The first RV-7 is airborne in Norway!
Hi all.
At 7:59 PM on July 26th, "Wilco" and me got up into the wild blue yonder.
It was the first -7 to be flying in Norway (5 more under construction)
The groundtesting and the RV-transition training had me prepared pretty good, but the heart rate was definetely higher than normal when I advanced power!
The takeoff was done in a heartbeat and soon I was a pattern altitude, starting a turn to stay within gliding distance of the airport.
Everything was looking good, the engine sound was a happy cat and I was one lucky grinning pilot!
A friend of mine flew chase with his RV-6 and joined on my wing and everything looked good from outside too.
After circling the airport for a while, I landed with a biiiig RV-grin on my face!
A couple of minor squaks but fixing of these are well under way.
This post comes alittle late, but I've just gotten hold of the pics from the chase ship. Wanted to have those on here too.
As of yesterday, I've flown close to 12 hrs and 30 minutes and the RV-grin is getting bigger every time I go up! It flies straight as an arrow and hums like a hummingbird!
It's a beautiful aerobatic machine (only positive G maneuvers so far), stalls as expected and sooo easy to land!
What a GREAT plane mr Van has made! No wonder they are so popular!
I'm doing breakin now (balls to the wall) and enjyoing every moment!
CHT's dropped at 7 hrs 30 mins and oilconsumption has dropped too.
All-in-all: it seems that things are well under way and I almost can't believe it...
This is an old dream come true and never would've happened if I had not had the great help of my 6-man building crew! They are all retired mechanics from the Norwegian Airforce. We have had a GREAT time building!
Also; a big hug, kiss and warm THANK YOU to my wife who let me do this and have never complained about the hours I've put in. She has been supportive from Day 1 and gradually become more interested. In fact: she has recently made me order her a practice kit and a tool box! Do I feel lucky....
Also; this plane was bought partly done (fuse, wings and emp completed) from a builder in the US.
His name is William Co.... so the plane is named after him: "Wilco".
The registration: "BAW" is named after his wife and him: Bill, Ann and William"
("LN" is mandatory as these are the Norwegian prefix for airplanes)
In fact: Ann and Bill has become our friends and we've visited eachother several times now and we hope the friendship will last for years to come.
A BIIIG THANK YOU to all the nice people at Vans, specially Barb and Gus. Barb has always giving me superb service, way better than anyting else I've experienced. Gus has always been answering all my questions (including the many dumb ones...) with great knowledge and skill, and quickly too! Those two must have the patience of an angel.
Another BIIIG THANK you to Bill Peterson at Superior and James at Eagle engines! Those two also have been "exposed" to all my questions and have answered professionally, quickly and nicely too! Great customer care guys!
A BIIIG thank you to Doug and you: the members of this forum for all the help I've got!
Lastly a big THANK YOU to Steve in the US who made up the beautiful paintscheme for his -7 and allowed us to copy it.
It's really nice to know it's help out there when you are building a plane in a remote corner of the world, and in a foreign language...
Setup:
Day/night VFR, empty weight 1117 lbs, right seat is pilot seat.
Extreem IO-360 from Eagle Engines, dual P-mags, C/S M/T prop
AFS 3500 EFIS, Garmin SL-40 comm, GTX-327 Tx, Garmin 296 GPS, Proxalert R5
Full interior from Classic Aero Design.
The engine/P-mag/prop-combo makes this the smoothest engine I've ever flown behind!
My RV-6 friend hosed me down with champaign after landing...
... and at the end here, a DUAL RV-grin for you: one on me because of the first flight and one on my wife because she didn't turn into a widow in the process.... hehe....
PS: In October, we'll continue with my other -7 which has been in storage while we completed Wilco. Let the fun begin again...! (the name of that one? "Kermit" of course...)