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Does your RV have a nickname?

Ed_Wischmeyer

Ed_Wischmeyer

Well Known Member
Some people give their vehicles names. I've never named any of my cars, nor have I given nicknames to the RV-4, RV-8, RV-8A, or AirCam. The Cessna 175 was nicknamed The Bumblebee because the pre-purchase photos looked like it was black and yellow. (The black was actually a not very attractive chocolate brown, like early Boeing jets).

The RV-9A has truly earned its nickname after being soot-covered and, to an unknown degree, soot-filled from a fire two hangars over. The nickname is... yes, it's obvious... Smokey.

Garmin said that the GTN650 and the transponder should come home to get any soot out, so they're on their way back to Olathe, and the insurance will pay for the flat-rate repair.

Yesterday at the airport, I put blue dots where the paint had been discolored by melting plastic dripping from the ceiling. Smokey's photos before the soot was washed off showed spots that are hard to see now, but all of the upper surfaces need the paint touched up, and the canopy and windshield could use a good buffing to take care of a few spots.

There's soot in the tips of the stabilizer, no surprise, but since my inspection mirrors are not yet retrievable from the original hangar, I don't have a good idea of the details. And the shop is going to remove soot from Smokey's engine compartment, carb and cabin air intakes, and pitot/static inputs in advance of the 30 day corrosion inspection.

By the way, the insurance adjuster is 100% in favor of corrosion proofing all aluminum airplanes. There wasn't time, but he says that he has stories... And after 42 years as an adjuster, he probably has some good ones.

It's also curious to consider two other planes I've owned. My old AirCam was eaten by a treetop in a severe crosswind and fell to the ground inverted. The new owner was seriously injured but made a full recovery. I was well along on the sheet metal part of an RV-10 when divorce struck, and somebody else completed it. It was inadvertently landed in the trees at dusk, flying an instrument approach that was for daytime only.

I hope Smokey doesn't become number three. At least there are no trees involved...
 
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Our RV8 is called Tug. The original builder, Tom Swartzlander (RIP) was called Tug. Once I took over the project we started calling it Tug since Tom was still there in spirit.
 
What I whisper as I rub her flanks is entirely private...

My buddy had a factory-built light sport with a very early serial number. The manufacturer was definitely on a learning curve. We named the aircraft "Enigma" because the phrase most often spoken in its vicinity was "Why in the **** did they do that?"
 
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RV9A - Fightin' Sam (In honor of my dad's WWII B-24 Liberator)
RV10 - Sky Dog (Duane Allman's nickname)
 
FLIPPER

Back in another century I took a friend to Wyoming to pick up his new to him RV-6.

On the way home he lost power on final approach to our fuel stop. He did a great job of landing in a field. However the soft sand in a freshly harvested crop in Kansas turned the airplane over.

Once we got it home, I rebuilt the airplane and it is still flying today.

His wife affectionately named the airplane Flipper!
 
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Never been big on naming things but the cliché "Mistress" has stuck with my friends, family, and myself because she almost resulted in divorce. :)
 
Dynamite Debbie. Named in honor of my first wife shortly after she passed from leukemia. I wish I’d put the lettering on sooner so she could see it.
 
Names

2005 RV-6A is Redbird
RV-10 is Gracie
Luscombe has been Luscombe the 54 years I’ve been flying her.
Hatz is almost done and will be called ?
 
"Miss Fusion". Merging of diverse, distinct, or separate elements into a unified whole. She no doubt has rewarded me with years of memorable flying to include acro, formation, airshow performances and of course backcountry flying, not to mention the most balanced controls out of the three aircraft I fly.
 
Promises. Relates to a revelation of the glory of God’s promises on my first flight bringing the plane from its prior home in Livermore, CA to Georgia with Vern Darley as my co-pilot/transition instructor.
 
Airplane names....

Ed_Wischmeyer said:
Some people give their vehicles names. I've never named any of my cars, nor have I given nicknames to the RV-4, RV-8, RV-8A, or AirCam....
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I have what could be called a personal relationship with all my vehicles, be they cars/trucks, bicycles, or airplanes so they all have names. Maybe it comes from the need to take better care of something/someone one has a personal relationship with.:) I take care of them; they take care of me!

That said, my RV-4 SuzieQ has always been SuzieQ. When I go into controlled airspace, I will usually get "SuzieQ" back from the controller, depending on how familiar they are with me, but some will want to use Sierra Quebec, which is OK. That sounds pretty cool as well.... 232 SuzieQ rolls off the tongue a little easier.....:p

I was once overflying Omaha on the way to OSH one year and was checking in with Omaha approach even though I was well above the ceiling of their airspace. Nice to talk to them and good for them to know I am aware of where I am. I had finished my exit transmission and still on frequency when I hear "Denver! (my OSH volunteer call sign) Is that you?? Are you headed to OSH?" Yes! "Could you nab me one of the information pamphlets on that new diesel engine?" You bet! To this day I have no idea who that was but was likely an overflying airline pilot who knew me, call sign and airplane! That was fun!
 
Probably tell from the Avatar...

My 7A is "Muttley"
The 12is under construction is "Dastardly"
and our small motor home is "Penelope", after Penelope Pitstop

..my life is just one "Wacky Race" after another.....
 
MOODY - first Homebuilt, wood & fabric, made the weirdest groaning noises, so named for how ‘moody’ she was that day.
JOY - first 7A, was pure joy flying.
‘THE ROUND TAIL’ - 6 that I rounded out the tail fairings just to look different, it did.
TWEETY BIRD - 6, a natural name for a yellow plane. The latest owner calls it RAVEN (a yellow Raven??)
FARMER - 6 that I found in a shed on a farm strip.
GOOEY - 6A easier to say that than pronouncing it’s registration letters
The other ones were just called their registration letters…
 
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Lucy

I always name my vehicles.
My airplane is Lucy.
She got her name the day I got the empennage kit. They take care of us and deserve ti be treated as such.
 
Dragonfly

Nearing the end of the build, a big dragonfly came in the hangar and rested on the engine.
Therefore, the name stayed :D
 
Stella Luna, complete with tail art my wife did. We would always read the book to our nieces and nephews and when we were trying to figure out paint schemes we photocopied lots of 3 view drawings and brought colored pencils to Yosemite. In the evenings we would doodle on the 3 views. We both wound up gravitating toward the scalloped trailing edge bat-wing style of graphic and my wife said “why don’t we just embrace the bat thing and call her Stella Luna”? Who am I to argue?
 
The Saucy Wench, after my wife of the same description.

Here she is 10 years ago when we met, and today at the WV77 hot dog fly-in standing in front of a friend's Luscombe.

She's not wild about sharing her moniker with the plane - something about it seems like an infringement to her, but I'm stubborn...



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During construction, she was "the aluminum wh*re who lives in my garage and takes all of my time and money". :) JK!

Various names were suggested, including (because she's painted red/white), "Red Flag PFR", but for those who know what that its, it's NOT a fortuitous name LOL!

Nicknames and vehicle names have to happen serendipitously...can't be forced. After a decade now, she's always been "The Girl", as no other name ever "happened".
 
Our Planes

RV7Aflyer is right, quite often airplanes, cars and dogs will show you their names. But when we first brought our new to us RV-6 home, my CFI wife looked at it and said ”It’s a girl and her name is Lola.” Just like that. Maybe the fact that her tail number ends in L was a factor? Anyway, if you’ve ever been married, you know how that works. A late, excellent friend, whenever we worked on the plane or spent $ on her would always start singing “Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets” from D**n Yankees. So, who can name 3 more Lola songs? We also have a project Cessna 150 named Jimmy, in honor of the pilot/A&P/friend, one of my mentors who owned it before us.
 
An RV-8 owner friend helped name my RV-6, after a formation flight to breakfast.
He said "Wow, that things really scoots!"
Ergo, it's named Scooter
 
Built the major part of the 7 in Alabama. Sometimes, when things weren't that easy and tools were flying through the shop to let off some steam, I called her "f^%£&^# bitch".

So she got her name.... Alabama Bitch. I even put that name on the forward fuse. I love her. :)
 
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"Patches"

I never name anything but after some 30 odd service bulletins and various scabbed on doublers the name became obvious...
Even with all that, she still looks pretty after 13 years:
 

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"The Kitplane"

People kept asking me what I called it. Had to tell them that. It hasn't flown yet. Maybe after that it'll tell me what its name is.

Even now, though, it's better than a C170 I had. That one was "Ain't Nothin' Easy."

Dave
 
“The Spruce Moose.” Named after Monty Burns’ airplane, the name was bestowed by my (non-airplane) friends who thought it hilarious that I was building an airplane in my garage.
 
"Rabbit 2".
When my dad was 75, my parents and our family went on a two month caravanning road trip together. On the morning we left he pulled out a couple of hand-held two-way radios so that we could keep in touch on the road, our kids travelling with us, and usually with one of them ahead of us in my parents' old Toyota FJ40. He decided for some reason that his call sign was Rabbit 1, so naturally we were relegated to Rabbit 2. Throughout the trip the kids kept up a regular chatter... "Rabbit 1 calling Rabbit 2...".
A decade or so later when I was half-way through building the plane my mother asked me what I was going to call it. I hadn't thought about calling it anything, and told her it already had a name - it was an RV-12. Now, although my parents have been gone for some years and I'm a lot closer to the age they were then, I still grin when I see "Rabbit 2" painted on the rear bulkhead.
 
Patty May

My wife hates my plane, hated when I built it, hates when I go flying, hates everything about it so I named it after her and even included her initials in it’s N number. She hates that too. :p
 
When I bought the plane 8 years ago I spent more waking hours with it than my wife. It became the Aluminum Mistress.
 

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Pigpen

Since it was a rebuild project, on initial disassembly I was finding many little things that would need attention. My wife is a Peanuts fan so it came to me one night that the plane was Pigpen!
 
NYTOM said:
My wife hates my plane, hated when I built it, hates when I go flying, hates everything about it so I named it after her and even included her initials in it’s N number. She hates that too. :p
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She must be short…..
 
My RV-9A has a name, but I really don't refer to it often by name...

"Plumita" - It's plum colored (purple) and means Little Feather in Spanish, hence the feather on the tail.
 
We called our RV10 - ELMA - first letters of the names of my two daughters who helped and supported me a lot during its build :)
Their names are Elizabeth and Maria.
 
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