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First Flight Reports

Craig Pearce’s RV-7 | South Africa RV-7 #73903

Congratulations to Craig on the completion of his RV-7! He writes: After receiving the empennage kit for my RV-7 three years ago, ZU-JLC flew for the first time on the 14th of February 2021. The call sign is inspired by my 3 children, Jason, Leah, and Cheyenne. My son and I built most of the […] Read More

Romuald Leconte’s RV-7A | Paris, France RV-7A #73600

Romuald wrote in to let us know about the recent completion of his RV-7A: After 11 years of construction, I can now call it an airplane! Despite the coldness of the day, it was a great moment of pleasure. It flies well, it flies fast. Time to put the rivet gun away and enjoy it […] Read More

Robert Lussow’s RV-10 | Sunman, Indiana RV-10 #41320

Congratulations to Robert on the new RV-10! He writes: My RV-10 journey began on September 15, 2011…Nine years, two months, seventeen days and 3000+ hours of labor, N464RL was born! On hand for the first flight were three generations of Aviators. My Dad and I flew the maiden flight together with my son taking care […] Read More

Alex Mir’s RV-8 | Posadas, Misiones, Argentina RV-8 #83546

Congratulations to Alex on the first flight of his RV-8! He writes in to tell us: After 5 years of detailed construction, I was stunned to find myself flying such a perfect machine! Everything worked absolutely perfect, very responsive controls and very stable flight. I want to thank Victor Mejalenko for helping me on the construction and […] Read More

Luis Luciani’s RV-14A | Houston, Texas RV-14A #140645

Luis writes in to tall us about the first flight of this RV-14A! My new RV14A is a pure joy to fly. It tracks true and zero issues came up during the first flight. I would love to take credit but it has to be due to the incredible precision of the kit. The picture of […] Read More

Mark Ciaglia’s RV-10 | The Woodlands, Texas RV-10 #41717

Congratulations to Mark, who writes to tell us about the first flight of his RV-10: It began as a dream. I took the demo flight at AirVenture 2016 with my wife. She had to approve before we committed to this project. I actually sat in the back so Mike our amazing demo pilot could dazzle […] Read More

Mark Easton’s RV-10 | Portland, Oregon RV-10 #41683

Congrats to Mark on the first flight of his RV-10! He writes: After exactly five years and one day N25CM took flight from Stark’s Twin Oaks Airpark outside of Portland, OR. My dream to build an RV began back in the late 70’s when, as a child, I saw kit plans being advertised in Popular […] Read More

Enrico Musto’s RV-8 | Trento, Italy RV-8 #82813

Congratulations to Enrico on his new RV-8! He writes: This morning, after 50 months of building time, shortly after my 50th birthday and a pandemic rolling over the whole wide world, my RV-8 became an airplane! A huge big thanks to the experienced RV-8 pilot Luca Perazzolli, my mentor and master, who kept me motived […] Read More

David Porter’s RV-4 | Martinsburg, West Virginia RV-4 #2120

Congratulations to David, who writes to tell us about the first flight of his RV-4: My RV-4 received its airworthiness certificate on January 29, 2021, and flew for the first time the next day. The serial number is 2120, and it began life when the empennage kit was delivered to a customer in Virginia in […] Read More

Erik McClenney’s RV-14 | Bellevue, Washington RV-14 #140024

Erik writes in to let us know about the first flight of his new RV-14! After spending 8 years slow-building a slow-build RV-14 kit, I had my first flight in N276EM on December 24, 2020. The flight was short and (mostly) uneventful. I want to say that building it was just as much fun as […] Read More

Denis Le Quellec’s RV-7 | Vannes, France RV-7 #73967

Congratulations to Denis on the first flight of his RV-7! He writes: Well… three years after the first flight I still have that grin on my face ( too large to fit any pictures !). It took just under seven years to build and it was worth every penny ! An adventure of a lifetime with […] Read More

Randy Vanstory’s RV-10 | New Braunfels, Texas RV-10 #41763

Congratulations to Randy on the completion of his RV-10! He writes: From the day I drove the 1st rivet till the day I picked up my plane from the paint shop (final step) was exactly 4 years, to the day! Building has been an incredible adventure. From the people you meet to the immense sense […] Read More

Darryl Foster’s RV-7A | Conroe, Texas RV-7A #74503

Congratulations to Darry on his new RV-7A! He writes: I always wanted my own airplane but certified airplanes are expensive. I discovered the amazing Van’s airplanes and ordered the tail kit. Four and a half years later, she took to the skies over North Houston. I’m part of the local EAA Chapter 302 and they were […] Read More

Robert Semones’ RV-8 | Louisville, Kentucky RV-8 #83046

Congratulations to Robert on the first flight in his RV-8! He writes: Well, almost 11 years to the day my RV-8 project took to the air. Life and work sometimes get in the way but I wasn’t going to quit till it was complete. My RV-8 is a slow build kit with the ShowPlanes fastback […] Read More

Jeffrey Karrels’ RV-10 | Vienna, Virginia RV-10 #40245

Congratulations to Jeffrey on the first flight of his RV-10! He writes: My family has put up with 3050 build hours over 4 years, 5 months, 12 days answering the questions from countless numbers of people who when they tried to tell them that their dad/husband was building a plane had to be convinced that […] Read More