The Kit has arrived!

I started out this journey thinking I was going to build a Titan T-51, then thinking I have never built an airplane before maybe I should start with something a little simpler to build so I settled on the RV8. After talking with some friends about what I wanted to use the finally airplane for, longer trips with my wife or a friends, I decided the 7 might be a better choice. So I  decided to head out to Portland to take a tour of the factory and get a demo flight in the RV7. On my way out there I had somebody asked me why I was going, what questions did I have? I thought about it and I realized, I didn’t have any questions I was looking for reasons not to build the 7. After I got out there and talk to the guys I found that reason, the RV 14.

Quick Build Kits

The picture has a couple of the quick build kits, on the left, are the 7 on the right the 14.  You can see from the picture but the 14th is a little bit wider than the 7, and the fuselage looks like it’s only half. The fuselage looks like this because the empennage kit is much more substantial, and contains about 7 feet of the fuselage.

RV14

 After I got home from my factory tour I started ordering things. I started with the tools I thought it would noon, and I ordered the kit from Cleveland tools. Then I went and found warehouse space in Chicago near my apartment to build the airplane,  and then the empennage kit. The kit arrived right on time and I worked with the freight company to schedule finally delivery to my shop. I ,spent the weeks between ordering the kit and it’s arrival trying to get the shop ready, more on that in another post. The kit arrived and was undamaged, I was lucky to have my friend Matt with my to help do the initial inventory. Having a second person saved a ton of time reading and checking against the inventory list and unpacking the crate. Vans packing guys don’t mess around the parts are seriously Tetrised into the crate!