Ron Ingram’s RV-6A | Springfield, Illinois RV-6A #21330

Sometimes life throws you curves balls during a build, but Ron Ingram did not shy away from the challenge. He shares a little about the build of his new RV-6A.

In 2002, I decided to take the plunge and build an RV-6A. I had already started the work on a Dragonfly, but the RV was always at the top of my list. Thinking I might save some time and money, I found a wing kit that someone had finished and a tail kit that another had started. Wrong move! I saved neither time nor money because after digging in I found mistakes made requiring me to remove the wing skins make corrections and reskin this time with a single piece skin.

Somewhere I realized I was building and not flying, so I went looking for something inexpensive to fly while I was building. I found a ‘46 Cessna140. Bought it and later found it needed some major repair. Another project! It took about two years to tear it down and completely restore it. Back to building and no flying! Finally got it finished and flew it to Oshkosh 2006.

Back to the RV and make a long story short, life tends to get in the way! I built three houses, started a business and sold it, lost some good friends and family along the way, but I finally finished up and did the first flight in April, 2025. As of this writing, I have nearly completed the “Task Based” flight testing. “Pucker Factor” was quite high on that first flight but I was very pleased in how it handled. It had a little right wing heaviness but the aileron squeeze trick fixed that. It flys hands off now and required no trim tabs to do so. Yep, I landed with the RV grin!

Winter has now set into the Midwest and not getting in much flying right now but ready to get back at it as soon as the weather breaks and hope to fly it to Oshkosh 2026. If interested, there is a YouTube video showing stall tests and my first landing at: https://youtu.be/7SHMfTclxrU?si=JiZ2qAUpxq16BM-1