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 do this either. 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.

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.