Richard Ernst’s RV-6A | Chicago, IL RV-6A #23205

Congratulations to Richard on the first flight of his RV‑6A, and thank you for the detailed report. He writes:

N921CR is the result of a 30-year build, and the first flight was worth the wait! QP John Musgrave and I lined up on Clow International Airport’s (1C5) runway 36 and in a few brief seconds, this RV-6A with a Superior IO-360 was airborne. A few orbits around Clow told us what we wanted to hear: that the airplane flies great and has plenty of power. 1CR is currently hangared at Lewis University Airport (KLOT), just a few miles away and the base for my phase one testing.

I started my 30-year project in the spare bedroom of a rental apartment in Arkansas, moved it to an unheated garage in Chicago, then to another garage in Chicago, and finally to hangar 3 (EAA Chapter 461’s community hangar) at Clow in Bolingbrook, IL. My friends at 461 helped me to cross the finish line, but it was my wife, Claudine, who encouraged me throughout the project (and bucked more than a few rivets) and made it possible.

Check out the short video “16,000 Rivets” I put together about the build and the first flight:

Toward the end of the build, I somehow felt inspired to create this RV-6 rap:

Here’s a video RV grin, taken during the first flight: