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

Joe Hine 02-05-2016 09:22 AM

Long time ago....
 
I was living in Yarmouth NS, and had been out of flying for about ten years. I had just started again, flying spam cans and some old cubs. I was in a second hand clothing store with my wife and trying to find something to do. There was a used magazine bin in the store and a Private Pilot magazine was on the top with the photo of a cool looking aircraft on the cover. The title of the piece was "build this aircraft". The piece was about Van and the 4 prototype. I bought the magazine, about a year later I bought the Plans #1118, and then the tail kit. We had a young family, little money, and it took me 11 years to build YTQ. She is 19 years old this year. I didn't actually see a 4 until after I had bought the tail kit. There were not many RV's in eastern Canada in the mid 80's. I still have the magazine

Joe

Bill Dicus 02-05-2016 09:31 AM

How RV?
 
At least 15-20 years ago a friend from church named Eric Stearman (related to the Stearman) told me about a cousin of his who would be interested in flying in my Pitts. The cousin had built a plane called an RV-4, which I was really not familiar with. Eventually Tom Stearman flew his RV to Timmerman field in Milwaukee. We flew in my Pitts S-2A and in his airplane. I was extremely impressed with the RV-4, which had a hopped up 180 Lycoming. It would indicate 180 mph on a summer afternoon at about 4000 feet. The flight characteristics were very pleasant. We did some limited acro. This experience was life-changing and eventually led to the building of our RV-8. Tom was a fighter pilot in the USAF, also an aeronautical engineer and a wonderful pilot. His RV was unpainted because it was too much fun to fly. He didn't want to take time off for painting. He's still flying the RV. I wonder if it was ever painted?

MFMarch 02-05-2016 09:33 AM

My wife took me to the Oregon Airshow in 2013 and there was an entire squadron of RVs doing some coordinated fly-bys. Later, after they landed, they taxied right in front of where I was standing and I knew right away that I had to have one! When I went to the Van's website I seriously looked at the RV-14 and decided to take a tour of the factory. I fell in love! Now, however, my wife has changed my mind and we are getting an RV-10! (Next week, actually!)

N941WR 02-05-2016 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MFMarch (Post 1051519)
...my wife has changed my mind and we are getting an RV-10!...

So very true!

Saber25 02-05-2016 10:16 AM

I spotted my first RV4 parked next to a work shop while returning from a training mission at 500 agl flying for the Idaho National Guard in 1985. Several weeks later I test flew that RV4 for the newly minted pilot/builder and was hooked. By the time I landed I knew an RV4 was in my future. I started kit 1150 in Oct of 86 and flew in June of 89. Our RV4 was the first completed in Colorado and was instrumental in piquing the interest of quite a few future RV builders.

While doing my oral on the B767/757, the check captain became interested in seeing my build pictures and hearing about the flying qualities of the RV4?. It was the easiest transition I ever had :-)

Coming up on 27 years of the most fun you can have with your clothes on and she?s still flying strong.

Cheers, Hans

Tom Martin 02-05-2016 10:51 AM

In high school a friend told me that I should build an airplane! A stupid idea that I could just not shake. Finally I decided that if I was going to build an airplane I should know how to fly. I got my license in 1983, bought a Citabria to fly until I was in a work/business position to be able to build. I had seen a RV4 but it was a rough specimen and it kind of turned me off. Then....I had the opportunity to see and go for a ride in Rick West's magnificent RV4. This was around 1992? 100 feet down the runway I was hooked. I can l clearly remember thinking "how am I going to be able to rivet all these rivets. Also I was dreading the thought of drilling all those hose (non-prepunched era). To that time all my metal drilling was in farm steel with a drill press or a hand drill. Drilling aluminium almost drills itself in comparison. Simply put the drill in the right place and a neat hole appears.
Shortly after that ride I purchased a RV4 kit that had some tail work done and the wing spar completed with ribs roughly cut to size. 17 months later I flew it for the first time spring 1995. I thought that it would be the last plane that I would ever own. Three years later I finished my first rocket....

rvbuilder2002 02-05-2016 10:59 AM

Oshkosh 1988....
 
A good friend (Richard Dewitt) who had been researching what his next project would be (he currently owned a Kitfox he had built and that I had flown in some), told me to check out the RV's.

Actually my main goal was to look at an airplane called the Protech PT-2 (I know, I know...it's a very good thing that I never got very far with that)
I arrived at the show late in the day and while walking around to get the lay of the land (first time there), I came across a little blue low wing tri-gear airplane that said RV-6A on it. It was its public debut and seeing it change the path of my life (literally).

After getting home we got info from Van's regarding builders in our local area (only RV-4's, the RV-6 was still very new) and ended up getting a back seat ride in an RV-4 finished in the mid 80's by Glen Allison of Tucson. A couple months later I got a demo flight in that same blue with Van at the Copperstate Fly-in. The rest is history (a lot of it actually...)

tlump51 02-05-2016 12:07 PM

First RV
 
Great thread. I first heard of an RV when reading Kitplanes magazine in 1992. I was sitting in an FBO lounge waiting for my sailplane instructor and picked up the magazine. I hadn't heard of homebuilts and could not believe the government would "let" an average person build an airplane. An RV was featured prominently in the magazine. I first saw a RV in the flesh at Hawthorne airport in So Cal a year later. A pretty red and white RV4. I remember talking with the builder about the magnitude of the project and he said matter-of-factly, "It all goes together." For some reason that really resonated with me and made me believe I could do it. A visit to Vans and a flight in the RV4 demonstrator with Ken Scott had me buying a kit in '94.

bsacks05 02-05-2016 12:28 PM

I was in A&P school in Clearwater Fl. in 2000 when I started recieving Kitplanes in the mail - probably because I was on RC magazines mailing lists. Since I loved building RC planes from scratch and I was learning all the A&P stuff, it just seemed natural to build my own plane. I never seriously thought about getting a pilot's license until I met some classmates who were working on theirs.
The first plane I fell in love with was a Velocity but it wasn't long before I noticed that most of chatter in the mag was about RVs. After some due dilligence on my part I ordered the RV9 preview plans, had a demo flight in ole Blue (N666..:eek:) at SNF and ordered the tail kit as soon as I earned my A&P in 2001.
N659DB had her first flight on July 1, 2006 and this year I will make my tenth consecutive flight to SNF! 954 hours and counting...

DaleB 02-05-2016 12:32 PM

I guess I'm a relative newbie.

Although I was well aware of experimentals and scratch & kit built planes, I'd never actually seen one up close. I had seen pictures of a few that either clearly did not meet my needs (open cockpit one-seaters), or looked to me like a really good way to test a parachute.

When I finally started flight training for real in 2011, I was hanging out on the POA message board. I heard about RVs and learned a little about them, but not much. I saw an RV-8 parked on the ramp one day -- I was impressed. Still, the thought of building really hadn't occurred to me.

Then I started doing some flight plans for potential cross-country trips that I figured we'd want to take. It quickly became obvious that renting, or even taking a club plane, would be really slow and really expensive (172, Cherokee). Or a little less slow and REALLY expensive (182, Arrow). I started looking for a plane to buy, but anything in my price range was really going to be a 100- 1to 110-knot airplane, on a good day, and don't spare the avgas. And the maintenance! Frightful, and a total crapshoot. I started thinking about building. I looked at a lot of options, and narrowed it down to the RV-7 or RV-9. I had very tentative plans to start building in a couple of years or so... and a partially completed 7A came up for sale, a deal I couldn't pass up. So, I went from "never heard of Van's" to "bucking rivets on an RV-7" in about a year or so. And there's been a lot of water under the bridge since.


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