What's Going on Here?

Simple. I'm building an airplane!

This web site is my story in words and pictures, documenting my efforts to build my own airplane. "You're building an airplane?" you say? Yes, I am. "A REAL airplane?" Yes. "In your garage?" Yes. "One you can actually fly in?" Yes! "You can do that?" Yes!!!

It wasn't all that long ago that I didn't know you could build your own airplane. I had never heard of airplane kits, or homebuilts. So when I found out all about it and learned as much as I could, I decided to build a high-performance Van's Aircraft RV-7A. What's a Van's RV-7A? It is a 2-place side-by-side aluminum aircraft built from a kit. Van's Aircraft is the manufacturer of the kit. You become the builder. You buy the kit and build your own airplane in your garage or shop. There are a number of kit airplane companies, but Van's Aircraft is by far the largest and most well known. Van's makes a number of different models that carry from 1 to 4 people. The two-place models come in either side-by-side seating or front-and-back tandem seating. You can see them all on Van's website. I chose the model 7A for several reasons. I plan on doing some traveling and I would like my passenger sitting beside me rather than in the back seat. The "A" model has a nosewheel up front as seen in the photo above, as opposed to the RV-7, which is a taildragger. You can build the airplane either way. It's a matter of personal preference.

Also a matter of personal preference is the way you choose to paint your airplane when you get it finished. Although I'm not sure it's for me, I love this paint job. It's patriotic! It's absolutely beautiful!

Now why on earth would somebody want to do something like this? Click on the link and read "Why Build Your Own Plane?" and you'll get my take on this whole concept. You have many choices and options as you decide exactly what your airplane will be like. Mine will probably have a 180 hp engine, a tip-up canopy, room for 2 plus baggage, a top speed over 200 mph, and nice slow landings. This airplane is fully aerobatic, so I can do loops and rolls and whoop-tee-do's and have all the fun my stomach can handle. It will be day/night VFR at first (that means visual flight rules), with the option of going to full IFR (that means flying on instruments) if I choose to at some point. To top it all off, I live 22 miles from the factory here in Oregon. So I don't have to pay freight or crate charges on my kit. And if I need something, I can just go down there and get it. How can you beat that? For more information about these marvelous airplanes and on Van's Aircraft kits and how you can do this, too, go to: www.vansaircraft.com. I also have a few links to the left of some of my favorite sites that I check on regularly. This will get you started if you have some interest in looking further.

I put this site together so that family and friends in far away places can follow my progress. I'm also hoping to be an inspiration to some other person who has a dream similar to mine, of owning and flying an aircraft of their own. I'm also hopeful that my fellow builders may find something from my experience that will be helpful to them, as I have found other sites helpful to me.

I guess this is as good a place as any to put in a disclaimer: I've never built an airplane before. This is my first experience. I'm a rank amateur. I'm no engineer or metallurgical expert of any kind. I've never worked with aircraft tools before. Heck, I'm not even a pilot yet! So if you follow my procedures and methods, you do so at your own risk. I am not liable in any way for anything you take from my site. There, we got that out of the way.

Finally, this site also serves as my construction log, for documenting my progress. That's important for airworthiness certification later on, as well as the privilege to do all my own maintenance. I will have to show the FAA that I built at least 51% of this aircraft. That's the rule for homebuilt aircraft. These kits are made to fit the rule, if you follow the plans and do it correctly.

Some Recent mini-milestones:

 

6-6-2010 Empennage Joined to the Fuselage!

After sitting on the sidelines for 3 years, the horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer, rudder and elevators have finally joined the fuselage for the first time! This was a very exciting weekend for me, to see big parts of the airplane coming together for the first time.

It was also a lot of fun to hook up the elevator pushrod, reach into the cabin and grab the control stick, and move the elevators up and down. Cool!

Does it resemble an airplane yet? Read more about this and all the construction details on my pages from May 30th, to June 6th.

2-27-2010 Cabin Frame Finished!

The Cabin Frame, or roll bar, is finished! This was a lot of work. Much, much more than I anticipated. But it was probably one of the most rewarding sub-projects of the whole airplane so far. Very little was pre-punched or pre-fabricated for you. I added a special cover underneath, and that took time and work. So now at long last, those rough curved channel pieces that sat on my shelf for a long time staring at me, have been turned into a functional, beautiful, finished part of this airplane. It feels real good to have this done.

Read more about this and all the construction details on my pages from February 26, and 27th.

12-10-2009 Seatbacks are Finished and Installed! HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!

The project reached another milestone today. I finished riveting the seatbacks together a few days ago. Today, with the help of my nephew Philip, we fabricated the hinge pins and installed the seats. I threw in some pillows off the living room couch to sit on. Then, when Jamie came home from work, I grabbed her hand and brought her out to the shop so we could sit in the airplane together for the very first time! This is an RV tradition and rite of passage for all builders... to sit in the cabin and make airplane noises. We just had to crack a bottle of champagne to celebrate the occasion. It's fun sitting here imagining the real thing. Here's our little toast to all of you. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and all the best to you in 2010!

See more pictures and read even more on my log page from 12-10-2009.

8-28-2009 HOMECOMING WEEKEND 2009!

Every year, Van's Aircraft organizes an event called "Homecoming". I have prepared a special page with the details of this years' event. It was very special because Jamie and I had some new friends from Colorado come stay with us, and I had a wonderful time at the fly-in. You can read all about it from my point of view on my Homecoming 2009 page.

8-12-2009 Flipped the "Canoe"!

I've reached another milestone in the project! After months of work, prepping and painting, and lots of riveting, the belly of the airplane is finished and the empty fuselage shell is ready to be flipped over to the upright position. This is called "flipping the canoe" because it has a startling resemblance to a canoe at this stage. So when all the preparations were finished, Daniel helped me with the honors. My daughter-in-law, Andria, held the camera and shot a 26-second video clip as we turned the fuselage over. It was an exciting moment that I've been anticipating for a long time. Read all the details and see more pictures on my log page from 8-12-2009.

Yippee! It's really nice to see it upright! You almost want to grab a paddle, throw in some cushions, jump in and make some canoe noises. <grin> Anyway, the emphasis will now shift from building the shell of the fuselage, to installing things inside the fuselage. In the months ahead, I'll be installing things like seats and seatbelts, floors and baggage area panels, fuel lines and rudder pedals, lots of wires, and oh... this little thing called an instrument panel. Much more to come on that subject.

I took my brake pedals to a local shop and had them anodized a bright fiery red color. I love it! More details and pictures on 5-14-2009.

My First Passenger! January 20, 2009

My precious little granddaughter, Maya, age 3 came for a visit today and hung out in the shop with "Grampie" for a while. She's the first one to sit in what will be my cabin. Besides being very curious, inquisitive, talkative, and just downright cute, she's such a poser. You can tell she knows what to do when the camera comes out... she strikes a pose.

She decided she loves "Grampie's airplane" and wants to go for a ride. (Shhhhhhh! Don't tell her mom...)

A new RV-Grin! December 6, 2008

On another exciting note, my oldest son Luke got his first RV ride on Dec. 6th at our monthly chapter 105 breakfast at Twin Oaks airport. We were blessed with unbelievably good weather, and with a good friend and fellow RV-builder, Steve Johnson. Steve's newly finished RV-7A is GORGEOUS, and he was nice enough to take Luke up on his first flight.

You don't have to hang around with RV'ers very long before hearing about the famous "RV grin". Check out Luke's! Does it get any better than this?

9-11-2008 Wings are finished! I have started on the fuselage.

Today I finished the last of the riveting on the bottom skins for the wings. It will be easy to remember this milestone, on this historical day. Here you can see both left and right wings in the storage cradle. The cradle also holds the finished horizontal stabilizor and elevators for the tail, in between the wings. The ailerons and flaps have been mounted back on the wings. The inspection cover plates have been put on. I can't describe how good it feels to have this work finished, and have it turn out so good, after all the time spent working on them. It has taken me a little over a year, and a lot of other stuff has gone on around here during this time. But that's the beauty of this project. You work as you can, when you can. I love it. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me, but it's nice to pause at this point, take a deep breath, and admire the progress. To see more about how I built these beautiful wings, go to my Wings construction log.

I must give proper credit and recognition at this point to Jamie. She has been very supportive of this project right from the start. She doesn't mind my obsession with my "aluminum mistress" as long as she comes first. She has even helped me from time to time when I need another pair of hands with riveting! She knows her way around a rivet gun and does a superb job. She is looking forward to flying and traveling adventures together with me. What an amazing woman!