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Building on Faith...

Did you fly in an RV before you started building one?

  • Nope - I started pounding rivets on the reputation alone!

    Votes: 246 62.9%
  • Yup - I took that "$65K free ride"...!

    Votes: 145 37.1%

  • Total voters
    391

Ironflight

VAF Moderator / Line Boy
Mentor
Don't worry, this is not a religious thread....or maybe....:rolleyes:

Simple poll this week....how many people started to build their RV before they had ever flown in one? In other words, who had enough faith in the design that they committed to it without even trying one out first?:eek:

The polls are open...
 
Heck, I can go that one better. I started building my Long-EZ before I even had a pilot's license!
 
I had my preview plans before I took a demo ride in 'ole blue at SNF 2001. My mind was made up by the point anyway.
A couple months prior to getting the preview plans I hadn't even known about homebuilt planes until I recieved a copy of Kitplanes. Once the decision to build was made, I really had to define the mission of a personal plane and take into consideration the fact that I had no piloting experience beyond R/C. With a little research, however, building an RV was the only logical conclusion for me. I suspect that there are a lot of folks out there with the same story.
 
Good performance, fair price, great track record.

Just build!!!!
 
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I had my first RV ride a few months before my first flight at the back of a 4. Two weeks before my first flight I went to Mike Seager and had transition training in a 6A. The first time I flew a 9A was during my first flight.

Of course, I did a lot of research on-line and inspected RVs in Oshkosh before I ordered my preview plan and the empennage kit. It was faith but not blind lead me to the decision.
 
I bought a used kit (empennage barely started) before I had ever even laid eyes on ANY RV. I was about 3 years into it before I even sat in an RV-9A, and I've yet to fly in an RV. I looked at several designs after I decided to build, and the support for Van's designs was just on another planet compered to anything else. And I figured I'd need all the help I could get!
Chose the 9A on faith and never looked back.
 
Still a Virgin

I started my first attempt to build the -4 back in '83 without ever riding in an RV and now that I'm finally back at it and on the wings I still have yet to ride in one. I have FAITH!
 
Never rode in an RV until I bought the empennage kit. I had a few friends that had them and was lusting after their RV's for years. Finally secured a ride in a -6 and it just confirmed all my secondhand impressions of the RV series. I was not disappointed.
 
i did

I had not flown in a small airplane in 18 years or so.unless helicopters count.but even that was 15 years ago. the only small plane i ever flew in was a cardinal. I did not have a pilot’s license either.:( My brother started all this.:rolleyes: hes a research kind of guy so i figured if he was into it then it would work for me.

after a good bit of buildin James Clark took me for a ride...didnt know how to appreciate it. had nothing to compare it to. then after getting my PPL i flew with Ken Harill..all i can say about the RV is holy cow this is gonna be cool
 
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no ride needed

I can see how the plane flies. I knew it was for me. I bought, built and flew without needing a ride.

Drooled all over them at OSH for years. First flight for me Oct 18, 1996 RV6, N46RV. Over 1800 RV hours in my log book now. The RV is still the best kit plane on the planet for me.
 
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My decision to build a plane at all was made following a visit to Oshkosh and seeing the beautiful (actually, awe-inspiring) work that builders were capable of doing - who would have thought!
The RV decision was easy - aircraft should be made of aluminum, and who can argue with success.
I first flew in the RV demonstrator at Oshkosh when I just finishing the second wing.
As far as building on faith is concerned, the big leap of faith for me is not whether I picked the right aircraft to build, butwhether I will have the skill to fly it when the time comes, as it surely will.
Bill
RV-6A
Ottawa, Canada
low time pilot, building, hardly flying
 
I voted yes, but with a caveat.
1) I rode in an -8 and a -9A, but I'm building a -7.
2) I don't have my PPL yet - not even started. I've got time :)
 
I can see how the plane flies. I knew it was for me. I bought, built and flew without needing a ride.

Drooled all over them at OSH for years. First flight for me Oct 18, 1996 RV6, N46RV. Over 1700 RV hours in my log book now. The RV is still the best kit plane on the planet for me.


Ha! I though I was the only one....my first ride of any sort in an RV was the first time I shoved that black knob all the way in for the first flight! I'm definately not advocating people do that, but "way back when"...there weren't the gaggle of them around that there are now.

Cheers,
Stein
 
I voted "NO".

I've been a licensed pilot for over 20 years. Almost all of my time is in 152's and 172's.

When I looked at the RV design and read its performance specs, it was a no-brainer. You really can't go to the local Cessna dealer and get this kind of performance at this price.

I was VERY intimidated by the idea of building this thing myself until I found so many builders' webpages showing step-by-step production. The more I read, the more captivated I became with the whole build process.

I have yet to begin actual production, but I read my RV-7 preview plans regularly.

My wife wishes I would just read porn (it would be much cheaper?) so I just tell her that I'm reading my airplane porn.

.....sooooo hot.
 
i was a reluctant builder. i used to say "well, i can understand how someone might like to build an airplane, but there's only so much free time, and i'd rather spend my time flying than building." then i got a ride in a 6a. several rides, as a matter of fact. i decided that i had to have one of those. so, i could build, or i could buy.

buying would get me in the air quicker. building would allow me the opportunity to customize the plane exactly like i wanted it, and get the repairman's certificate for the inspections. but, geez, 2000 hours? if there hadn't been a quick-build option, i still probably wouldn't have started.

then i got my empennage kit, and had a ball building it. forget the quick-build stuff, i would _pay_ someone to deprive me of this fun? so i'm slow-build. yes, it will take longer to get in the air -- but i've really had a ball. i'm wiring my panel right now (fired up the audio panel and com2 last night), and my engine gets delivered this month.

but it still took a ride to "open my eyes" to this incredible plane.
 
My first ride was in the back Purple Passion, a friends RV-4 back in 1993.

I remember looking over my shoulder and rolled the plane at the same time. I was hooked!

Fast forward to 2003 when I ordered the -9 tail kit. Between then and my first flight I had ridden in the back of an -8 once or twice, the right seat of a -6A once, and flown a friends -7A from both the right and left seat a few times.

Another friend gave me four hours in the right seat of his -6 two weeks prior to my first flight.

My first flight was the first time I had flown a -9. At that point I was so prepared it was a non-event. It is only now, with 65 hours on it since August 5th, that I am really starting to appreciate what great aircraft all these RV's are!
 
I started the kit in 98 before having my ppl or having even seen an RV. I also had no idea where the money would come from. My career has gone well since and I've got it all paid for in cash. I still haven't ridden in one unless you count sitting in mine flipping swtiches on and off and yanking the stick around.
 
parts first, ride later

purchased emp, built wings, most of the way through fus before my favorite rv owner (jerry e.) was arm-twisted into to giving me first ride in his -8.
 
I'm working on the fuselage and haven't been up in an RV yet. I got my license back in the mid-70's. Haven't flown much since 1980. Got current briefly in 2001 and I'm working on it again now. I see the AME on Friday and should have my BFR signed off on Sunday.

I started looking for a plane a couple years ago. Looked at lots of them, spent hours on Trade-a-Plane, ebay, etc. After a while, I realized that what I was looking at was the same thing I was flying 30 years ago. In fact, the radios in the 172 I'm flying to get current are almost identical to what I had in my plane back in the day!

Like many other builders, I'm a computer jock and am used to the fast pace rate of change in the field. I started doing more research and found that there are much better options for intruments and radios. Then I stumbled on Van's Aircraft. That did it for me. For the price of a thirty-year-old airplane I could build a brand new one and have a much more sophisticated intrument panel.

A very nice man named Harold Evans (he's posts on this site) was nice enough to talk to me about his project and he let me sit in his 7a about 6 months ago. And there are a few projects underway at the field I fly out of, 1d2. I'll get the opportunity to fly in one soon enough. I should hook up with Harold again. For now, I'll build my 9a and fly spam cans. But I can't wait till the 9a is finished.
 
I bought the -4 plans with the "rv-story" video 2 years before I started building. How could you not start building one after watching that video a thousand times! I didn't see an rv-4 in person till just a few months ago.

=

My wife wishes I would just read porn (it would be much cheaper?) so I just tell her that I'm reading my airplane porn.

.....sooooo hot.

My wife calls this website, tradeaplane, and airliners.net my "airplane porn"
I ran accross a nice Culp Special the other day... oh baby, oh baby! :rolleyes:
 
Yup - Built on Faith

Not the way your referring to...

Bought the -8 tail kit just as the wing kit was coming available. Everyone asked "How do you know the company will be around when you need the next sub-kit?"

On some things you just have to have faith! :D

Karl
 
I have never even sat in an RV, despite going to Sun n Fun 6 or 7 times. I have wanted to build a plane since 1965 when I was 10, and have followed the RV series since the mid-90's. My real dream was to scratch build a wood airplane, and I had started a wood Falconar F12, but when I sat down and actually talked things over with my wife after recovering from a table saw accident that occured cutting out a cap strip (not too major though it did require a trip to the ER and some hand surgery and, yeah, I was out running the saw the next day, bandage and all, so the injury didn't spook me), we decided that the Van's made better long term sense. Insurability with the F-12 was not at all certain, and the resale value would have been little more than the worth of the engine, so when the "total performace" was studied, even though the initial cost outlay was more, in the end, it was hard to beat the value of an RV. Oh, we would have gone with an RV-10 vs. the RV-9A, but I was not insurable in that due to my relatively low hours. Maybe that will be my next plane.
 
Well sorta...

I haven't actually started building yet.....but I have had a ride. (Kurt Klewin's -6A, thanks again Kurt!)

It was on a trip to Panama that I was first introduced to kit planes and RV's in general. (Bill Wightman)

I've been addicted ever since even though I haven't been able to start. Money, family etc.

But, I wouldn't have needed a ride to start building. The RV series has made sense to me from the first time I got to see one.

I don't have my PPL but will have it when I need it. :D
 
You Gotta Believe

I knew I wanted to build for many years (primarily interested in a Velocity), but hadn't decided on which kit until last year.

After careful consideration, I gave up on composites and slimed my choices down to two: Zenith 601 or RV-9A.

After sitting in both at the last Sun-N-Fun, I sent in my order for the RV-9A kit.

:( But I have yet to fly in *ANY* RV...You Just Gotta Believe!!!

BTW, is there anybody in the Tampa (KVDF) or Merritt Island (KCOI) area willing to give me a ride? I'll buy lunch. :D

John Edwards
RV-9A - Empennage (N5JE Reserved)
Grumman Traveler N5806L - KCOI
 
In 1973 I graduated from High School and went to Oshkosh. There was a slick low wing airplane called an RV3. There was this lanky guy standing around the airplane answering questions,name was Van. 31 years later I go to OSH and there is Van, standing around answering questions. Thats how I gage an aircraft company. I bought a 4 tail years before I rode in an RV, I sold that tail and bought a wing and tail kit for an 8. Airline bankruptcy and furlough caused me to sell that. Hopefully this time around I wont have a misfire. its now between a 3 and a 4 for me. Getting started is my Christmas present, so I'm taking my time deciding.
 
Friends consider me nuts

Started a 6A in 94 and still working on it. Only RV I've ever been in was "Old Blue" and the engine wasn't even running.:( At the time Van's whole display at Oshkosh was him standing by the plane inviting people to sit in it. Almost gave up the project a few years ago till I found this site. One of these days I'm gonna get me one of those demo rides at Oshkosh. I've spent more on this plane than I paid for my first house. Now if that ain't faith I don't know what is.:D Sure hope its fun to fly!
 
you can get a ride before buying? oops

I'm about 2/3 through my ppl, started in 1992, 1998, 2000, and 2007. My training school honoured my original ground school receipt. Three times.
Went skydiving instead, much more "affordable".

I'm into RV-8A wings, awaiting inspection on elevator/rudder, and got real tired of deburring what looks like the same part over and over, so I took the summer off building, to get aeromotivated.

I've been looking to build something since I was 8, over 30 years ago.
I still have the bensen gyrocopter preview plans, and they don't sell the Rotorway Scorpion helicopter kit any more.

I looked at the quickie q2, long-ez and the dragonfly, then the berkut.
I actually saw a berkut in the air at Long Beach on a fine winter Saturday.

The temperature control for the curing scared me off (I live in Saskatchewan and heating the shop would be expensive), and have a buddy who got sensitized and had to hang up his long-ez hopes. I'd never heard of these RV thingys, and had never worked in metal.

A couple local folks built or are building Murphy Moose - nice a/c, but I won't be able to refuel it without a mortgage. So, on with the research hat, and as we all know - you can't look anywhere without seeing Van's Aircraft yesterday, today and tomorrow. After the composite manufacturers going out of business as I looked at them, I liked the idea of a company that was going to still be there for me at the end.

Turns out they make a heck of an airplane kit too. I woudn't have launched without the matched hole kit, was bugged the fuse on the 8 wasn't, but they fixed that before I got there. While everybody was wondering why that was the "Big Announcement", I was giddy with joy.

The closest I've been to flying in an RV is drooling on a couple of local RV-4's. I'm too heavy for the back seat in a 4.
I have some pretty awesome workmanship to live up to, locally.

One day before I'm done building, I'm going to Aurora to beg for a flight and a tour. I work in machine automation, I'm building one of their kits, and family can enjoy a vacation in the area.

Enough blathering on. I have to study for a cross-country flight in a few days, and I've still got some wing ribs too, for a "break"

PS. The 4 year old is already negotiating with mom for me to build a helicopter "when you're done the airplane".
I haven't flown one of those either. :)
 
I had a ride in a -6 and a Falco (cool), and just knew the 8 was for me.

I had the transition with Alex, but my first ride in an 8 was the test flight!

That way, I had no dreams to be upset.
 
Faith, But Not Blind Faith

I'm done with the empennage & wings and working on the fuselage of my RV-7 and STILL have never had a ride in an RV. I also still need to get current (haven't flown PIC in at least 20 years), get taildragger time (yep, faith there as well!), and transition training. I've been having too much fun pounding rivets to fly:)
 
My "what-to-build" research quickly led me to a Van's RV. I went to the factory thinking -7A. Bruce gave me the tour then asked if I was into aerobatics. I said not really, just local flying and the "civilized" Idaho backcountry strips and a long XC or two a year. We took the factory -9A up for the demo flight. He demonstrated it flies slow, fast, high and low with ease, comfort, and economy.
We landed and I bought the coffee cup. I bought the -9A empennage kit about 6 months later. That was early July 2004.

Seeing the finish line,
Steve
 
Built on a lot of faith

Here in Canada, with our much smaller population, things tend to lag, just a little, events happening in the US. RV's weren't too far behind though. In 1983 I moved from the wilds of Newfoundland, where the nearest airport was a two hour drive away (at the time) to Yarmouth Nova Scotia, where the town had a great left over from the war in a large barely used airport. I got back into flying. ( I had done my PPl in N.S. about 10 years earlier) mostly Cessnas and Cubs. (Learned taildragging in a PA11 on a 800 foot strip mowed 12 feet wide). I was in a second had store with my wife sometime in 1985 and the store had a bin with old magazines and books. I was browsing and saw a Plane and Pilot magazine about 6 month old with a photo of the great looking aircraft on the cover. The story was a flight test of this great new kit aircraft called an RV4. I still have the magazine. Completely new to me. I was thinking of buying a cub or a Cessna, but this magazine write up of the 4 kept tugging so I wrote off for the info package. (Long before the internet) and was hooked. I had great doubts that I would be able to build an aircraft, but I ordered the plans in 1985. I had never even seen an RV and never talked to anyone who had even flown one. I had spent about a year learning about the tools and the construction methods, and was a bit more confident that I could figure things out. I might add that the aircraft people in Yarmouth at the time were all cub people and were a great resource for tube and fabric construction, but no one had worked or built a metal aircraft. I ordered the tail kit in 1987 and began to figure things out. I never got a ride until 1988 after I moved to Fredericton N.B. The ride was in the second RV that I had ever seen that two brothers had purchased in BC and brought to Fredericton. In 1997 C-FYTQ flew for the first time. It was a difficult build, the early part was in a RV vacuum, there were no other builders around, no internet etc. The RVator and the phone were the support system. There are now 6 RV's in Fredericton. Best decision I ever made.

Joe Hine
RV4 C-FYTQ "La Blonde"
 
First Ride

I actually had my empennage almost completed before I had my first ride in an RV. My wife thought I was actually nuts to build a plane I had never ridden in. So at Sun 'N Fun 2006 I told the Vans people " here's my wing deposit but my wife says I have to get a demo ride in exchange" I knew then that i made the best mistake of my life. Woohoo I'm a home builder.
 
First ride was my transition training with Pierre

I was flying a rented Cherokee 140 when I saw I RV fly into the pattern. I went out and bought the kit that week. After 8 years of building I had my first ride when I went to visit Pierre for my transition training down in Georgia. I flew my RV-6A 2 months later.
 
I built on Faith

I was half way through my RV wings before I had ever even seen an RV.
No Im not kidding.
I was talking to Sam B while woriking on my wings (he had the only real builders site back then) and he suggested I find a local EAA chapter.

I went to the local airport, saw 4 RV's completed in a single hanger and almost passed out with excitement. "Hey, thats my plane Im building. Holy ****!"

How whacked is that?
 
Earlier this year, I got my first ride in Pop Owen's RV-6, then got a ride at Oshkosh on the RV-7a. Climbing out in the 200hp factory plane was the $80k moment. Almost done with the emp. QB Wing, Fuse, Finish are scheduled for February.
 
I still haven't seen a finished RV (up close anyway, I did see Mike Seager flying around at Scappoose when I bought my kit from the previous builder). This site and Youtube sure are nice to keep the motivation going.
 
Sorta

I voted under the $65k ride, but I actually still haven't flown in an RV-8 (which I am building). Dave Gamble was nice enough to take me up in his beautiful RV-6 and Rick Blaes did the same in his hot rod RV-4. I guess my first 8 ride will be in mine!:D
 
Guy Townsend did it for me

Guy's 180HP fixe pitch RV4 was my first ride. It was so new at the time you could just about still smell the paint drying.

First impressions of the RV4 were excellent; the only exceptions were a very sharp stall break and some aileron snatch at high deflection angles. But overall a nice flying airplane.

I ordered my kit the next day... finally flew it after 3500 man hours and 7.5 years of work.

Now building an 8.

Panhandler1956: you flew with Rick... and lived!! EEEK!! Rick and I go back a few years....

Bill
 
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Not yet a pilot, almost done with a 7.

Not sure how I fit in the fold. I helped a good friend buck rivets on a 6, He gave me 8 hours of instruction in that aircraft, which caused me to purchase a 7 emp. 5 years later and we are about to finish the panel and hang the engine! So far, all I have is that 8 hours of instruction in my logbook. I sure appreciate all the helpfull info. available through this website.
Looking foreword to continuing my flying in my plane and exploring the country afterwords.

Steve Craig
Hoss7
Port Townsend, Wa.
Ready to hang wings and engine.
 
Yeah, I managed a ride in Vans' demonstrator RV-8 down at Sun-n-Fun back in '99. My mind was already made up though, as I had hemmed and hawed for a very long time. ....whether to build one of these slick aluminum kits or go with a tube and fabric design. I really liked the Hatz Classic biplane and also very much liked the idea of restoring a Stearman (still do.....). But I also really liked the Vans -8 and all that it could do for me.

I went to one of those weekend seminars on basic aluminum construction and decided right then and there that this.... was for me!!!!!
 
Never saw an RV and didn't even hear about one until two weeks before I ordered the kit. I didn't even have my PPL. I hadn't even started on my PPL.
 
faith builder

Well, I'm one of those guys who jumped into this after doing much research
and I am thinking that I selected the best kit (for me) to build.

I'm an engineer and I just love to build stuff.

I have not started flight training yet (but I've had tons of hours of right seat time in Cessnas & Pipers so I'm not completely ignorant).

My plan is to hit flight school with enough $$ on hand to fly 3 to 4 times a week and get'r done when I'm about a year from completing my RV9A.
I don't want to begin my PPL until I get closer to finishing my plane - might want to fly more than build:D

Before starting this project my research included pricing flight school, hangers, insurance, etc. I also got a medical just to make sure I could.

I'm still convinced that RV's are the best kit out there and the RV9A will work well for me.

Dave
finishing up wings
 
Panhandler1956: you flew with Rick... and lived!! EEEK!! Rick and I go back a few years....

Bill[/QUOTE]

Yep, although I thought I was going to barf after all those spins, the guy loves them!
 
Free Ride

For all us crazy ones out there, I did get a ride in Vans 10 at the factory, but I am not a pilot yet.... Enjoying the process a lot and I'm almost retired. More time for the 10 YEA!
 
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