FIrst FLights

Congratulations Alan! First flight was successful. Test pilot John Tiplady with over 2000 RV-12 hours.

Congratulations Don! He writes: What an airplane! Bought a partially built kit at approx quick build stage and flew it for the first time Wednesday, May 11, 2022. I had a couple of little issues that I worked out. Running Barrett engine, 9/1 compression, cold air sump and Showplanes cowl, 292hp If you are building, […] Read More

After five years of building, my bird took flight on May 8, 2022 at Felts Field (KSFF). It performed perfectly, flying straight and true. I had to find a break in the severe weather for the flight, which had included two tornados and hailstorms in the previous 24 hours. Thanks to the Transition Training given […] Read More

Martin wrote in to let us know about his first flight in his RV-8. He writes: The first and second flights of my RV-8 occurred on Thursday, April 28, 2022 with test pilot David Carrick at the controls. The first flight was only five minutes; an unknown vibration occurred and David returned to the field. […] Read More

Congratulations to the Miller family on their new RV-10! Nathan writes: After working for 2 years and 5 months, N7244M took to the air on April 11, 2022. Luckily my wife Jennifer encouraged and helped me to tackle this project, and after taking a one day class at Synergy Air I was ready. My brother […] Read More

Congratulations Alan! I acquired this “90% complete – 90% to go” project in Sept 2020. The first builder passed away before completion and the second builder had health issues which prevented him from making any progress for about seven years. Changes in my work schedule (COVID) provided me the opportunity to take this on, including […] Read More

Congratulations to Steven! He writes: The first flight of my RV-7A, N974NA, was completed on April 8, 2022. That flight realized a lifelong dream that started when I was an aerospace engineering student at the University of Cincinnati. As a UC student I started in Huntsville, Alabama, a 40-year career with NASA in 9/74 (note […] Read More

Congratulations to James on his new RV-14A. He writes: Flawless first flight ! What an awesome experience. It flys so good! The 390 EXP 119 was smooth and ran cool. Couldn’t be happier.

Congratulations Mark! N94MS received its airworthiness certificate on March 7, 2022. On March 20, 2022 it had its first successful flight. The Thunderbolt IO-390 exp 119 and Hartzell 3-blade composite performed amazingly well. Thanks Van’s for great design. As a repeat offender this kits went together very quickly. Thanks to my many friends for their help […] Read More

Congratulations to Chris on his new RV-9A! He writes: Dear Folks at Van’s, I’m pleased to announce that the thirteen-year build of my RV-9A, S/N 91756, N111CT was recently finished, and the first flight was performed on January 11th with the very capable Mr. Tom Berge at the controls. The flight went quite well and […] Read More

Gerard and Susan wrote in to let us know about the first flight of their RV-14A: Our aircraft took to the sky in Inverell NSW Australia on the 15th March 2022 – under the Southern Cross. Time of flight was approximately 16:40 Australian Summer Time. Test pilot was David Brown (RV10 owner) from Caboolture Australia. […] Read More

Nice work Ivan! He writes: 22 months from first rivet to first flight. It has been an amazing experience once again, this is the second RV build, the first one was an RV-10 which was completed in 2010. The RV-14A was a SB fuselage and a QB wing. The first flight was 2.1 hours and […] Read More

Congratulations Thomas! He writes: Most people say this is a show plane. The color is custom, a mix of glass flake sapphire of the crystal alliance series, a one of a king paint job. The color changes from black to blue and a few different colors in between. Full IFR panel, two Garmin G3X touch, […] Read More

Congratulations to Glen on his new RV-7! He writes: I thoroughly enjoyed building the aircraft. I learned so much and gained so many new skills. There was frustration but more often a huge sense of accomplishment. Much of the enjoyment of the build came from having an incredibly supportive wife. She encouraged me to start […] Read More

Ulay writes in to tell the world about the first flight of the new RV-10 that he and his wife Kelly built! Finally, after 3 years and 9 months, we had our first flight. The exhilaration we felt made all the hard work and painstaking effort worth it. Thanks to my wonderful wife and building […] Read More

Join us in congratulating Jim on the maiden flight of his new RV-14A! “First flight was at 2:22 on 2/22/22. It was short due to an oil temperature indication anomaly. After re-terminating the wires to the temperature sensor another, longer flight was successfully flown.”

Congratulations to Kevern on his new RV-10! He writes: A month or so ago I had the privilege of doing the maiden flight on my friends RV-10, Today was my turn. Arrived at the airfield without any expectations, methodically cowled the aircraft up and went through all the attach points one last time. I had […] Read More

Congratulations to Paul and Kacy on their new RV-7! Paul writes: Kacy and I purchased our RV-7 kit just before the pandemic hit while we were both in New Zealand, her for work and myself for leisure. Work from home allowed me to sneak into the garage between meetings to keep the pace high during […] Read More

Congratulations to Dennis! He writes: I bought an RV-9A kit with quite a bit of the heavy lifting already accomplished in January 2019. After working in my garage for 2 years and 9 months, I was able to move the completed fuselage and all the bits and pieces to my hangar at KTRL. Two months […] Read More

Congratulations to Paul on the first flight of his RV-12iS! He writes: 18 months to the day after pulling the first rivet, the first flight of ZK-DOL was carried out by Bill Henwood , which all went smoothly and without a hitch. With the late summer weather holding on we were able to complete the […] Read More