RV Myth Busted

[N941WR]

Yesterday we flew out for lunch and while on the ramp, I spoke to a gentleman who flew his Cherokee in for lunch.

We were discussing my RV and how he would like to build an RV-14. The reason was that he lives in the metro DC area and the cost of mechanics and his annual was driving him out of the Piper.

He thought the solution would be to build an RV-14 because of the wing. He figured that he could simply remove the wings every annual and bring the plane home to perform the condition inspection then trailer it back to the airport.

When I mentioned the wings weren’t designed for removal, he didn’t believe me. He mentioned that they mount in the same fashion as the RV-10 and were designed for easy installation. While true, I said, they are designed for one installation with one time use $20 NAS bolts. He thought that the cost of the bolts would save him money but didn’t seem to understand that repeated installation and removal of said bolts would not be a good thing.

I then added that he will most likely have to remove the HS to tow it down the road and that would require the removal of the VS but the elevators and rudder would have to come off first.

The guy looked at me like I had two heads.

This makes me wonder how many other RV Myths are out there.

[g zero]

Would take longer to remove and install wings than the inspection .

[boom3]

Sounds like he needs a 12.

[kevinh]

Whenever someone asks me if I can remove the wings on my 7:

"The most likely way these wings are coming off? Two appropriately spaced trees..."

[Bob Axsom]

These were two principle reasons for jeanine and I deciding to build an experimental so I could gat a repairman certificate and do the maintenance and annual inspections. We built our RV-6A sold the Piper Archer II that we owned for 22 years (and loved by the way) when it was finished. That worked out very well.

No doubt there are a lot of misconceptions among non builder pilots but this one seems sort of extreme. This is an example of a day dream believer that seems kind of harmless BUT what about all of the RV work in process misconceptions around the world.

Bob Axsom

[TSwezey]

Why would he go through all that work? How long does the condition inspection take? And why doesn't he do it at the airport?

[N941WR]

Originally Posted by TSwezey

Why would he go through all that work? How long does the condition inspection take? And why doesn't he do it at the airport?

He doesn't have a hangar and feels like he is getting ripped off when dealing with a mechanic.

[Gash]

You get what you pay for. Sometimes a trained and qualified mechanic is THE way to go (for me at least).

[newt]

I learned to fly at a gliding club, where one of the two seat trainers was a Krosno KR0-3A Puchatek. Krosno eventually went under and sold the design and jigs to Barry Aviation in Florida, who renamed it the "Peregrine" and totally failed to build any, but that's another story

So anyway, about 1/3rd of the way between the fuselage and wingtip on each wing was a wing skin lap joint. It's covered in filler and painted over from the factory so you don't notice it on a new glider, but after it's spent a few years out in the sun absorbing UV the filler cracks a bit, and it looks like there's a chordwise "seam" wrapped around the wing.

We had a visitor to the airfield who was taking his first glider flight, and while we were preflighting it he asked about the seam. "What's that for?"

The guy standing next to me, without missing a beat and with a totally straight face, said, "It's for when we fly them off aircraft carriers. You've seen all those war movies where the planes are lined up on the deck with the wings folded up? They fold along that line."

"Ah," the guest nodded, brimming with newfound understanding.

The funniest thing was that the whole club got in on the joke, and by the end of the day everyone was telling straight-faced stories about how hard it is to find oceanic thermals, launching with shock cord attached to the steam catapult, flying while wearing wetsuits and scuba gear in case of an off-airport landing, and using submersibles to aid sea bottom retrievals. I think the visitor left at the end of a fun day of gliding genuinely believing that gliders flew on aircraft carriers.

The grand Aussie tradition of "taking the p**s."

- mark

[artrose]

I don't see it as an RV myth so much as I see it as a Certified myth. He's not bound to those high priced shops that want to bend him over throughout the year, and he obviously wants to do the work. Why didn't you push the owner assist option? He sounds like a perfect fit.