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-   -   When did you first see / hear of an RV? (https://vansairforce.net/community/showthread.php?t=134289)

jthocker 02-04-2016 05:56 PM

Thought I wanted a Q2
 
Went to my first Oshkosh with my bride of 1 year in 1983 with the intention of seeing a Q2 (composite canard) and buy the plans. Left there after seeing the RV4 and meeting Van, with an RV4 tail kit and a rivet gun!

crabandy 02-04-2016 06:01 PM

2000
 
My college roommate offered me a copilot spot in a Davis Da-2a for a flyin breakfast in 2000. We we opened the hangar doors and there sat 2 homebuilts, the RV3 really looked sleek next to the Davis. My roommate's dad did a little formation work with us on the way to breakfast, I REALLY wanted to fly that RV!

kentlik 02-04-2016 06:06 PM

I was looking at Arion Lightnings...
 
...and saw the RV-7A. Metal looked like more work but seemed more suited to me as I have been in metal fabrication/protoype design for many years. This was in October of 2015. I found a distressed RV-7A for sale and bougth it in late December 2015 and am picking it up in a few days to start its resurrection.

Very stoked!

:)

Not coincidentally I started flying September 2nd 2015. First flight in a Cessna 150

Robertc 02-04-2016 06:24 PM

Summer 1971
 
It's been a while now but in summer 1971 I got down to an EAA flyin at Hermiston, OR from Ft. Lewis where I was working on OV-1's after my Vietnam tour working on about every thing in the inventory. We met my parents there and along came Van in the beautiful RV-3. I wanted one immediately, but life gets in the way. I finished my ME degree at OSU, got a job at UPRR, Omaha and settled into the 24/7 job that it is. I got my license, bought a Navion,started an RV-6, quit, started an RV-7 in 2003 and it flew in 2011. It's painted silver&red in the scheme that Van used on that first white RV-3. It's been a long road,but here I am. This little plane is now providing me the time of my life.

Bob

gyoung 02-04-2016 07:22 PM

Oshkosh 1973
 
I saw the RV-3 at Oshkosh '73 and fell in love with it and Van's Total Performance design philosophy. I was still in college and thought I wanted a 2-place. In 1995 when I was finally ready to build I figured if I had kept my passion for the RV family for 20+ years I could handle the build time. I started my 1st RV-6 in Jan. 1996.

Scremm 02-04-2016 08:13 PM

Leadville Colorado
 
In the mid 90s I bummed a flight in to Leadville in a Navion for a couple of days helping someone work on their condo rental unit. We had to leave early in the morning before an airshow closed the airport for the day. Before the airport was closed a pair of P-51s flew by in low formation and pulled away. I gazed in awe but then thought to myself that I could never afford that. Then within a minute a pair of RV3s did the exact same thing. That was my first RV sighting. Started researching the RV3 and 4 and thought maybe I could pull this off but felt they were just too cramped for my size. When the RV8 came out I sent a check to Vans without seeing one in person. Made the decision based on the pictures and picked up kit #304. I now have nearly 500 hours on her. Never once in those 500 hours did I think the time or resources were ill spent. I don't think I can ever give her up.

Jesse 02-04-2016 08:30 PM

I first hear of RV's when my dad order RV-10 tail kit number 40241. I was not a pilot or a mechanic. In fact, I really wasn't very interested in aviation. Now, it is my livelihood. That's a big swing from being an accountant in 2005 to being a full time A&P/IA in 2013. I haven't looked back, mainly thanks to the RV line.

roadrunner20 02-04-2016 08:32 PM

I happened across the Van's exhibit at SNF 2002. I sat in a RV6 at the time. I'd never heard of Van's Aircraft, but researched it more when I got home.
The RV7 was just becoming available. I bought the emp kit in Feb 2003.

I was flying a 1974 PA28-140 Cherokee at the time but was having maintenance issues with my A&P. I almost dropped a tire from him not adding all the bolts to the wheel hub after a tire change and annual.

Now, I wanted full control of the maintenance & the reputation of Vans sold me.
The next SNF, I was on my way to completing the empennage.

rv7boy 02-04-2016 09:01 PM

Sun'n Fun 1993
 
The year 1992 had been a rough year for me so I needed a vacation. I drove to Sun'n Fun for the week to look at Mustang II's. When I found them, there were only three. The builders had a condescending attitude about the necessity to read plans (!). They didn't know at the time I had two engineering degrees and over twenty years of engineering experience plus ten years of flying experience. Needless to say I was disappointed with the Mustang II builders. I looked across the field and found about 30 RV's. Almost every RV builder was very friendly. And I met Mel and Ann! And yes, Mel, I still remember the photos! ;)

When I got back home I discovered that a fellow NASA engineer was building a 6A. Bob Butler's office was one floor below mine in the same building. I learned a lot by helping Bob build his 6A. I also flew right seat with him many times including first flights of the 6A to both Sun'n Fun and Oshkosh.

RV folks are a good family. (Caution: We need to be careful about the attitudes we show toward folks asking about our RV's. Mustang II builders aren't all alike; neither are RV builders.):eek:

Russ McCutcheon 02-04-2016 09:15 PM

In 1983 I was 15 years old, Dad was and still is an airplane junky and was building a Dragonfly and was in a group of friends that were building 4 RV-4s, I watched these airplanes coming together but the day I first saw an RV-4 was at their Sunny Hill fly in, late Summer 1983, Lee and Jan McDaniel flew down from Corvallis OR to the Fly in in their RV-4, I was hooked, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, I ran my fingers over every inch of that airplane and Lee was great, he never said don?t touch, he answered every question, I begged him if you will to give us a pass when he left and he obliged.

When I was 20 years old Boyd Williamson, one of the group of 4 asked if I wanted to learn to fly, I of course said yes!!! He taught me to fly in his 1959 C-150, I didn?t even by all the gas, I made my first long cross country in the C-150 from North Bend to Klamath Falls to Sun River and back to North Bend. That was fun but the next weekend we did the same flight together in his 150hp wood prop simple RV-4, WOW is all I could think at the time, leave Sun River climb to 10k and blast home over everything direct!

Long story short I have owned Lee?s RV-4 now since 2005 and have flown it 1500+ hours, it is an ingrained part of my life and family, I?m still hooked now just as I was the first day I saw it.




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