My Vans RV conundrum.

[Larryskydives]

I will PM you

[schaplerrh]

Dave,

1. I love my 7.
2. There is a recent VAF post re an estate 9 for sale. Looks nice from online pics.
3. PM me with price and details when you get closer to selling it. I'll never give up my 7 but I'm considering a second mount for when I need a little more seating/carrying capacity without giving up too much performance.

[rv7boy]

I think Sam's post today about the recent recognition of Van by the AOPA Air Safety Institute would help to answer the original question posted in this thread.

[Davy8or]

Originally Posted by rv7boy

I think Sam's post today about the recent recognition of Van by the AOPA Air Safety Institute would help to answer the original question posted in this thread.

It does help. Unfortunately, neither the video, or the article had citations to the stats they claim. I don't doubt them though. Transition training is very important.

I can't even imagine just jumping in Vans RV and taking off with no training. A recipe for disaster, but that's what they did in the old days.

My grandfather's best friend Ned loved airplanes and wanted to fly, so during the Great Depression he built himself a Model A powered Pietenpol. (As best I can tell from picking my grandpa's brain and showing him pictures of period plans built planes.) When he finished it, he invited everyone out to a field to watch him fly in his flying machine. Ned had no pilot's license and no training.

My grandmother famously tells the story of how Ned "dragged his *** across the field" that day. From the sounds of my grandparents telling, Ned never got out of ground effect and did end up crashing the plane on the first flight. Wrecked the plane and broke his arm. Everyone called him a **** fool. Ned and the plane never flew again.

However, it did not kill Ned's love of airplanes and he led a successful career as a mechanic for the airlines during the piston and jet era. In the end he retired from United. Besides being a master mechanic, he was an accomplished machinist who liked to make fully functional replica firearms amongst other things. The Colt Peacemaker he showed me once was amazing. I thought it was the real deal. He also drove a Corvair for decades because "It has an airplane engine in it."

If Ned had been born later and was alive now, I'm convinced he would be an EAA'er and flying God knows what that he built himself. I also think he would have gotten a PPL, training and not crashed on the first go, but those are things that weren't easy for him to do in rural Minnesota back in the '30s. He was great guy.

[Z-EDD]

Davy, have you seen this study by the NTSB? :https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-s...nts/SS1201.pdf

It has some stats in it to backup the claim that RV's are safer than the larger population of homebuilts. Also it was this study that led to the FAA making a couple of recent rule changes around making access to transition training easier and also allowing additional crew-members during testing.

But there were many recommendations that the FAA has not implemented, which any pilot can take note of to improve safety. Of note for you is a spike in accidents after the sale of a used homebuilt. NTSB put this down to lack of transition training coupled with lack of POH or other detailed information being passed on to new owners.

Good luck with the decision!