sprucemoose
Well Known Member
This is not a report of an RV first flight but Doug has given it his blessing. After nearly nine years, thousands of hours and a few cubic kilodollars, my RLU-1 project, more commonly known as a Breezy, took to the air on Saturday Aug. 26. This airplane is about as far as one can get from an RV, but it is tremendously fun in a low-and-slow, totally impractical kind of way.
The Breezy is a completely scratch-built tube and fabric job. Even the old-school RV builders (like me) would be surprised at the lack of documentation. The entire build manual takes up 1/2 of a drawing page, with the list of materials taking the other half. There are no wing drawings included- the plans mention that the original used PA-12 wings, and from there it is left to the builder. I ended up building a set of wood Cub wings from the Wag-Aero Sportsman 2+2 plans. Covering and paint is Stewart Systems, and I am a big fan of that system after using it. Powerplant is a Continental O-200 from a wrecked homebuilt that I overhauled with Lycon 9:1 pistons, a C90 cam and electronic ignition. My running joke is that this will be the first O-200 in history to actually make 100HP. Prop is an Ed Sterba. My RV-6 started life with a Sterba prop and he is still in the business making great props.
I tried my hand at video editing and put together this video of the build and first flight. It's about 15 minutes.
https://youtu.be/sa3mx3gzQGY
For the purists- there is an RV-12 holding short for me while landing, and you can see my -6 at the end, so it is sort of RV-related.
The Breezy is a completely scratch-built tube and fabric job. Even the old-school RV builders (like me) would be surprised at the lack of documentation. The entire build manual takes up 1/2 of a drawing page, with the list of materials taking the other half. There are no wing drawings included- the plans mention that the original used PA-12 wings, and from there it is left to the builder. I ended up building a set of wood Cub wings from the Wag-Aero Sportsman 2+2 plans. Covering and paint is Stewart Systems, and I am a big fan of that system after using it. Powerplant is a Continental O-200 from a wrecked homebuilt that I overhauled with Lycon 9:1 pistons, a C90 cam and electronic ignition. My running joke is that this will be the first O-200 in history to actually make 100HP. Prop is an Ed Sterba. My RV-6 started life with a Sterba prop and he is still in the business making great props.
I tried my hand at video editing and put together this video of the build and first flight. It's about 15 minutes.
https://youtu.be/sa3mx3gzQGY
For the purists- there is an RV-12 holding short for me while landing, and you can see my -6 at the end, so it is sort of RV-related.