Hey everyone. I'm still relatively new to the world of RVs (in fact, this is my first post here on VAF) so please forgive me if the answer to my question is well-known.
This past weekend, at the Arlington fly-in, I saw an RV-6 "Plus" for the first time. This is an RV-6 that has about a foot added to the length of the fuselage, at the baggage compartment (where the airplane has a straightforward and pretty constant rectangular-box cross-section with no tapering). In this "stretched" RV-6, the panel and seats are in the same place relative to the wing and landing gear, but the aft end of the cabin (the bulkhead, the slider canopy rail, and the spot just aft of the flaps trailing edge where the lower/outer edge of the rectangular-box fuselage first becomes rounded as it starts to transition into the tailcone) is all about one foot further aft, relative to the wing and the seats. This allows for two small rearward-facing seats for kids, or a lot more baggage. (And there's a Rocket-style IO-540 in the nose, for balance). I chatted with the owner. The fabrication is not complicated, since it's just a rectangular box. Apparently the only really tricky part was getting a slider canopy that's a foot longer than normal. (The manufacturer makes the canopy with a few extra inches of material, then trims that off before shipment. This builder managed to order a canopy right out of the machine, no trimming, and that got him an extra 6 or 8 inches of length as well as an extra inch or two in height. The remaining extra length came from an extra-wide skirt at the aft edge).
When I got back home, some Googling revealed this (do a Ctrl+F for "RV-6 Plus"), this, this, and this. Apparently there are a few of these "Super Sixes" and "RV-6 Plus" out there.
My main question is... Has anyone done this to an RV-7? I've been searching for "Super Seven" or "RV-7 Plus" but found nothing. It would be a really cool airplane.
Right now I own an RV-6 (which I bought from the builder a few months ago) but I'm already thinking of maybe getting a -7 in a few years, and/or maybe building one someday. If at all possible, I would like a taller canopy (because in all the airplanes I flew before the RV-6, I had an easier time seeing over the nose during landing), so at the very least, I would investigate this possibility of getting an un-trimmed canopy and/or building a wider skirt so that the top of the canopy is a couple inches higher than usual. But adding a fuselage stretch would also be worth looking into, it seems to me.
What do you guys think?
This past weekend, at the Arlington fly-in, I saw an RV-6 "Plus" for the first time. This is an RV-6 that has about a foot added to the length of the fuselage, at the baggage compartment (where the airplane has a straightforward and pretty constant rectangular-box cross-section with no tapering). In this "stretched" RV-6, the panel and seats are in the same place relative to the wing and landing gear, but the aft end of the cabin (the bulkhead, the slider canopy rail, and the spot just aft of the flaps trailing edge where the lower/outer edge of the rectangular-box fuselage first becomes rounded as it starts to transition into the tailcone) is all about one foot further aft, relative to the wing and the seats. This allows for two small rearward-facing seats for kids, or a lot more baggage. (And there's a Rocket-style IO-540 in the nose, for balance). I chatted with the owner. The fabrication is not complicated, since it's just a rectangular box. Apparently the only really tricky part was getting a slider canopy that's a foot longer than normal. (The manufacturer makes the canopy with a few extra inches of material, then trims that off before shipment. This builder managed to order a canopy right out of the machine, no trimming, and that got him an extra 6 or 8 inches of length as well as an extra inch or two in height. The remaining extra length came from an extra-wide skirt at the aft edge).
When I got back home, some Googling revealed this (do a Ctrl+F for "RV-6 Plus"), this, this, and this. Apparently there are a few of these "Super Sixes" and "RV-6 Plus" out there.
My main question is... Has anyone done this to an RV-7? I've been searching for "Super Seven" or "RV-7 Plus" but found nothing. It would be a really cool airplane.
Right now I own an RV-6 (which I bought from the builder a few months ago) but I'm already thinking of maybe getting a -7 in a few years, and/or maybe building one someday. If at all possible, I would like a taller canopy (because in all the airplanes I flew before the RV-6, I had an easier time seeing over the nose during landing), so at the very least, I would investigate this possibility of getting an un-trimmed canopy and/or building a wider skirt so that the top of the canopy is a couple inches higher than usual. But adding a fuselage stretch would also be worth looking into, it seems to me.
What do you guys think?