Pics of two folding bikes inside a 7 please.

[born2fly]

I have thought about this ever since seeing your product. Very tempting.
I even thought about hard-points under the wings for pods there.

Quick thoughts:

The problem is weight. The RV6 just doesn't perform all that well when 200-300 more pounds are bolted on to it. That said, if it was right at CG, it sure would be the best possible way.

The belly pod or wing pods would have to add no more than 10-20 pounds TOPS or not worth it. A capacity of 80-100 would be good. Easily installed/removed of course.

More tankage? Interesting. More of a plumbing issue than anything else, once you pack the weight.

Prices?
No-brainer $1500-2000
Maybe $2500-3500
"That's nice, wonder who owns one" $4000 up

How's sales on the RV10 unit? Popular? Once-in-a-while?

G.

[Paul Thomas]

I saw David's product first hand at S&F. I tried to help him but I was just in the way. He had the pod dropped and the bike set up in minutes.

It's hard to think a bike fits with room to spare in his, as a volunteer called it, "Baby Caravan".

[tomcostanza]

Is the loading problem because the canopy is in the way? If so would the Meske mod help? http://www.aircraftextras.com/Tip-Up-Slider1.htm

[born2fly]

Canopy is in the way a bit. I did not like the Meske or JRW mods, not enough clearance. Got my own ideas but no time.

Biggest issue is CG for me. Need to load farther forward than the baggage bay.

Next biggest issue is gross weight. Sluggish at 1900# for sure.

G.

[David Shelton]

Originally Posted by born2fly

The problem is weight.
G.

Your right. A pod might not be very useful if the airplane doesn't have a lot of useful load. Maybe we'll stick to the 4-seaters. Perhaps a folding bicycle would fit nicer if the baggage compartment was extended just a little?

We sold our first couple RV-10 pods and there are several other orders firming up. That's, not a bad start... considering there are only a couple hundred examples flying. We've got them on 1% of the fleet and I expect that to grow to between 2 and 5%. Our real market will be STC'd pods for more numerous production aircraft. For example; 2-5% of Cessna 182's would be 400-1,000 pods. The RV-10 was an easier place to start because we were able to get the product developed and into production without certification.

We recently sold my demo airplane and I just received an E-mail from the new owner. He's at the Grand Canyon this week with a pair of mountain bikes in his pod. We're building him a new motorcycle which he plans to use regularly for transportation and adventures... I'm starting to miss the airplane now!

-David

[Flflyer]

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...light=rv7+bike

...in this thread that I started after reading on the forum. I missed this particular thread during my first searches. In fact, when I just now searched for the thread I listed above, the search words that I used, which were contained in the title, yielded no results. The bikes ride fine, and are inexpensive. Lots more details on the thread link.