Saber25
Well Known Member
After my wife passed away suddenly almost three years ago, I find myself reviewing our lives more often these days. As a result I found this old post from 2015 and thought it remarkable that while Mary and I had been together from 1968 t0 2021, where I met her at the Hayward airport, the next longest relationship of meaning has been my RV4. 89HM started her life in Idaho in 1985 where Harold built the vertical and horizontal while I was commuting to work in Chicago. After our move to Colorado, I was finally able to get into the project in "86, and we flew in 89. I hope Miss Fusion will remain with me for my duration.
This summer marks a thirty year anniversary of my RV4 and the memory of the remarkable man that introduced me to an equally remarkable plane.
In 1985 while returning from a training mission in south western Idaho for the National Guard, I flew over a small dirt strip adjacent to a work shop and spotted a shiny aluminum airplane. At 500agl I identified it as an RV4 having seen pictures of the airplane in Sport Aviation. I determined the position of this location on my map and the following day my wife and I rode the motorcycle to Murphy Idaho for a closer look.
Out in the desert country near the Snake River, we met Harold and his wife who helped build what was then the first RV4 in Idaho. After a brief introduction and explaining my interest in his plane, we walked down to the shop to get a closer look. Well, for me it was love at first sight. Years earlier in the 70?s I had planned on building the T-18 which was then considered the hot rod model for homebuilts, but with intervening time the RV4 had outpaced the T-18 in every performance category and also looked far sleeker. The seed was planted.
Harold had an interesting background. He could build anything and that included homesteading and building a ranch out of raw land in Idaho to include building the rig to drill his water well. He logged a plot of forest land he owned in the mountains and ended his career working as a lineman for a telephone company. Not one to sit around he decided at age 64 to build an airplane. He ran a tractor up and down his land to build a strip of sorts with a fence at each end of this hockey stick shaped runway measuring 1800ft. Adjacent to the runway he built a workshop and proceeded shortly thereafter with the RV4. In those days, basic hand tools for building were acquired and those that were not available on the market would be hand fabricated.
In the 12 months it would take to complete the RV4 he simultaneously took flying lessons in a Citabria. His previous flight experience included 17 hours in the Stearman as an Army AirCorp cadet back in 1943. It seems my old friend didn't have the right attitude required to finish the flight program so he ended his Army career as an infantryman in Europe.
By 1985, 42 years later, Harold achieved three milestones within several months. He celebrated his 65th birthday, acquired his pilot license and completed the RV4. It was my good fortune then to become friends with Harold during that momentous time.
That year I was commuting to work and after returning home I inquired of Harold how the first flight went. He admitted he had not flown her yet but taxied her up and down that talcum powder volcanic runway quite a bit. I cautioned against anymore taxiing since the -4 has no air filter and he had a newly overhauled engine that would suffer from all the dust ingestion. We took the long drive to his place the next day and there she sat in all her shiny aluminum splendor. Harold suggested I get in and see how she felt taxiing up and down that powdery path. Not heeding my own warning I couldn't resist the offer and got in. Well? she was made for me and the ergonomics of that plane and cockpit felt like an old comfortable glove. She started right up and at a very low power setting I taxied up the inclined runway to the fence and turned to coast back down. I waited a couple of minutes to let the dust settle and nudged the throttle for our return to the small group consisting of Harold, and our wives. I made a 180 turn in front of Harold and must have had the biggest grin possible as I gave a thumbs up. He returned the gesture and to me that was the go sign. Partial flaps, full power and away we go clearing the fence by several hundred feet.
I won't go into the next thirty minutes of test flying, suffice it to say she performed everything I asked of her and gave back change. The -4 sitting on the ground looks sleek, smooth and nimble and she did not disappoint and I was elated with that flight. Coasting to a stop, I witnessed my old friend with tears in his eyes, a rush of emotion that belied his normally unperturbed demeanor.
I was in a high hover returning home that afternoon and ordered my tail kit before the end of Van's business day. Not having a place to build at the time, Harold suggested I have the kit sent to his address and I could use his shop whenever I had days off. A month went by and I finally had a row of days in which I could drive the 1 1/2 hrs to his shop and start on my project. It was great to see Harold again and imagine my surprise when he showed me a completed vertical and horizontal stabilizer. So, just as I stole the first flight on his RV-4, he drove the first rivets on my tail feathers to get me started. His workmanship gave me something to strive for and emulate throughout the building process.
Fast forward to Oct. 1986, we're now established in our new home with unfinished daylight basement. Due to a couple of moves tied to my employment I finally had a place to complete my -4 in earnest. For the next thirty three months my social life was either at work in a cockpit or down in the basement with the -4. My wife treated this as my second full time job and would give me a hand when one was needed but otherwise let me have time with what would eventually be our other mistress.
On the 6th of June1989 at 0600, I took our bird up in a clear blue sky and she flew without a single gripe. No leaks, seeps or unwarranted control issues. A small trim tab on the rudder and the left aileron and she flies straight and true. So just four years after test flying the first RV-4 built in Idaho I flew the first RV-4 in Colorado and a close friend flew his a week later. In the next five years we would fly her 1000 tach hours and those flights included back country camping, formation and formation acro and dogfighting. The tail that Harold built sustained dings while flying into Atlanta, Sulphur Creek, and many more in Idaho and Montana and she wears the battle scars with aplomb.
Now with 26 years of faithful service and thirty years since first starting her, ?Miss Fusion? still provides immeasurable pleasure on each flight and that RV grin simply won't fade away. Harold flew west in 2009 but his tail continues to fly with me and reminds me each flight what an interesting character Harold was and I thank him for the RV introduction. In subsequent years Harold went on to build many more RV's to include the -4, -6 and even the Harmon Rocket. His skill and ability was noticed by Van?s and for a year he helped organize the labor force to start the quick build kits which most builders now have. Harold was of slight and wiry build, but to me he was a big man who came from that ?Greatest Generation? to whom we owe a great deal of gratitude.
Memorial Day and remembering.
Hans "Cobra" Miesler
This summer marks a thirty year anniversary of my RV4 and the memory of the remarkable man that introduced me to an equally remarkable plane.
In 1985 while returning from a training mission in south western Idaho for the National Guard, I flew over a small dirt strip adjacent to a work shop and spotted a shiny aluminum airplane. At 500agl I identified it as an RV4 having seen pictures of the airplane in Sport Aviation. I determined the position of this location on my map and the following day my wife and I rode the motorcycle to Murphy Idaho for a closer look.
Out in the desert country near the Snake River, we met Harold and his wife who helped build what was then the first RV4 in Idaho. After a brief introduction and explaining my interest in his plane, we walked down to the shop to get a closer look. Well, for me it was love at first sight. Years earlier in the 70?s I had planned on building the T-18 which was then considered the hot rod model for homebuilts, but with intervening time the RV4 had outpaced the T-18 in every performance category and also looked far sleeker. The seed was planted.
Harold had an interesting background. He could build anything and that included homesteading and building a ranch out of raw land in Idaho to include building the rig to drill his water well. He logged a plot of forest land he owned in the mountains and ended his career working as a lineman for a telephone company. Not one to sit around he decided at age 64 to build an airplane. He ran a tractor up and down his land to build a strip of sorts with a fence at each end of this hockey stick shaped runway measuring 1800ft. Adjacent to the runway he built a workshop and proceeded shortly thereafter with the RV4. In those days, basic hand tools for building were acquired and those that were not available on the market would be hand fabricated.
In the 12 months it would take to complete the RV4 he simultaneously took flying lessons in a Citabria. His previous flight experience included 17 hours in the Stearman as an Army AirCorp cadet back in 1943. It seems my old friend didn't have the right attitude required to finish the flight program so he ended his Army career as an infantryman in Europe.
By 1985, 42 years later, Harold achieved three milestones within several months. He celebrated his 65th birthday, acquired his pilot license and completed the RV4. It was my good fortune then to become friends with Harold during that momentous time.
That year I was commuting to work and after returning home I inquired of Harold how the first flight went. He admitted he had not flown her yet but taxied her up and down that talcum powder volcanic runway quite a bit. I cautioned against anymore taxiing since the -4 has no air filter and he had a newly overhauled engine that would suffer from all the dust ingestion. We took the long drive to his place the next day and there she sat in all her shiny aluminum splendor. Harold suggested I get in and see how she felt taxiing up and down that powdery path. Not heeding my own warning I couldn't resist the offer and got in. Well? she was made for me and the ergonomics of that plane and cockpit felt like an old comfortable glove. She started right up and at a very low power setting I taxied up the inclined runway to the fence and turned to coast back down. I waited a couple of minutes to let the dust settle and nudged the throttle for our return to the small group consisting of Harold, and our wives. I made a 180 turn in front of Harold and must have had the biggest grin possible as I gave a thumbs up. He returned the gesture and to me that was the go sign. Partial flaps, full power and away we go clearing the fence by several hundred feet.
I won't go into the next thirty minutes of test flying, suffice it to say she performed everything I asked of her and gave back change. The -4 sitting on the ground looks sleek, smooth and nimble and she did not disappoint and I was elated with that flight. Coasting to a stop, I witnessed my old friend with tears in his eyes, a rush of emotion that belied his normally unperturbed demeanor.
I was in a high hover returning home that afternoon and ordered my tail kit before the end of Van's business day. Not having a place to build at the time, Harold suggested I have the kit sent to his address and I could use his shop whenever I had days off. A month went by and I finally had a row of days in which I could drive the 1 1/2 hrs to his shop and start on my project. It was great to see Harold again and imagine my surprise when he showed me a completed vertical and horizontal stabilizer. So, just as I stole the first flight on his RV-4, he drove the first rivets on my tail feathers to get me started. His workmanship gave me something to strive for and emulate throughout the building process.
Fast forward to Oct. 1986, we're now established in our new home with unfinished daylight basement. Due to a couple of moves tied to my employment I finally had a place to complete my -4 in earnest. For the next thirty three months my social life was either at work in a cockpit or down in the basement with the -4. My wife treated this as my second full time job and would give me a hand when one was needed but otherwise let me have time with what would eventually be our other mistress.
On the 6th of June1989 at 0600, I took our bird up in a clear blue sky and she flew without a single gripe. No leaks, seeps or unwarranted control issues. A small trim tab on the rudder and the left aileron and she flies straight and true. So just four years after test flying the first RV-4 built in Idaho I flew the first RV-4 in Colorado and a close friend flew his a week later. In the next five years we would fly her 1000 tach hours and those flights included back country camping, formation and formation acro and dogfighting. The tail that Harold built sustained dings while flying into Atlanta, Sulphur Creek, and many more in Idaho and Montana and she wears the battle scars with aplomb.
Now with 26 years of faithful service and thirty years since first starting her, ?Miss Fusion? still provides immeasurable pleasure on each flight and that RV grin simply won't fade away. Harold flew west in 2009 but his tail continues to fly with me and reminds me each flight what an interesting character Harold was and I thank him for the RV introduction. In subsequent years Harold went on to build many more RV's to include the -4, -6 and even the Harmon Rocket. His skill and ability was noticed by Van?s and for a year he helped organize the labor force to start the quick build kits which most builders now have. Harold was of slight and wiry build, but to me he was a big man who came from that ?Greatest Generation? to whom we owe a great deal of gratitude.
Memorial Day and remembering.
Hans "Cobra" Miesler
