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Need some help with the other half

F

flyboy10

Member
My wife likes to fly. She even wants to bring the future kids along. We don't have kids yet, but she wants to bring them along once we do.

Hence the problem. I'm in love with the 8 and would like to consider building. We are partners in an Archer II, which of course, has 4 seats. An 8 would only have 2, with no room for the hypothetical kiddos.

Would like to know how those with young kids handle the 2 seats situation. Or is everyone that does this have kids out of the house?
 
Build the 8

I built a 7A before the kids came along. I used to have ideas of building a 10 or upgrading but now I don't think I will. I fly on my own or with a friend. Flying is my escape and I don't really feel the need to drag the kids and my other half along. The 7 is fantastic to fly. It burns very little fuel (compared to the 10) and most of the time one or two seats is enough.

A year or so ago I saw a bad accident at our local field, where a Jetranger had a tail rotor failure. The pilot got out but only just, before the whole thing went up. It was fortunate that he didn't have passengers that day. That got me thinking that I didn't want my kids in the plane until they are old enough to get themselves out.

Likewise I'm not that comfortable with me and my other half in the plane at the same time.

When I write it like that it sounds like I am more concerned than I am, but when you have kids your thinking changes a bit.

Richard Talbot - RV-7A - Flying
 
Everything Richard said.....

(I'm building a single seat RV now that I'm 15 years into the hobby - the right number of seats :rolleyes:) The kids can build their own dang plane (rimshot).
 
This all depends on your wife. Mine really enjoys the flying, plane people, and going places. When our son came along, he rode on my wife's lap until he could hold his head up. Once that happened, we mounted a baby seat in the baggage compartment of our -9.

The mini-me turns three next month and this will be last year he rides back there.

We have two choices, I build a -10 or I build a -3 and my wife learns to fly the -9. I'm thinking having two planes will be less $$$ than building a -10.
 
Went through the same agony myself once, but am now completely at peace with my decision, though there are times when I think it would be cool to get our family of four into the plane for a family trip. It really depends on how much you plan to fly with the family. +/-, to build a 10 is going to cost close to twice that of an 8, and more to operate too. For the relatively few times you would use 4 seats you could rent or, better yet, just keep your partnership in the Archer, build the 8, and still be ahead on cost compared to what it would take to build and operate a 10.
 
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Keep the 8!

If you want to take the family somewhere, rent a 172/182. Don't mess up your everyday flying for those occasions when the family truckster is needed. I have a similar situation and would never give up my RV8. My two cents.

Happy flying!
 
Why not build one of those super 6's or 7's with the 8 inch stretched fuse. I read an article once where it actually became the first RV 4 seater. Your childred could sit facing aft in the baggage compartment at least until they where 6 or 7. You may even be able to build it with the 200 hp 4 cylinder lyc.

Give it a go.
 
Build what you WANT!

Here's my humble advice...you have to build what you really want. People ask me why I'm building an -8 when I have 3 kids, and my reply is "that's what I want!". Before I committed, my wife wanted me to build a -7, but even she agreed that it didn't make sense to commit to such a time and resource consuming project, if what you end up with isn't what you really wanted. As the number of kids increase, and they get older, and things like church, football, baseball, scouts, dance, family camping trips, etc., keep increasing, time for my project seems less and less. That precious resource of time to work on my build has drastically decreased, but my commitment and desire to finish it someday hasn't....because it's WHAT I REALLY WANT. I started my build in 2005, and I can guarantee that if I had started to build something other than what I wanted, it would've died on the vine long ago and ended up in VAF Classified forum!
 
Some guys don't like their wife. Some wives don't like to fly. I semi-damaged my 6A with the wife along. She's insisting I re-build it. She loves flying in our RV, and has supported the project from nearly day one.

So............just because someone doesn't care to take their other half along, it isn't the norm.

L.Adamson --- RV6A (no longer airworthy)
 
This is something you really need to discuss with HER, if you haven't done so already. As for me, my wife and I are really looking forward to traveling and flying adventures together. I can't imagine having all this fun without her along at my side. She's been up a few times, and loves it. But she won't take a back seat. That's why I'm building an RV-7A.
 
They'll come over.

At Triple Tree last weekend, I bumped into one of my former transition trainees who's already flown his -7A 190 hours in one year...from South Carolina to Burbank, California and back...with his wife along, who said she'd never fly in "that thing", a long time ago....and numerous day trips since.

When Irene threatended the northeast, they bailed out of her way from Buffalo, New York, riding the counterclockwise rotating winds at 220 knot groundspeeds over a 3 1/2 hour, non-stop trip back to Barnwell, S.C. compared to 14 hours of driving!! Her bladder made it fine, since they've been careful to watch liquid intakes before long flights.

Yep, she's now hooked but he used a simple..'no-push' approach, just quietly mentioning that it only takes a fourth of the time to go anywhere in the airplane:)..and so on.

Best,
 
BSwayze said:
This is something you really need to discuss with HER, if you haven't done so already. ... But she won't take a back seat. That's why I'm building an RV-7A.
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I wanted to build an 8.... The other half said "that's fine ... If you want to sit in the back all the time"... We have a 9A...
 
Maybe not the popular choice but......you could purchase a completed and flying 8 and enjoy it now leaving the decision about the number of seats and the yet to be kids until later.
 
I'm in the same boat. I have always wanted an -8, wife likes to fly and kids in the future. Right now, we are seriously considering building a Bearhawk. We flip flop all the time though. So, its either a Bearhawk, RV-7, or RV-8.

Bearhawk is most practical for us, as we like to take things along with us. The RV's would be quite a bit more "friendly" to build though and we haven't ruled them out.

Oh, and we need more $$$ for all of this too :D
 
One suggestion that hasn't come up, is build the 8 and when you're done, find 3 or 4 partners and build the 10. Like someone said, most of the time two seats will be sufficient and the 10 will cost more to build and operate. With the partners, it may take a little planning to fly it when you want but it shouldn't be insurmountable and the 8 will be there the rest of the time.
 
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