP-X Pro Electronic Power System

EDIT 7/8/14:

Latest revision to the panel...



zyc2tx.jpg


EDIT 8/16/14:

2ele0zc.jpg


Finally got my hands on a Garmin GI 260 remote AOA indicator. It works great!

Also shown is the new PS Engineering PMA450 Audio Panel!

EDIT 03/18/2016

Since I can't fly due to medical issues and the weather has been awesome the past few days I flew into my panel to enable some features that did not exist back when I first went from the legacy Dynon system to the G3X system....

First I would like to say that I have no idea how the heck I ever completed all the prior panel upgrades in my airplane @ 340 plus pounds??? I have no idea how I ever built and wired the airplane in the first place at that weight? I have also crossed over into the land of reading glasses being mandatory for close up work. Now I know what my father used to complain about!

That being said first thing was to remove the GTX23ES, GDL39 3D and the VP-X Pro because it sits just above my rudder pedals and blocks access to most of the wiring behind the sub-panel. This is no small chore since the bracket I made to hold them both spans the two ribs that run between the sub-panel and the firewall. The xponder will slide out but the VP-X Pro is bolted to the top of the bracket along with the GDL-39 3D. Getting to the connectors to unlatch them so I can pull it out is difficult. Wiring a new airplane with an open front deck would be so much easier!

Back when I built the original G3X panel, I followed the wiring suggestions very precisely and this left me with a uni directional connection between the GTN and the GDU for the MAPMX format. The latest firmware revision for the GTN enables G3X Touch tuning and control of the COM radio but it requires a bi-directional link to enable this feature. In went a new line to upgrade the link to go both ways.

While inside the GTN connectors, I added a discrete line to enable the TO/GA button integration to work with the G3X Touch. Never added this button before because it was just too difficult to get a new wire in there. I also had to crack open the GSU73 connector to install a similar discrete line that works with the one on the GTN to allow one button press missed approaches and some other nifty take off functions.

I also added the new cable that enables the Garmin Connext features to work with the G3X Touch, GTN and mobile devices. To do this I had to move one of my existing serial connections which I used to push frequencies to my A210 2nd COM because I was using all 5 ports. So I moved it over to the MFD screen. One side effect of adding the Touch Tuning of the GTN to the setup, I lost the ability to push frequencies on demand to the A210. When I touch a frequency like before to push it, it gets pushed to the GTN instead. The frequency list of the nearest airport is still making its way into the A210 however so that is good enough for me. Someday when the A210 dies I will have to upgrade to the GTR200. Not looking forward to tray swapping and rewiring that or I would have most likely already made the switch. However the A210 is working fine so I guess there is no reason to toss it.

While I was inside the PFD's connector, I replaced the original config module with the newer one that includes the proper chip to enable connection to iOS devices. The original did not have that ability. I have never put it in because I have been using an Android tablet. I am tired of waiting on the Android version of Garmin Pilot to catch up to the iOS version and I switched back to an Iphone due to very poor battery life issues with the LG G3 so back to Apple I go... Seems Foreflight has made some enhancements to work with Connext so I may give them another try.

After making all these changes and replacing everything, I fired up the panel and checked for smoke.... None found so I reconfigured all settings that needed tweaked and checked out my new features. Everything seems to work as advertised. I tried both Garmin Pilot and Foreflight and both seen to work fine on transferring flight plans. Still unsure about if Foreflight can use anything related to the GDL39 or not but it was getting GPS info from Connext so that is good. Touch tuning of the GTN works great as well. The only thing that I lost is the ability to push freqs to the A210 as mentioned above.

One thing is for sure. Those original gold pins provided with the original G3X connectors are a real pain (next to impossible) to remove from the connector without damaging the locking mechanism inside. I will never use those babies again in any wiring job I do!

This has been a ton of work to rework the wiring to enable these new features. I had really been procrastinating about making the mods to enable these particular features because when you have a G3X Touch and GTN combo, both have such nice easy to use native interfaces, there really is no huge advantage to being able to tune the GTN from the G3X and as far as flight plan transfer goes, the GTN is way better than the GNS series ever was so there is no huge advantage there either. The TO/GA button is cool but it is really no big deal to reach up and press a button on the GTN screen to go missed. Don't get me wrong, I am a tech geek and will enjoy all of these features, this is just why I was procrastinating!

EDIT 03/20/2016

I finished the following final additions:

Put in the backup RS232 serial link between my 2nd AHRS and the PFD. Never did this for some strange reason...

Installed a switch to the MFD to be able to force it into reversionary mode. There is just some times when this is nice to be able to do on the fly in a 2 screen PFD/MFD setup.
 
Last edited:
Beautiful Brian...just gorgeous all the way around! Nice work!

And echo what Mutha said in post 5!

Congrats!

Cheers,
Bob
 
Several people have contacted me for more details on the paint and cost.

Bobby Potts of Tuscaloosa Interiors and Paint did the paint.
Work (205)333-3116
Cell (205)361-1588

He is an airplane painting veteran who has done this for many many years. He is a stand up, do business with a handshake, down to earth Southern Gentleman. He seems to be honest as can be.

As far as cost:

I paid $9K...

The paint/supplies cost alone were almost 4 grand. The Red paint colors are out of this world expensive. I don't know why but they are.

The paint was PPG base/clear Deltron 2000. Bobby alodined the plane before priming.
Redfire Metalic 5938
Arizona Beige Metalic 5584
Cloud White 4943

I also had completely raw fiberglass except for the cowl when I took it to Bobby. He had to do a ton of work to finish the fiberglass. Bobby also wetsands the entire airplane after the clear goes on and then polishes it out. This really adds to the quality of the paint.

He also used his A&P to remove/reinstall the flight controls and to remove and install the canopy which had a bunch of wires to disconnect/reconnect.

I could have saved money by finishing the glass myself and disassembly/reassembly of the airplane as well as chosing a different color than Red.

Hope this helps..

I have looked in the archives and it seems I paid a similar price to what others have paid when using Bobby. When you factor in the time and materials, he is not getting rich doing it for that price.

Thanks for all the comments on the plane. I feel totally blessed to be allowed to take part in this. I am a married working man with a mortgage, 3 young kids that will all need braces, cars, college, and weddings (retirement? not sure that will ever happen). The airplane is paid for free and clear and I thank God for that!
 
Last edited:
Looks great from here :) Bobby is first class so I know you're very happy with it. I had mine painted by Bobby and I was super pleased. I'd use him again in a heartbeat. He's not the cheapest, but I saw where my money went :)
 
Beautiful! I've also always like color coordinated painted panels. Adding that area of color really makes the interior look great!

DJ
 
Brian, congratulations! A truly beautiful aircraft. I think you need an excuse to fly across the country... fly to Seattle so I can see it first hand.

-Robert
Dynon Marketing
 
Wow!

Looks SUPER, Brian! What will be funny for us all to read now is all of the things that you will discover that you would do differently if you were to build another RV. :D

We all do it. Even though Smokey's only got 160 hours on the Hobbs, I'm already looking wistfully at my trusty ol' Dynons and imagining a Skyview in there, along with a new TruTrak Gemini AP ...

Well done, Brian. Enjoy!!
 
Gorgeous

I was glad to see that you had Bobby Potts do your painting. He did my paint job and I couldn't be happier. I was concerned that he might have been hit by by the tornado so I was glad to see he's okay. He had to do a lot of fiberglass work on my -7A attesting to my ineptitude in that regard. As I recall, he gained experience in painting boats and so he is very good at fiberglass as well as paint. Beautiful work you did on your bird.
 
Nice job Brian! The swoops are almost reminiscent of scallops and the nose could work on a radial engine bird. I also like the colors...

Cheers,
Stein
 
I like it too.

Brian, I like looking at it for sure......I know you are luv'in owning it!
I want to repaint my -6 with your colors! Great Job.
 
Some folks wanted to know what the paint color codes were so I have listed them below. I also updated the original post.

PPG Deltron 2000 Base/Clear
Redfire Metalic 5938
Arizona Beige Metalic 5584
Cloud White 4943

Thanks for all the nice comments guys...
 
Strange things you run into when searching Google.

I just found this article and thought the pic was cool. I remember stopping at this airport on my way to Osh last year. I had no idea I was posing for an article.....

http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2012/Jul/28/News/today072812_LCA.shtml

Turns out this out of the way place is where Chad Jensen learned to fly. I had no idea when I landed there for fuel.

Cool pic of my plane or at least I think so.

Emden%20%20homecoming%20curt%20055.JPG


I had my Ipad. I remember stressing about the huge storms that were looming just North West of Osh and making the decision to go for it or not... I went for it and the storms fizzled before making it to Osh.
 
1st flight after instrument panel overhaul was on 3/9/2013.

Here is a rendering of the current panel:



Not shown are:

Garmin GDL-39 Dual Band ADS-B receiver
Garmin GTX-23ES remote transponder
Vertical Power VP-X Pro Electronic Power System

EDIT 7/8/14:

Latest revision to the panel...



zyc2tx.jpg
 
Last edited:
Updated 12/9/2013 to show the Dynon D6 that replaced the Gemini PFD.

Click for big version:


EDIT 7/8/14:

Latest revision to the panel...



zyc2tx.jpg
 
Last edited:
While this is OT for the general forum, I think it fits in this thread since this thread is all about my airplane and me.

I have had a few questions around my occasional mention of surgery I am having on Monday. I shared this with all my FB friends a few days ago so I thought I would post it here to let my VAF family know what I am doing and why.

Without this tool to help, I know that my days of flying N159SB are numbered due to the increasing difficulty in maintaining my medical certificate. Most if not all of my medical issues are related in one way or the other to my weight. This should end up helping me in my goal to keep enjoying this amazing aircraft. (It should also make upgrades easier! :) )

"Happy New year to all my family, friends and acquaintances!

I thought I would go ahead and let the cat out of the proverbial bag so to speak on what I have been working on for the past 4 months and what I plan to do on 1/6/14.

Monday I will be checking myself into the Turkey Creek Medical Center to have a procedure called the "Biliary-Pancreatic Diversion with Duodenal Switch" performed on me. This surgery is one of the many forms of bariatric weight loss surgery. The procedure is very different from the "Gold Standard RNY Gastric Bypass" that many people are familiar with. The BPD-DS is considered by most as the "Platinum" standard for non experimental WLS.

For those that may be interested in knowing more about this surgery, what they will be doing to me and what the expected results are, you can go here for some good information:
http://www.newlifebariatricsurgery....reatic-diversion-duodenal-swith-knoxville-tn/

My surgery will be performed by Dr. Stephen Boyce which is regarded as one of the best bariatric surgeons in the country. This coupled with his amazing staff and the fact that the BPD-DS has the best statistics for long term success out of all of the WLS options, I feel confident that this surgery will be just the tool to help me meet my goals!

We all know that these sorts of decisions and topics are very sensitive areas in our relationships. I want everyone to know that I am doing this to hopefully increase my quality of life for me and my family. I have three young children that are counting on their daddy being around for many years to come. Also since my mind was made up many months ago to go forward with WLS, I am not looking for anyone's permission or approval of my decision.

What I am looking for however is your long term support of my decision and most of all for your prayers that everything goes well with the surgery, the recovery period as well as the long term weight loss and maintenance phases. I trust that God is in my plan as I have felt his presence and influence on the entire process all along. He has made all the steps required for me to have this surgery fall into place like clockwork and I give him all the credit.

I have met many new friends on this journey all of which are amazing people with amazing stories to tell. They have been very informative and supportive during all of this pre-op process and I thank them for helping me get ready for surgery.

Last but definately not least I want to thank my wife Shantel for her unending support of my decision, helping me get ready and what I know she will do for me in the future as I recover.

This time next year, Lord willing, I will be half the man I am today writing a followup letter to you all!

Happy New Year, looking forward to my new life starting on Monday!"
 
Back
Top