The Van’s Aircraft is a range of experimental home built aircraft. Sort of like a kit car but a kit plane. Designed by Richard VanGrunsven (Van’s for short), and more recently his team, it primarily consists of an all aluminium structure with some fibreglass detailing. Although the structure is designed by Vans Aircraft it does not mean that all the choices have been taken away. In it’s simplest form, the Vans Aircraft factory takes some stock aluminium sheets cuts them to shape, folds some of them into roughly the right shapes and finally drills some pilot holes. That’s it! The rest is up to the builder (aka me!).
Now, by the ‘rest’ I really do mean the rest: wiring, lighting, seat fabric, dashboard (panel), switches, paint, fuel, propeller and even the engine are all my choice to make. This really appeals to me because it makes every RV utterly unique.
In fact the choices start from the very first order. There are so many models to choose from. RV-3, RV-4, RV-7, RV-8, RV-9, RV-10, RV-12 and RV-14. These are all very different aircraft. For example, the RV-8 has tandem seating so the pilot sits behind/in-front the passenger. The RV-14 is a four seater and more expensive to build because it takes more metal and a bigger engine. Someone said to me ‘Own an aircraft you fly 90% of the time and hire the rest’. I really liked that phrase so after many weeks of consideration I made my choice.
I love flying with friends so side-by-side reduced the choices down to just a few. I had a limited budget which further limited the models. Finally I really wanted a Lycoming engine. That left just the RV-7, so decision made!
During the build of my aircraft I soon realised it would be handy to collect useful information together in a, single, handy location. So here it is, my official RV-7 manual for G-RVAA. Here I will keep everything I know about my aircraft. I will try to keep it up to date with build logs, technical information, useful tips and more. Please feel free to subscribe so you can receive updates directly to your inbox.
As I am currently in the process of building the aircraft the build log is very much in progress. I will try to be sure to update it regularly but I am sure that life will have other ideas sometimes!
I will also use this site to keep a record of notes, useful tips and important information that I use and need during the build.