Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Dreaming Big!



RV 7 Project
  

 I had been toying with the idea of buying an airplane. I wanted one that I could keep in my new hangar/shop that we built and be able to take off and land from my grass strip on my farm in Garden City, Texas. I also wanted one that we could get somewhere fairly quickly. I started reading about RV’s and their performance and started getting interested in the little planes and pictured myself owning one. Only two seats, but 200mph cruise with a 600’ take off roll on 9gph fuel burn! Are you kidding me? The 25’ wingspan would tuck nicely into my hanger and I would still have room to work on other things after it was built.
Vans RV7 Quick Build Kit
   
 I started searching for the perfect plane at a reasonable price and finally realized to get that plane, I would need to build it myself!  Also, if I purchased a plane from another builder, I would have to get any modifications I made to it signed off by an A&P. I didn’t care for that idea although it would have got me in the air much faster. The thought of building my own airplane kept creeping up on me. I would read endlessly about building the RV9 and before I knew it, I was excited about the prospect! I had just built a 60x42 insulated / heated hangar (Barn) beside my house a few years before and I kept my Kolb Mk II light sport airplane inside it. I purchased the Kolb 5 years before from someone else already built.The Kolb has a 54 hp rotax engine and is a joy to fly! It is a wonderful airplane to go joyriding in and has been my introduction into homebuilt aircraft. It is a two seater and my wife, Nancy, likes to go flying with me. It's unique cabin makes a wonderful view. The plane will also fold up and load on a special trailer that I built for it. The plane flies about 70 mph and has a 2.5 hr range. It is great fun but not ideal for traveling anywhere of any distance.
Kolb MKII Experimental Light Sport Airplane

  Here is a little video I made while flying My Kolb over my home town of Garden City, Texas. It was made 5 years ago.
 

 Well anyway, back to the RV7. I have always loved building things and was suddenly willing to invest at least 5 years of my life doing so. At first I was leaning heavily on building the RV9 because of its docile handling characteristics and its newly designed wing that made high altitude cruising very efficient. I had checked out a few RV9 projects for sale across the country but really liked the Idea of starting from ground zero with a brand new kit. I was set to get started but there was one problem, I had never flown or rode in an RV airplane! What if I didn’t like it? I have a friend, Greg Niehues, who is building a 9a. He gave me the number of Bob Evans, a man who had a RV 7a at Skywest airport, about 35 miles away. I called Bob and asked if I could visit and look at his 7a. I was thinking maybe I could con a ride out of him also. He said to come on over, he would be glad to show me his plane. I jumped in the Kolb and flew over to Skywest the next morning. Holy smoke! What he didn’t tell me on the phone was he was just finishing a brand new RV9!

Bob's RV9

Well I drooled all over both planes for a couple of hours and was sure enough bitten by the building bug! He couldn’t give me a ride as his 7a because it needed an annual condition inspection. Well shoot! If I could have gotten that ride, I would have been sold right there! There was something else he didn’t tell me on the phone, he found out I was thinking about building a RV and said he had the perfect project for me! He led me to the back of his hangar and low and behold, there was a fuselage of an RV7a! Over beside it was a pair of Quick build wings in a cradle and a huge dusty pile of parts! He had bought the project after someone else gave up on the dream. It had been fairly close to being finished and had even had an engine mounted at one time. He told me the 7a was almost as docile as the 9 and was fully aerobatic. Most folks couldn’t tell the difference between 7 and the 9 just by looking. Well anyway, he said he had taken the engine off the project and put it on his 9. I got the feeling looking at the project that there had been plenty of occasions when someone might have needed a part and borrowed one to finish another plane. Still, he told me how much he wanted for the plane and it really sparked my interest! I knew I could order any part I needed from Vans Aircraft, and the surprising thing was, Vans sells the parts very reasonably. You can build a plane part by part and it would cost about the same as if you bought the entire kit in one purchase! This really got my mind to clicking! I went home and started studying right away. Kit price verse this project. The project had quick build wings and a quick build fuselage so I didn’t have to worry about an unknown builders skill level. I had read there was some concerns about quick build quality but had deduced from so much reading that I could trust it was structurally sound. 
  Bob gave me his builders number for the project and I made my first call to Vans Aircraft. They were nice enough to send me the delivery sheets of the kit and the complete parts list. Over the next couple of weeks I studied and studied. I tried to come up with an estimate of all the parts that were missing and if I thought I could study through the plans and piece this plane together. And a very nice guy in Ft Worth, Walt Aronow, who owns EXP Aircraft Services, volunteered on the Vans Air Force message board  to give me a ride in his beautiful 7a. I happen to be in Ft Worth that next weekend and after flying with him for a while, I knew the RV7 was for me! He let me take the stick and I couldn’t get over how responsive the plane was. I still owe Walt for that ride and I will not forget it!

Walt Aronow's RV7a

  I got close to ordering 9 empennage kit several times but I couldn’t get Bob’s dusty 7a pile of parts out of my mind! With that pile of 7a parts, I could save about 2 years building time and a considerable amount of cash! Cash I could spend on nice things like a Glass Panel and a CS prop! Well, all said and done, I purchased the project from Bob Evans on October 31, 2012. I took my utility trailer to his hanger at Skywest Airport just south of Midland. I made two trips and had the entire project home in my hangar by 2:00 PM that afternoon. 

Starting home with my project.

Bob also threw in a building table in the deal! This table later turned out to be invaluable. I also got a wing rack. The price for a complete quickbuild kit from Vans at this time was around 30-35k so I feel I can save a little money and time with this project. It will take a considerable amount of research and study to make sure all the steps to build this plane, up to this point, have been completed to my satisfaction. Little did I know, how much research I was about to embark on!
   From here on out, I will attempt to tell the story of building this RV7 airplane. This will be my attempt at logging my building process. I have never blogged before so this may be a challenge. I also wanted a place I could send people who are interested in my project. The story will be my documentation to prove that 51% of the plane was built by an amateur. And when I get too old to get around, I can grab a cup of coffee, and relive this wonderful adventure!