Guy Prevost
Well Known Member
I had a unique experience yesterday. I watched my RV-8a, better known in the family as Jane Plane, take off without me in the front seat. She’s headed east to her new home in a heated hangar next to a private paved runway. This marks the first time in her entire existence she’s flown without me as PIC. 2500 wonderful hours of building, 550 glorious hours of flight time. And now she’s someone else’s airplane. I’m a little sad to see her go, but not as sad as you might think. These machines are about the memories they make and the journeys they enable. We're on a pretty amazing journey right now.
When we built Jane there were two of us in the family. We wanted to build an airplane and take it on adventures all over the country. Jane was that airplane and fit the mission perfectly. We crisscrossed the nation, flew her to Oshkosh several times, toured Monument Valley before breakfast, and flew across the state for countless breakfast burritos; our version of the $100 hamburger. She was an excellent tool to learn formation flying and I logged nearly 100 hours of formation practice in her over the last few years.
As great as that was, life is a journey and missions change. The first big change was the arrival of our son Ayrton. He attended his first formation clinic in utero, but two months later he was born and took up residence in our bedroom. Life changed. Dramatically. I still flew Jane often, but since Merideth (my wife) works many weekends it often meant finding a sitter. Last year our family grew again to include Amelia. Amelia didn’t get to experience formation flying in-utero, but was present with her mom during her private pilot checkride two months prior to being born.
At some point after our son’s birth we bought into a co-op that owns a TB-20 and a PA32R. Both airplanes are reasonably fast (unless you’re used to RV speeds) and they haul a good sized load. Over the last year those airplanes became primary in supporting our new mission of family travel and adventure. One thing we learned is that co-ownership is a compromise at best. I was able to complete my instrument rating in the club airplanes but it would be some time before my wife Merideth was insurable in the club’s “high performance” retractable gear airplanes. Merideth also seemed reluctant to check out in our RV-8a. I think in her mind it was too much of MY airplane. The net result is that our beautiful RV-8a sat in our hangar for all but about 20 hours of last year. We still flew quite a bit, but it was all in the club’s aircraft. Basically we flew someone else’s plane while ours just sat. We realized that we needed just one airplane that fit our mission. An RV-10. We also realized that it would be a few years before we would have time to build again.
The search began for a lightweight but well equipped RV-10. Leaving this RV community wasn't an option. Enter N649BG; an RV-10 only 20 lbs heavier than Van’s factory demonstrator. The same age as our RV-8a. and nicely equipped. She’s got a nicely forward CG with her lightweight prop and firewall mounted battery. Solo I need a bit of weight in the baggage compartment, but she’ll suit our family nicely as the kids get bigger in the years to come. The 10 is a plane that suits our mission and means no more shared airplanes for us. Coincidentally the owner of the 10 wanted to downsize to an RV-8a. He no longer needed to carry his grandkids and missed his former RV-8. A trade was struck and Jane is moving east while the RV-10 is taking up residence in our hangar at KAEG.
Have a wonderful journey Jane Plane.
Welcome N649BG—may you earn a fitting name in your Journeys with our family.
When we built Jane there were two of us in the family. We wanted to build an airplane and take it on adventures all over the country. Jane was that airplane and fit the mission perfectly. We crisscrossed the nation, flew her to Oshkosh several times, toured Monument Valley before breakfast, and flew across the state for countless breakfast burritos; our version of the $100 hamburger. She was an excellent tool to learn formation flying and I logged nearly 100 hours of formation practice in her over the last few years.
As great as that was, life is a journey and missions change. The first big change was the arrival of our son Ayrton. He attended his first formation clinic in utero, but two months later he was born and took up residence in our bedroom. Life changed. Dramatically. I still flew Jane often, but since Merideth (my wife) works many weekends it often meant finding a sitter. Last year our family grew again to include Amelia. Amelia didn’t get to experience formation flying in-utero, but was present with her mom during her private pilot checkride two months prior to being born.
At some point after our son’s birth we bought into a co-op that owns a TB-20 and a PA32R. Both airplanes are reasonably fast (unless you’re used to RV speeds) and they haul a good sized load. Over the last year those airplanes became primary in supporting our new mission of family travel and adventure. One thing we learned is that co-ownership is a compromise at best. I was able to complete my instrument rating in the club airplanes but it would be some time before my wife Merideth was insurable in the club’s “high performance” retractable gear airplanes. Merideth also seemed reluctant to check out in our RV-8a. I think in her mind it was too much of MY airplane. The net result is that our beautiful RV-8a sat in our hangar for all but about 20 hours of last year. We still flew quite a bit, but it was all in the club’s aircraft. Basically we flew someone else’s plane while ours just sat. We realized that we needed just one airplane that fit our mission. An RV-10. We also realized that it would be a few years before we would have time to build again.
The search began for a lightweight but well equipped RV-10. Leaving this RV community wasn't an option. Enter N649BG; an RV-10 only 20 lbs heavier than Van’s factory demonstrator. The same age as our RV-8a. and nicely equipped. She’s got a nicely forward CG with her lightweight prop and firewall mounted battery. Solo I need a bit of weight in the baggage compartment, but she’ll suit our family nicely as the kids get bigger in the years to come. The 10 is a plane that suits our mission and means no more shared airplanes for us. Coincidentally the owner of the 10 wanted to downsize to an RV-8a. He no longer needed to carry his grandkids and missed his former RV-8. A trade was struck and Jane is moving east while the RV-10 is taking up residence in our hangar at KAEG.
Have a wonderful journey Jane Plane.
Welcome N649BG—may you earn a fitting name in your Journeys with our family.
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