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Hi all, I've been away from RL for about 18 months and missed the camaraderie with my 993 brethren. The 993 has been sitting in the corner of the garage, somewhat neglected over the last 1.5 years. I had some 'interesting' life circumstances in early 2015, which made me decide I wanted to get back into flying (Comm, Instrument, Multi-Eng, CFII back in the '80s...but had not been current in 23 years). Anyway, I decided to build a plane. I had a budget of about $80K, but really didn't want to buy a 20-30 year old Cessna, Piper, etc (although we know how cool a 20 year old 911 is!!) So I decided on a Van's RV-12 Experimental. It has been an amazing journey, happy to report I had a successful first flight 5/5/17. I did not anticipate the adrenaline rush of being a test pilot (and a little fear). That first takeoff and climb to altitude is something I will never forget. Now that it's safely in a hangar at my local airport, hope to be back on RL regularly. I know there are a lot of pilots on this forum, so if anyone is interested, the photo highlights of the build are here RV-12 Chronology and the first flight video is here
I took an 8 year hiatus from flying after college and buying a plane is what got me back into it seriously this time. Now I fly 250-300 hours a year and couldn't imagine not having an airplane.
Congratulations on the build & maiden flight! Having spent a lot of time in a CJ-1 and a CJ-2, watching that video makes me want to take to the skies again!
Nice, it takes a lot of detail work to be able to have confidence in a kit plane. I admire those that do this. I have a friend building one in his hanger and I have enjoyed watching the progress. His is a Carbon Cub.
This takes me back to my old building/flying days of my 20's. Someday I'd like to get back into flying, but not until I move somewhere out in the boonies where I can fly off my own land. I love flying, but hate the airspace/radio work.
Thanks for the nice comments, it's a great little plane. The visibility is amazing and it's really fun to fly. On test flight number 2, I climbed from sea level to 10,000' in about 10 min. It will cruise at 115kts at 7500' on 4.5 gal per hour (and it runs on premium unleaded auto gas, which is significantly cheaper than 100LL avgas). It will also run fine on 100LL, since you won't have much luck finding auto fuel at airports when flying cross country.
The engine is a Rotax 912ULS, built in Austria. It's a flat 4 with dual electronic ignitions (and 2 plugs per cylinder). It makes 100HP and weighs about 130lbs. Water cooled heads and air/oil cooled cylinders. Dry sump with an oil tank (ala 993) and it runs super smooth. It's a high compression, high RPM engine (max continuous power is 5500 RPM). It uses a 2.43 reduction gearbox to keep the prop at a more normal 2200-2400 RPM.
For a light plane, it has a pretty generous useful load....you can carry two 220lb people, with full fuel and 40lbs of baggage. The glass cockpit is really nice, it has ADS-B in and out, so on the moving map you see real-time traffic and weather. I didn't have GPS back in my flying days, this is almost like cheating! You can fly direct to anywhere and you have a constant readout of groundspeed, wind direction and velocity, etc. It even has a 2 axis autopilot with a Flight Director. You gotta love technology and what it has brought to general aviation.
I have just finished my 'Phase 1' flight testing, so now I can carry passengers and fly it anywhere I want to go (for phase 1, I had a 25nm radius limit around my home airport).
Congrats... first it made me smiles followed by a few tears of joy for you out of happiness seeing the smile on your face for all your hard work. I wish you many many more air miles and smiles Sir
05-31-2017, 03:51 PM
OT: Long time no see....built an airplane.
