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Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2025 11:51 pm
by gtg947h
...finally paid off Sunday morning.
inflight.png
first flight redact.png
She flew straight and true with no surprises in the air. Got a couple of the usual little post-shakedown squawks to address but in all I'm quite relieved. It's been a long time coming...
Planning to do some trips once the testing is done and we're settled after a move...
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:09 am
by warshipadmin
Wow, well done. What is the design called?
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:36 am
by gtg947h
warshipadmin wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:09 am
Wow, well done. What is the design called?
Thanks! It's a popular kit design called an RV-7 (
https://www.vansaircraft.com/rv-7/). I helped my dad build the design's predecessor (an RV-6) while I was in high school; he's still flying it and actually came down with it to get me a few warmup landings and fly chase for me.
I now have another 25-40 hours of flight testing and shakedown to go, then I'm free to take family and frimds up and go wherever I please. Wife and I have been planning a trip to the west coast for years...
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 1:22 am
by Nightwatch2
Awesome! Congratulations!!
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 3:57 am
by PLB
Congratulations.
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 7:11 am
by Craiglxviii
gtg947h wrote: ↑Tue Jul 15, 2025 11:51 pm
...finally paid off Sunday morning.
inflight.png
first flight redact.png
She flew straight and true with no surprises in the air. Got a couple of the usual little post-shakedown squawks to address but in all I'm quite relieved. It's been a long time coming...
Planning to do some trips once the testing is done and we're settled after a move...
Wahey!!!! Congratulations!!!
What’s the armament going to be?
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 10:48 am
by Nik_SpeakerToCats
Bravo ! It is cute as a tabby cat !!
---
FWIW, my beloved wife and i almost came to serious blows(*) on occasion as she wanted missiles on our car's roof-rails.
And an auto-cannon in the front.
And her own 'BEEEP !!!"
Triple air-horns at the very least.
---
*) "If you're going to hit me, thumb OUT not IN ! Now, hit me properly..."
So she did.
Twice.
Hurt me.
Left splendid bruises.
But was mortified when I complimented her improved technique...
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:28 pm
by Belushi TD
Is the wing chord thick enough to take a machine gun or cannon, or do we have to look at hard points under the wing for missiles and bombs?
Looks great! If you ever end up in the New Jersey area, drop me a line. We can consume adult beverages and cause combustion.
Belushi TD
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 2:23 pm
by kdahm
Belushi TD wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:28 pm
Is the wing chord thick enough to take a machine gun or cannon, or do we have to look at hard points under the wing for missiles and bombs?
Looks great! If you ever end up in the New Jersey area, drop me a line. We can consume adult beverages and cause combustion.
Belushi TD
The wing chord is about 60". The wing thickness is 8 inches at the most. That means that there is minimal room for some kind of MG, primarily because of the feed arrangements. Possibly something that can have a top or bottom loading instead of a belt into the left side. Then turn the MG on its side. As one choice, go with a Bren, BAR, or RPK.
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 4:03 pm
by gtg947h
Leading edge is mostly consumed by fuel tankage anyway.
If one were to attempt to arm one of these your best bet would be a small hardpoint about mid-span (where the tiedown fitting is) or perhaps a wingtip rail. Unfortunately my operating limitations specifically prohibit externally mounted separable stores. Booo.
I do know of one individual who built a tiny bomb bay into his, for dropping sacks of flour or toilet paper rolls (so they could unroll and he could cut them on the way down). No report of whether it worked right or not.
I'll probably get up to the NJ area at some point... I have some family right across the border in Langhorne that I haven't visited in almost nine years...
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 4:18 pm
by Pdf27
They have direct-drive propellers, correct? Shame, that makes a motor-cannon installation very much harder.
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 8:04 pm
by Micael
Very cool, congrats!
Re: Twelve years of blood, sweat, and tears...
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:16 am
by Craiglxviii
gtg947h wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 4:03 pm
Leading edge is mostly consumed by fuel tankage anyway.
If one were to attempt to arm one of these your best bet would be a small hardpoint about mid-span (where the tiedown fitting is) or perhaps a wingtip rail. Unfortunately my operating limitations specifically prohibit externally mounted separable stores. Booo.
I do know of one individual who built a tiny bomb bay into his, for dropping sacks of flour or toilet paper rolls (so they could unroll and he could cut them on the way down). No report of whether it worked right or not.
I'll probably get up to the NJ area at some point... I have some family right across the border in Langhorne that I haven't visited in almost nine years...
I may or may not have fallen foul of the British CAA once, when modifying my boss’ personal aircraft (Bonanza I believe- it was a twin, anyway) with an internal chute for him to be able to dump a bin bag full of rose petals over his house, for his & his wife’s 20th wedding anniversary.
Apparently using a pre-existing 4” opening in the floor to fit some drainpipe to, and then constructing a hopper/ feed mechanism is rather frowned upon.
