Those that painted before flying

[rvator9a]

I have a question for those builders that painted before flying their RVs. Do you have any regrets in doing this way or any advice for someone that is contemplating doing it this way. Thanks Bob Collins

[Wes Hays]

Bob,
If you are going to paint it yourself, I would go ahead and paint it before you fly. I painted before I flew mine the first time. Good thing!!!! I probably wouldn't have wanted to take it down long enough to paint it. I will paint again before flying my next one.

If you are going to have it painted, it would probably be best to fly it off first and then take it to the paint shop.

YMMV. It all boils down to a personal preference.

Good luck.

Wes Hays
Winters, TX
RV-6A Flying
RV-7A Wings

[Kyle Boatright]

No regrets on painting before flying.

I think it was far easier to paint the pieces in my shop than it would have been to fly, then disassemble everything, paint, and reassemble. Once that thing is together and flying, it is a lot of work and downtime to take it apart to paint.

[robertahegy]

Unless you have some mods that are untested, painting before flying works out fine. I rarely needed to remove anything during flight testing and did no damage when I did have to.

Roberta

[Scott Will]

Mine's in the paint shop now... 60 hrs after I've been flying. One of my build helpers advised I wait til it's flying because there may be some mods you have to do to get it where you want. For example, you may spend a lot of time getting the fiberglass on the empennage or wingtips all pretty and painted. But later you might have to re-rig a control surface and that throws everything out of whack... you may have to do some repainting. Guess it's not a huge deal but that was his advice. He spoke from experience.

Best,

[RV8N]

I painted in pieces first and have no regrets. I waited on the cowling and wheel pants.

Waited on the cowling because I have a 200hp and thought I might need to modify for cooling. Didn't have to and painted about a year later.

Waited on the wheel pants because I just wanted to go flying. Ended up dragging them on some steel plates at GLS while they were doing runway repairs. Had to do repairs and currently waiting for warmer weather to paint.

Still no regrets.

Karl

[gorbak]

We are down to the last little details, like fitting the upper and lower leg fairings (these are a terrible mold) and sanding and filling the fiberglass pieces. We are also setting up our paint booth, using 1 1/2" schedule 40 PVC pipe and plastic sheeting. We will fit and paint everthing prior to first flight, including wheel pants and leg fairings. When we are done, we just want to fly and not have to look back at another xxx hours of down time for prep and paint.
Others are entitled to their own opinion and we are exercising ours by painting prior to the first flight. In fact, we plan on painting both planes prior to each maiden flight.

Pat Garboden
Ozark, MO
Todd Wiechman
Building in Wichita, KS
RV9-A 942WG (reserved) O-235 w/slider nearing paint stage
RV9-A 942PT (reserved) O-320 w/tip-up finish kit

[videobobk]

I have no regrets for painting before flight. Actually, I had it painted because I couldn't see myself sanding off $400/gal paint if I screwed up. We had NO damaged due to handling all the parts (except for some scratches on the bottom of the cowl months later due to wind moving it--carelessness on my part that could have happened anytime.)

As I see it, you can either paint before assembly, paint after assembly, or disassemble and paint. NEVER want to have to take mine apart! Just watched a pro paint an assembled plane at our field and I got a far better (and lighter) job by having mine done in pieces. I vote for painting before final assembly although it adds some time to the process.

Bob Kelly