I hate RV's

[captain_john]

Got ya to click on it!

Last night I went to dinner with a couple of two other RV builders and we were discussing our reasons for selecting and building the RV series of aircraft.

For me, it was a long road leading to the purchase. I went back and forth on materials first. I have a sensitive nose to odors, so composites are out of the question. The CompAir6 was and still is short on my list of next builds... but the stink! I like the amphib floats!

Then, I considered Maule's and Mooney's. Well, that is all well and good, but I want to maintain my own plane.

A co-worker had built a -6 Emp kit and extolled the virtues of the RV. I initially dismissed the RV because there were too many of them around. I wanted something more unique. After some looking around, I began to like the abundance of builders in the area. This, being my first build made me uneasy and the fact that there are local people building tipped the scales in favor of the RV.

...and the rest is history! I built my garage for the sole reason of building the plane inside. This past summer I attended an RV Fly-in and purched an older, unassebled Emp kit from another attendee, as he was switching up to the -10.

What is YOUR story?

CJ

[mustang]

Oh, Capt John, you got me on that one. I was smiling when I opened the thread though.

First of all my aviation background, which colors all decisions. I started flying lessons in 1960 on taildraggers and flew commercially from 1965 right through until April 2003 when I turned 60. My General Aviation experiences were owning a Cessna 180 which I modified extensively with a Robertson STOL kit and then certified it IFR. I flew this plane extensively into unprepared strips and beaches and you name it. I really used it up to it's potential. I sold that airplane and bought a homebuilt Pitts Special which I flew for a couple of years. I sold that and lived without little airplanes for some time. Hey! I was still flying the big iron.

After retirement, I got the itch to fly again, not long after hanging up my airline hat, so I bought into the Citabria. Not a bad plane, but not really a good plane either, at least ours was not. After spending three months of my time doing the annual inspection during the Spring of this year, I learned all the bad things about this tired old bird. This aircraft still had the original fabric on a 1976 airframe?? The writing was on the wall and I knew I had to sell my share before the big money had to be spent.

In August of this year, I was still a partner in a Citabria with 4 other guys. (too many, and none of them wanted to work on it) One of the guys kept talking about wanting an RV-4. He is a little guy, but that's beside the point. I had never even heard of RVs before that point. I started looking at them when they showed up landing on our grass strip, which was fairly often. I began to research them online fairly extensively. The more I looked, the more interested I became. Here was an airplane that could do it all and pretty darn good. I sold my share in the Citabria in late August while looking ahead at very large recovering/overhaul expenses coming up this winter.

I wanted an airplane that I could fly into remote, high mountain strips with a load of camping equipment. I also wanted to be able to do light, Sportsman type aerobatics if I felt the urge. Most importantly, I wanted a decent cross country cruise with good fuel economy. The RV-8 seemed to fill these seemingly separate niches, amazingly well. The other bonus was that I would have a brand new airplane! No way could I afford that on a pension, so building seemed the way to go.

Just before I sold the Citabria, I flew it down to Aurora Field in Oregon and visited Van's factory. I flew an RV-7 in a demo ride, the RV-8 was unavailable on that day. I liked it pretty much anyway. Enough that I ordered my empennage kit there and then. When I got home, I bummed a ride in an RV-4 that visited our field. WOW!! Now that was a machine!

The guy let me fly it in the practice area so I got to do some stuff in it. I rolled it once and it was very quick. Very Pitts-like, I thought. When I turned final on the home field ala Citabria technique I found myself over the button at 200 feet and 120 knots?!?! OOOOPS! We did a go around off that one and then the owner landed it very nicely. Anyway, after that flight I was keen to get going on the airplane and so I took on a partner in the project, my best bud for the last 30-some years. Right now we are living in different cities but my wife and I are selling our house here and hope to move to his town in the next few months. (Her idea, really!)He commutes every week or so to help with the building. I find that two minds work better than one on this project, maybe because my wife figures I don't have one!

Anyway, we are going ahead with the stab and it is coming together. So far we have not made any life threatening mistakes and I have some local RV guys to advise me when I need it so we are in pretty good shape. We have ordered the quickbuild kit for the wings and fuselage so I gotta get moved before I can take delivery of these bulky items.

That's about where we are!
Cheers, Pete

[Spike]

Great read Mustang

My story eh? I started lessons back in 97 but had to stop before I got to solo stage due to money reasons. Probably a good thing looking back as I dont think I was ready for it mentally. Years later when driving down the road I almost drove off into a ditch when a 172 flew over. My wife (then girlfriend) told me to either finish getting the certificate or stop talking about it. Figuring that not many women would say that I finished my lessons, got the ticket, and then promptly married Patti.

A few months later a friend offered a share in his groups 172 which I jumped on. I wasnt a huge Cessna fan but the deal was right and the plane was cherry. I havent looked back since then.

Ive had the itch to build for a few years after meeting some guys that were doing it and going to Osh in '01. Finally this year things kind of worked themselves out and I realized that its never going to be the perfect time to build so why not start now.

For me though the decision of which airplane and configuration was very easy. I havent really been torn like many of the others have been. Im going for an RV-9A, tip up, with an 0-320 and most likely a CS prop. I might go injection but not sure yet as Ive flown both and either seem to work just fine. I'm not really building to fly, Im already very blessed to have one. I'm building to build. I want a long term project building something and I love airplanes so it only makes sense to combine them. Getting a good looking and spritely aircraft in the end is just the icing on the cake. I'm not even keeping track of how many hours are going into it. When its done its done.

Thats a bit more about me. Who's next ??


-- John