What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Build RV-12, same specs, but as EAB?

J

Jennafly

Member
Hi all,

I've been looking into building an RV-12, and so far, I'm concerned about the placement of the fuel tank.

But is it reasonable this could be done? That I buy the kit, build to same specs as kit plans say, except place fuel tank into wings (secure wings so they can't be removed as now), and then register as EAB, yet still fly under Sport privileges?

Can RV-12s be registered, when built as EAB?

And if so, might it be reasonable to move tanks to the wings?

Thank you

Jen
 
Hey Jen - -

quick short answers ( I hope ). You can build as EAB if desired. I think most of us feel the plane is worth more as an E-LSA. You will be on your own if not building E-LSA. Fuel tank inside I feel is not a serious issue now. No data to prove otherwise, but that area of a crash would be the last to fail I'd think. If you crash hard enough to damage the tank now, it might not be important to you then. Not being negative, just realistic.

John Bender
487 hours.
 
Building tanks into the wings has been done, but it's a serious design modification that requires a good deal of technical knowledge and places you squarely in the `RV-12 Experimental' category. There is no good place for a fuel tank in an aircraft in a crash, and it can be argued that the strong cabin area is as good or better than the wings, which are often the first things to be damaged. The tank does reduce the size of the baggage area, but as you must remain within weight and balance limits anyway, I personally don't see it as a big issue, although others may see it differently. However, there are some useful modifications that have been documented here previously: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=64145
that you could incorporate if building EAB but didn't want to deviate too much from the plans. You can fly an EAB RV-12 as a sport pilot as long as the modifications do not take the aircraft out of the LSA performance parameters (max weight, max speed, min stall, etc).
 
Last edited:
I am one of those who believes that ELSA vs EAB is over rated. Vans has nearly 8000 planes flying, only about 200 are ELSA. I notice no difference so far. Most are build ELSA then changed to suit the owner the day after the airworthiness is issued, so where is really the big difference? Of course Van makes a lot more profit if you can be convinced that ELSA is the only way to go, since you MUST buy everything from them.
Putting the fuel in the wings on this aircraft is not an easy task, and one should do some deep studying before attempting it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top