Sight Unseen?

BoilermakerRV · #1 09-21-2009, 05:09 PM

I'm expecting to order my empennage kit next month. I have not yet seen an RV up close and in person, only photos and videos. I may get lucky this next trip home and get to check out an RV-7. It got me wondering, how many of you decided to build without ever seeing, or flying in an RV?

llavalle · #2 09-21-2009, 05:21 PM

I started building without flying it. The only one I saw was an incomplete RV-6. It had it's engine and the fuse was almost completed. The owner was working on the canopy.

The RV-6 made its first flight last December while I was working on the empennage. I then ordered my wings... and was lucky enough to get a ride in the -9A demo at Osh this year...

That's it!

longranger · #3 09-21-2009, 05:28 PM

I had seen several in person, but IIRC, I was drilling holes in wing parts when I got my first ride.

K?hler · #4 09-21-2009, 06:21 PM

I've seen lots of RVs at OSH. Never touched one. Matter of fact, smallest fixed wing I've ever even been in is a Lear 45. (So, no, I am not yet a pilot either.)

(That is not to say this was done on a whim. I did my homework.)

Besides, it's an RV... What's not to love?

-Karl
HS & VS done / Rudder underway

Pbr47906 · #5 09-21-2009, 08:14 PM

I was well into the wings when I got my first ride, compliments of Frank Smidler in an RV6. No regrets..

Paul
N277PM
LAF

Go Boilers

wil · #6 09-21-2009, 08:19 PM

Two years ago my wife, daughter and I all had demonstration flights at Van's in the RV 7. It sure was an eye opener after flying a Cessna 170 for 19 years. Can't wait to get our 7 off the ground.

sbal0906 · #7 09-21-2009, 08:36 PM

A few weeks ago, a pilot friend of mine pointed me to Vans Aircraft website. I started reading about the various models. When I read the description for the -9, I thought someone had sat down and asked me what I wanted in a personal airplane. I kept doing more research, ordered the information kit and I was hooked. I had never thought I'd build my own airplane but the idea that I would know the aircraft inside and out really appealed to me.

I won't be able to start building (a -9A to be specific) until late next year but I'm hoping to get to Oshkosh next year and maybe even visit the factory in Oregon.

Cheers.

flion · #8 09-21-2009, 10:08 PM

My experience was somewhere between the first two choices...

I was doing my MEL training in a Duchess. One day a -6A took off out of KOAK right behind me and my instructor. We're full power, clean, and climbing (and, at this point, the Duchess was the hottest airplane I've ever flown) and this RV comes up and parks on our wing and let's us look him over. He's pitched up in obvious slow flight. After a few seconds, he drops his nose and away he goes. My instructor and I look at each other and, simultaneously, "I want one!" My thinking: his single engine was beating the heck out of our two, even given the size difference...

Rick6a · #9 09-22-2009, 05:21 AM

For me it was sight unseen and further...up to that time never even heard of an "RV" except as a camper. A life long dream, it was only after firmly deciding one way or another I would finally build an airplane I started seriously looking around for a suitable project. For weeks I searched and searched, but in the end kept coming back to this picture on Van's website:

It seemed to possess everything I wanted. Low wing, sliding canopy, and fast. The advanced and far easier to assemble -7 series was yet to be born, still just a twinkle in Van's eye. I did not fly in ANY RV until my project was a only a few months from completion.

An unexpected first RV ride came along by mere chance when an RV-6 driver landed at our small airport for an overnight stay and he strolled into my hangar to view the unfinished project. A few minutes of stick time in his -6 was a humbling experience when I quickly learned this wasn't your mothers spam can.

Kahuna · #10 09-22-2009, 06:06 AM

There are no excuses for living in Indy and not seeing an RV. Its one of the Meccas for RV'ers. Those guys fly a lot. If you need contacts let me know.

I was into my wings of my 6 before I had ever seen an RV in person. Its was Sams site that motivated me.

I was a complete morron, often still am. At my home town airport were many RV's flying even then back in the mid 90's. 4 in one hanger alone. What an idiot I was. I knew nothing about EAA, or building. A simple walk at the airport on any Saturday in the 90's with a simple ?"Is there an RV here" and bam, I would have been pointed to the right place. I just didnt know to ask.

All I had to do was go look. I had no idea they were there. I was an R/C guy who ran into Sams building site somehow and was hooked instantly. Seemed like a big r/c model to me so I started building. What a dope.

There are no excuses today.