Has it been seen in the wild?
 

Has there been a sighting of the 'removable' wing, yet? Any at all?

let me clarify
 

I know lots of people have seen the wings of the RV-12. No flames please. :)

Has a demonstration been done on how easy or hard it is for them to be removed?

Watched the Aero news link with Van talking about the 12. He specifically mentioned the wing being removable as a unique feature. I am going to take that as a good sign. I truly hope it is a safe, simple, usable feature that will help market the airplane. NOW lets see IT! VIDEO darn it!

RV-12 update...??
 

Van is supposed to give a presentation on the RV-12 tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. I am hopeful for a better update (hopefully someone will take notes and share!). Maybe one of our fine folks in attendance can talk them into giving a demo of the wing removal/assembly that can be videoed as you are suggesting. I'd also be thrilled if someone would get a lot more detail shots of the FWF, panel. behind the panel, etc. - primarily give us more detail in the construction of the craft.

The wife has already given her stamp of approval on going to Osh next year... but for this year - I (and others) have to depend on you folks to be our eyes and ears out there! :)

Have fun/Be safe!!

DJ

Are removable wings really that big a selling point?? IMVHO there's lots of risk trailering to the airport each time, even if it's easy to do it still has to add an hour of farting around to get the plane running and then torn down and re-trailered, it's most likely impossible to do it without an assistant??

The only major selling point is saving on a hanger which is maybe 5% of my years operating cost?

No flames in any way, just curious what turns you guys onto it?

Thanks

Grant

Removing wings...
 

Grant... check out the action at your local glider port.... wings come off and on every weekend on most privately owned glass sailplanes.

My wife and I have got it down to 20 minutes for my Mini-Nimbus.... :)

I'm just guessing here, but I bet Van has one a the several one-man rigging devices sold for his DG-500 motorglider.
Can any of the OR readers verify this?

In the large cities, hangar rents are $500+... or 6,000 a year. I hope the RV-12 operating costs are less than $120,000 a year... :eek:

An open trailer, one-man rigging equipment, and sharing a skinny space in an existing hangar may be the best idea for those who live in large cities...

gil in Tucson

PS .. I also bet the RV-12 wings are lighter than the 155 lbs each of the Mini-Nimbus... :)

Yah my hanger is 100-150 a month depending on which of three vintages I take!!!!

6k a year IS an incentive.

Why I want removable wings
 

For now... I want to be a fair-weather flyer. Hangar space is expensive, tie down space is cheap. I figure I can tie the airplane down during the "flying months" and trailer it home once a year (ok, maybe twice to go flying on one of those wonderful December weekends when the OAT gets to 60 or so). If someone happens to have part of a hangar I can get into for the summer, great! If not it's not a show-stopper.

If I get injured or laid off work I can simply put the aircraft in the trailer and have one less monthly expense to worry about. No thoughts of, "Man, should I SELL it?" It's in the back yard, costing nothing to store.

For the future... My wife and I want to semi-retire in 12-14 years and do some full time RVing, just being air-conditioned gypsies (quick, before the petroleum runs out!) If I can't drag an airplane behind us then I can't really have an airplane.

Those two reasons have convinced me I need to look at airplanes with folding/removable wings. Who knows, maybe I'll get good at this aviation stuff after my first VFR machine and decide a Mustang II is right for me. I'm looking at the Sonex and RV-12 right now, I doubt if anything else would turn my head at this point in my research.

Yeah - I was kind of ambivalent about the whole wing thing... but I am starting to see the value. Here in SoCal - IF you can get a hanger - you will pay dearly for it. I see myself using tie-downs most of the time with a good canopy cover - but being able to bring it home for service/annuals or if I won't be flying for some reason for an extended period. I am about 10 years out from retirement - and hadn't given much thought to towing it around. I actually hope to have a "Stretch-7" or a "Stretch-9" by then and be flying around the country vs. driving it. We'll see... :)

Removable Wings Perspective
 

For me, removable wings is a huge feature. I currently have a RV9A, that I built and am flying, and my LARGEST fixed cost is a $300./month (that's $3600./year) hanger rent. If you take that feature out of the equation, I would be seriously looking at the RANS S-19 which I feel looks better and has the sliding canopy feature I prefer. There are companies like MOBILE HANGAR that have worked with companies like REMOS AIRCRAFT on providing some very nice trailers with "docking platforms" that make locating and securing easy. You can even have the trailer built with external tiedowns so you might be able to pay for an outside tiedown spot at your local airport and keep the aircraft at the airport. I talked with Van about having a removable horizontal stabilizer and he said that he is not planning on having that feature. Needing an 8 ft. span, for the HS along with "cushion" is going to make an enclosed trailer more costly. The other thing that "bugs" me is most people that I have talked with FROM Van's, excluding Van himself, really "play down" this removable wing feature. I can understand if a person has unlimited funds or a free hanger, but otherwise I feel it remains a very strong selling feature for some "poor folks" like me who would reather buy fuel than support the local county government.