140325
OK. I'll add my serial number to the mix. I'm building #140325.
There's a story here. A couple of years ago, Vans came out with a new plane - the RV-14. I had already built an RV-7, and have been flying it a lot, including the annual pilgrimage from Washington State to Oshkosh every year.
During one of my annual trips back to OSH, I took my wife along with me for her very first experience. The trip from KAWO / Arlington to KOSH is about a ten hour flight. I always make a couple of stops and spend a couple of days along the way, but ten hours is still ten hours. Lots of seat time for my spousal unit in the RV.
Wandering through the Vans exhibit, we saw the new RV-14 and my wife climbed in to check it out. Almost immediately, she told me (in no uncertain terms) that I have permission to build the -14!
Up to this point, I was perfectly happy with my -7. I'm still perfectly happy with my -7. But she mentioned that she wanted more leg room, and more room to spread out on long cross country trips. So I put a -14 on my future "to do" list.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I'm looking at the For Sale/Bulletin boards located just outside the EAA Wearhouse during Airventure 2017. There's a tear-off tab for an untouched RV-14 empenage kit. The price is right, so I call and purchase it on the spot.
The kit is in Michigan. I'm in Wisconsin, but my transportation back to Washington involves an RV-7 that is already packed to the gills with sleeping bags and tents and smelly laundry! But the guy selling the kit is taking a road trip in a few weeks and he'll be driving right through my neck of the world. So....
There's always a story. This is how mine begins!