My entire life I grew up around aviation and my father was a homebuilder of a Long-EZ. Through the years of growing up flying in his Long-EZ and seeing other local pilots building RV-4's and RV-6's I told myself one day I want to build my own plane as well. At the time, I wasn't sure what I wanted to build, but I had really fell in love with some of the RV's at our local airport. Most of that had to do with the builders being very friendly, they had outstanding workmanship, and even took me up in them several times. After that, I caught myself looking at all of the RV's in the homebuilt flight line at Oshkosh every year we went. Even when I was 12-13 I was attending the sheet metal workshops learning how to rivet and do many other things.
Fast forward several years and I now have my private pilots license and am working on my instrument rating. My dream of building my own plane is even closer than I can imagine and I decided that the RV-7 is what I want. I came up with a rough estimate of the costs and what I would like in the plane and nearly had it set in stone. My girlfriend, who is a huge supporter of me building an airplane, decided to drop a bomb on me. She mentioned the idea of building an RV-10 instead. She said that we have several friends (couples), family, and in the future a kid that could all benefit from having a 4 seat airplane. We spend a lot of time with our friends and family and often don't go out and do things alone. There have been circumstances in the past that I have loaded up 4 of us in a 172 for a $100 hamburger run. I hated that the WB limited me to only having enough fuel on board to get us there and then would have to refuel there to make it back. It wasn't even a long flight either. On top of that I remembered growing up and my dad always having to leave me behind for vacations because only my parents could fit in the plane. I just think the experience growing up in aviation would have been even better if we would have all been able to go together as a family.
All that being said, made me think maybe and RV-10 would be worth it. I only intend on building one plane and plan on keeping it forever. Things can obviously change through the years, but that is my thought on it currently. Plus knowing I am only going to build one allows me to put everything into that "one plane" I want to make it perfect for us. Being a both a planner and a thinker, I started looking at the financial aspect and the differences in the RV-7 and RV-10 and it kind of scared me. Partly because I hadn't planned for it like I did the 7 already. I know there is obviously going to be a large price difference, but I began to wonder if our household income would allow us to not only build it, but then maintain it to the point we actually can enjoy it. Together we have a household income of roughly $135,000 with a mortgage and two car payments. I know obviously there are people with much deeper pocket books that have no trouble with this issue, but are there any builders with lower household incomes build, fly, and maintain an RV-10 to the point they can truly enjoy it?
I know that if I want to do it then I need to just set my mind to it and make it happen. Of course there would be budget cut places, and I would have to save money to put towards the plane rather than "playing" as much. I am just looking for some advice and tips from some previous builders that will put reality into perspective and let me know if it is or isn't doable.
Fast forward several years and I now have my private pilots license and am working on my instrument rating. My dream of building my own plane is even closer than I can imagine and I decided that the RV-7 is what I want. I came up with a rough estimate of the costs and what I would like in the plane and nearly had it set in stone. My girlfriend, who is a huge supporter of me building an airplane, decided to drop a bomb on me. She mentioned the idea of building an RV-10 instead. She said that we have several friends (couples), family, and in the future a kid that could all benefit from having a 4 seat airplane. We spend a lot of time with our friends and family and often don't go out and do things alone. There have been circumstances in the past that I have loaded up 4 of us in a 172 for a $100 hamburger run. I hated that the WB limited me to only having enough fuel on board to get us there and then would have to refuel there to make it back. It wasn't even a long flight either. On top of that I remembered growing up and my dad always having to leave me behind for vacations because only my parents could fit in the plane. I just think the experience growing up in aviation would have been even better if we would have all been able to go together as a family.
All that being said, made me think maybe and RV-10 would be worth it. I only intend on building one plane and plan on keeping it forever. Things can obviously change through the years, but that is my thought on it currently. Plus knowing I am only going to build one allows me to put everything into that "one plane" I want to make it perfect for us. Being a both a planner and a thinker, I started looking at the financial aspect and the differences in the RV-7 and RV-10 and it kind of scared me. Partly because I hadn't planned for it like I did the 7 already. I know there is obviously going to be a large price difference, but I began to wonder if our household income would allow us to not only build it, but then maintain it to the point we actually can enjoy it. Together we have a household income of roughly $135,000 with a mortgage and two car payments. I know obviously there are people with much deeper pocket books that have no trouble with this issue, but are there any builders with lower household incomes build, fly, and maintain an RV-10 to the point they can truly enjoy it?
I know that if I want to do it then I need to just set my mind to it and make it happen. Of course there would be budget cut places, and I would have to save money to put towards the plane rather than "playing" as much. I am just looking for some advice and tips from some previous builders that will put reality into perspective and let me know if it is or isn't doable.