Ever Thouight About Building One?
By
Bill Marvel
Posted: 2020-05-01T14:13:00Z
There’s no question flying is expensive. It always has been but people who love it somehow manage to fly. Splitting the cost with multiple owners, joining an aero club and renting airplanes are all time-tested methods of keeping costs in check, but none of those is the same as having an airplane that is your own magic carpet. The cost of owning an airplane is certainly more than the purchase price. After that comes insurance, fuel, hangar or tie down and of course, maintenance. And that maintenance involves not only a costly FAA certificated mechanic and his shop overhead but also expensive approved parts. And as some owners have sadly learned, those parts can sometimes be made of “unobtainium” because they simply no longer exist, either new or used. When that happens, you start selling off your airplane piece by piece because it will never fly again. Bummer.
Marti and I riveting one of the RV-14A wings in our garage, where we built the entire airplane. We thought building and sealing the fuel tanks would be challenging and it was. But we followed the instructions and had no leaks. But it was messy! Planning the process well ahead of time and with everything necessary immediately at hand helped immensely.
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Truth be told, I went through all those methods of flying for years. I learned to fly in an aero club, owned an airplane with a partner and also rented as I moved from one place in the country to another. When I was still single in the early 70s, I started to build a Volkswagen powered single seat wood and foam aircraft called a KR-1. But this was in the earlier days of home built aircraft construction where you bought raw materials and 3-view drawings and had to figure out everything for yourself. It was time consuming and as a bachelor living near the beach in Southern California, I concluded this wasn't the best use of my time... In 1975 Marti and I were married so a single seat aircraft was no longer a viable concept. In 1977 we bought a 1976 Grumman Tiger with 300 hours on it. The airplane came with its own private tie down location at Torrance airport. This was when the wait for an outside tie down space at most local airports was 7 years and hangar wait lists were closed because you would not live long enough to get one and I was only 31 at the time. The wait time later changed dramatically when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and aerospace jobs vanished overnight. We were then able to have our choice of hangars at two different G.A. airports in So. Cal.
Over the years I acquired an A&P certificate and eventually added an Inspection Authorization to it so I could do my own maintenance and inspections. Life was good and Marti and I flew the Tiger all over the country including trips to Canada, Alaska, Mexico and the Bahamas. We would taxi out from Torrance airport near LAX on a Friday afternoon past some guy building an aircraft in his hangar. Then two days later we came back from a great weekend trip to see the same guy still laboring away. I felt sorry for him because we were flying every weekend and he was not. Then one day – literally one day in 2000 – Marti and I flew two friends to Kern Valley airport near Bakersfield to have breakfast. I looked up at a never-completed home built (AKA amateur built) aircraft sitting atop a pole as a wind vane. Recalling the KR-1 project I had abandoned some 26 years earlier and knowing that home built kit aircraft were now much more advanced and easier to build, I proclaimed to three astonished people, “I’m going to build an airplane.” Why then? I have no idea as it just hit me out of nowhere. I knew of a company called Van's aircraft in Oregon and that their existing airplanes reminded me of the two seat Grummans with which I was familiar. And I knew their latest model was called an RV-8 but I had no idea what it looked like until we got home and I saw a picture on the internet. I set my sights on the tricycle gear version, the RV-8A, bought the Quick Build kit, and got started. Sixteen months and a lot of work later, it was flying.
We put 1700 hours on our RV-8A during the 16 years we owned it. I started out with a basic vacuum system and 6-pack instrumentation just like the Tiger and most GA airplanes had. You can see the blue vacuum hoses below the panel in the photo above. Later I upgraded to an EFIS flight display. Of course, these days just about every home built has a full glass panel which is more capable, more reliable, lighter and less demanding of electrical power than earlier aircraft. Plus, most displays now have a one hour built-in battery so a total failure of the charging system still leaves you with a full complement of instruments. The above RV-8A was sold to a buyer in Florida in 2017 and now lives at Spruce Creek Airpark near Daytona Beach.
When we first moved to Grand Junction in 2006, we had only the RV-8A. A friend and I decided to build this Zenith 801 in hopes of being able to use its 4 seats and STOL capability to explore some back country airstrips. It had very interesting aerodynamic features like full span flaperons, leading edge slats and an "upside down" horizontal stabilizer. I eventually had him buy out my half when Marti asked me to build the -14A. The 801 was slow, ran hot, used a lot of fuel and could not carry more than two people but was fun to fly down low and in tight patterns doing touch and goes. The kit wasn't very refined, which made it somewhat difficult to build. Bob later sold it to a new owner in Petaluma, California.
The full EFIS RV-14A panel I built includes a small independent backup flight display. With experimental aircraft, a full IFR panel requires only one certified box, thereby keeping costs down. Everything else is uncertified. The experimental Dynon system we selected includes a two axis autopilot, both main displays, transponder with ADS-B in and out and a com radio. The autopilot has major features like altitude hold, altitude pre-select, vertical speed and indicated airspeed hold, while the display indications include true airspeed, density altitude, wind vector, voice annunciation of a host of different selectable parameters and much more, along with a flight director. It takes a lot of study and practice just to learn what buttons perform the many different functions. It is stunning to see what capability you can have in a light aircraft today.
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That was three home built airplanes and 20 years ago and I will not go back to certified aircraft despite the A&P/IA in my wallet. Certainly, they have their place. If you need two or more engines, pressurization, weather radar, turbine power, known ice, many seats or other trappings of big airplanes, and have a thick enough bank account, they are unbeatable. But if your mission involves just two people, or maybe four at most, either building or buying an “amateur built” aircraft is a far more affordable option.
While some are not much more than large flying toys, others are very capable. Our RV-14A, for instance, flies non stop from Grand Junction to Los Angeles, Dallas, Kansas City or Calgary, Canada with only 50 gallons of fuel and arrives with at least an hour fuel remaining. In cruise, it burns 8 gallons an hour at 160 knots true airspeed and has been to 18,000 feet several times. We can carry full fuel, the two of us, 100 pounds of baggage and still be below gross weight. My insurance is less than $1000 a year and parts replacement costs, if ever needed, are very affordable (unless their manufacturer has a name like Lycoming or Hartzell).
Engine arrival is an exciting day. This is a new experimental Lycoming 210 horsepower IO-390 for the -14A. Yes, Lycoming builds brand new "experimental" engines on the same assembly line as certified versions but they are less expensive because they do not require all of the FAA certification paperwork. Few use dual magnetos as shown here but at the time that is how the engine was delivered. At least one ignition system these days in most home builts is electronic.
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Even today, most light aircraft pilots are not aware that on such an airplane, anyone can legally do anything. You can hire a house painter to install a full IFR EFIS system if you want. Or you can do it yourself even if you did not build the airplane. If you buy an existing aircraft, only the annual condition inspection has to be done by any A&P, not even an IA, or the person who built the plane. As the owner you can freely modify, experiment with, or install new systems to your heart’s content, all fully within the FARs. No STCs are ever needed. Even if you use an A&P for the annual condition inspection, it is not costly because it is only an inspection. Any discrepancies found are reported to you and because anyone can do anything on an amateur built aircraft, you can resolve them yourself or have anyone else, including an A&P, do this work if you are unwilling or unable to do so. But if you did not build the aircraft, it behooves you to get to know it well, how to do compression and timing checks, replace brakes, change oil and filter, get oil analysis done, troubleshoot electrical systems and fix the occasional odds and ends problems that arise. Aside from the the actual annual condition inspection itself, you can do everything. If a part is not available for some reason (not likely with a Van's aircraft), you just build and install your own with no approval needed from the FAA or anyone else. And if you are willing to pay the usual costly landing fee, you’re welcome at DIA, LAX, JFK or any other airport without restriction.
The finished RV-14A two years and four months after start. This photo was taken in Pagosa Springs at a CPA fly-in. We could have reduced the build time by about a year by purchasing a Quick Build kit but it was not available when we bought ours. A Quick Build kit has a surprisingly large amount of very high quality work already done for you but still meets the FAA 51% rule. You pay more for it but construction takes less time.
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So what’s the catch? There are two – catch one is that if you build an airplane, it takes a lot of time and focus on the project and you must learn a great deal. But doing so is not difficult and massive amounts of help from the kit manufacturer and builder’s groups are on line. Classes are also available to teach you how to rivet and perform other tasks needed in the process of building. In the case of Van’s aircraft, there are over 10,000 flying and their kits are exceptionally well designed and plans clearly written. These airplanes are all of standard riveted aluminum construction and most are aerobatic. They are a joy to build – and addictive. With our prior RV-8A in California, I sometimes woke up at 3 AM unable to sleep and went to the airport to build. Hours later Marti would come down and bring lunch -- I generally never thought about breakfast because I was so enthralled with what I was doing. It is an utterly fascinating undertaking that results in a brand-new airplane and a huge amount of acquired skill and knowledge. Significantly, you don’t need to buy the entire kit at once. They come in different sections, so you buy what you can afford and while you’re building that section, set money aside for the next one. Catch two? If you buy an existing airplane, you should have someone familiar with that type inspect it for you so you’re not acquiring a problem from the very start. And of course, the learning part still pertains even if the airplane flies beautifully as purchased. By doing your own maintenance and alterations, you save both money and downtime. You can never learn too much because you’re the one who will maintain it, modify it as new avionics come out, and fly it. You should acquaint yourself with every part of the aircraft so you can find and fix any problems ahead of time that would be seen by an A&P during the annual condition inspection. This not only saves money and headaches but also is extremely rewarding to your own sense of personal accomplishment.
Is this for you? I can’t make that call but for us it was one of the most incredible experiences my wife and I have ever had. And the fact that a new airplane resulted from all that work and study only boggles the mind when I look back over my shoulder at it after a long flight and realize we actually built that thing.