Well after a good year or two of consideration, I’ve decided on the Van’s RV-14A as the aircraft kit I will undertake to construct. The maturity of the proven base design, the evolution of the kit and assembly instructions, the fantastic support available through forums like Vansairforce.com and local RV builders, and the fit against my mission all factored into my choice. In total there are now more than 10,000 fully built RV’s that have flown!
The RV-14A is the 8th release by Van’s Aircraft and takes all of the many lessons learned and customer feedback to provide a very modern and mature kit that has proven capabilities based on the lineage of the design. It has a roomy interior with plenty of comfort for cross-country adventures, while still being responsive and able to perform “gentlemen” acrobatics.
Originally announced to the public in July of 2013, there is now a large enough contingent of RV-14 builders who went through some of the early adopter pains around tweaks to the plans and kit that have since been updated and modified. Flying RV-14’s are now steadily going up as original kit buyers are wrapping up their builds.
Ongoing feedback from existing builders continue to validate claims made by Van’s as being entirely accurate. I’m excited to start the journey of actually building and the eventual outcome of flying a plane I have constructed!
The question that is always asked is “How long to finish?” Well that’s a question that is a function of many variables. It’s been estimated that the plan will take 1500-2000 hours to build. As a first time builder who has a large family and work commitments, I’d like to finish by 5 years from arrival of the first kit. I think that is a reasonable goal that accounts for a lot of anticipated and unanticipated factors. It means committing about 400 hours per year or 7.7 hours per week. That will be a challenge, but one I’m willing to take on!