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Oldest Flying RV-6/6A?

Ironflight

VAF Moderator / Line Boy
Mentor
OK, Kitplanes is looking for some community help here. I am trying to determine which aircraft is the oldest, customer built, FLYING RV-6 (or -6A) right now. I guess I'd define oldest by the date of the airworthiness certificate. Needs to still be flying. Anyone got one of the earliest?

Our "Mikey" is kit #4 (N164MS), but I think others with later serial numbers were finished before it was.

Anyone know the facts, or own the airplane?

Paul
 
Paul
Jim Baldwin here in Pickerington, Ohio has serial #23 and was flying June 1989.It was at Oshkosh in 1989.
It is still flying and is at Oshkosh every year. N443JB. I believe he was the second
one flying. Jim won the Tony Bengelis award in 2010. Jim flies this RV-6 every week.

Geoff
 
Oldest 6

Charlie Calivas in Enid Oklahoma built what I believe is the second customer built RV6. He recently sold it to his hangar mate, but retained flying rights. Still flying. It was my first RV ride.

I can get contact info if needed.
 
The oldest flying will be an RV-6 because the RV-6A finish kit was not available until the early 90's. My first RV-6A (built from tail kit # 10 purchased from the original purchaser) was one of the earliest "A" models to fly (March 1993) and is still flying with the current owner.

I think Alan Tolle completed the first customer built RV-6 and RV-6A, but I don't know if either is still actively flying.
I just did a quick database search (using his name as manufacturer) and it appears they both still have active registrations.
Correction, it appears only the RV-6A registration is still active. Current owner list as Reno, NV

BTW, for RV trivia buffs.... the oldest 6A (but not customer built) still flying is the original prototype (has about 5100+ hrs on it). It first flew in June 1988.
 
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I just bought my first RV last April!
RV6 first flew in 1990 Serial number 20225
Less than 350 hrs on the aircraft since new!!!!!! I put 100 of them on it:)
 
Did you search the faa master database? Here are the oldest registered RV-6/6A. Now, there are some inconsistencies in the database with model names, lots are left blank, so who knows if they are RVs.

N-#, SERIAL #, YEAR MFR, EXP DATE, KIT MODEL
218F , 21204, 1990, 2017083, RV-6A
220CB, 21797, 1991, 20160131, RV-6
315JK, 22414, 1992, 20161231, RV-6

20225 is a 1990 but comes up unregistered...
 
-6A---Serial No. 20146 -- 1/14/1993

Originally N45FD, now N177RV --- 4th (?) owner, still flying (very well!).

Ron
 
some creative FAA searching yielded some older ones in the database:

N-NUMBER,YEAR MFR,SERIAL NUMBER,EXPIRATION DATE
15133,1977,21800,20171231
4285X,1978,20688,
14JA ,1979,20629,20121231
48AC ,1980,AC-2,20170131
66RV ,1988,1,20110630
666RV,1988,1,20170228
906GS,1989,20241,20180731
443JB,1989,20023,20180531
277BC,1989,20077,20180331
4TT ,1989,20155,20170331
140SM,1990,20353,20160731
679CM,1990,20102,20180831
7EL ,1990,20179,20170531
59T ,1990,20225,
7176B,1990,20054,20170731
690V ,1990,20051,20180131
710B ,1990,20017,20190131
164MS,1990,20004,20160930
90LK ,1990,20147,20161231
926AS,1990,1,20170131
126JB,1990,20026,20180228
55KE ,1990,20081,20181231
249M ,1990,20018,20190131
218F ,1990,21204,20170831
7153H,1990,20393,20161031
190TB,1990,20282,20111231
345JE,1990,20847,20170731
 
OK, one more try. The last list was by reported manufacture date, which does not necessarily coincide with the airworthiness date. This list goes buy oldest airworthiness date:

AIR WORTH DATE,N-NUMBER,YEAR MFR,SERIAL NUMBER,EXPIRATION DATE
19790109,14JA ,1979,20629,20121231
19890829,4TT ,1989,20155,20170331
19900410,164MS,1990,20004,20160930
19900514,140SM,1990,20353,20160731
19900604,926AS,1990,1,20170131
19900622,90LK ,1990,20147,20161231
19900629,7EL ,1990,20179,20170531
19900713,679CM,1990,20102,20180831
19900719,59T ,1990,20225,
19900820,137S , ,20316,
19900903,190TB,1990,20282,20111231
19900912,7176B,1990,20054,20170731
19900920,126JB,1990,20026,20180228
19900924,82DP , ,20486,20170630
19901022,55KE ,1990,20081,20181231
19901112,7153H,1990,20393,20161031
19901113,345JE,1990,20847,20170731

this makes N4TT the winner http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=4TT

916545.jpg
 
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CatPart
20225 is flying but I ran into a snag when changing registration. The original builder and owner died and I bought it from his wife... After two attempts, FAA wants more paperwork and the 120 extension ran out.. Gotta love paperwork
 

Maybe....

The problem with the FAA database is it sometimes is wrong. As in the first one on your list with a year of 1979 (the RV-6 hadn't even been designed yet). That was is likely a typo and should have said 1989.
The other problem with doing a search for RV-6 is that back then it was much more common than now for people to use something else as the official model # which wont come up in a search for RV-6
 
Jim is the older gentleman celebrating the first flight:

2jeww2q.jpg

Boy that brings back memories....

The guy on the left is Herb Ross. He was the first to get involved in commercial builder assistance on RV's so he might have had involvement in completing that airplane.
 
N690V and 4TT

I will say that Andy Weinburg's 690V is the first RV-6 I ever saw. And interesting that 4TT is based at my home airport.
 
Boy that brings back memories....

The guy on the left is Herb Ross. He was the first to get involved in commercial builder assistance on RV's so he might have had involvement in completing that airplane.

You are correct, that is Herb and he did help build mine and Jim's RV's plus many others. He was an excellent builder.

smwqhv.jpg
 
Maybe....

The problem with the FAA database is it sometimes is wrong. As in the first one on your list with a year of 1979 (the RV-6 hadn't even been designed yet). That was is likely a typo and should have said 1989.
The other problem with doing a search for RV-6 is that back then it was much more common than now for people to use something else as the official model # which wont come up in a search for RV-6

I agree and disagree. The FAA master list of all aircraft had 1115 identified by RV-6. Obviously many were not identified in this list. Doing a search on the FAA database for rv6 yielded 2279 aircraft, however this search did not provide an N number. So I had to cross reference the 2 lists by serial number. Of the 2279, only 1951 successfully cross referenced, and the list I provided are the top hits. Interestingly, the master list may not call many an rv6, but the page for the N# does, maybe they have been slowly re-identifying them in the database. Spot checks of the serial numbers that failed to cross reference showed they did not have any info when searched on the FAA site.

So...
Vans says there are 2571
FAA says there are 2279
My cross reference yielded 1951
Obviously a few are left out, but I think this about the best one can do with the info at hand.
 
Found either 107 or 188 RV-6 in the Canadian database, depending on how you run the search. Cross referencing the 107-188 serial numbers with the FAA master list yields 52-73 more matches. So these are aircraft that moved to Canada from US. But these serial numbers do not seem to cross reference correctly, probably because of elimination or duplication in the faa database.
 
The oldest flying will be an RV-6 because the RV-6A finish kit was not available until the early 90's. My first RV-6A (built from tail kit # 10 purchased from the original purchaser) was one of the earliest "A" models to fly (March 1993) and is still flying with the current owner.

I think Alan Tolle completed the first customer built RV-6 and RV-6A, but I don't know if either is still actively flying.
I just did a quick database search (using his name as manufacturer) and it appears they both still have active registrations.
Correction, it appears only the RV-6A registration is still active. Current owner list as Reno, NV

BTW, for RV trivia buffs.... the oldest 6A (but not customer built) still flying is the original prototype (has about 4800 hrs on it). It first flew in June 1988.

Actually, Alan Tolle's first -6A is now parked just a few doors down at our neighbor's house. he bought it to replace his -7A that flipped on landing after an engine-out.

Paul
 
Oldest RV6

The first RV-6 is still in flying condition but has not flown for a while. It belongs to Peter Thomson and is hangered at Placerville. 999RV if you want to look it up. Registration has expired but I talked to Pete and he is going to get it going again. Mike
 
You are correct, that is Herb and he did help build mine and Jim's RV's plus many others. He was an excellent builder.

smwqhv.jpg

Thanks for that picture. We built our plane in Herb's shop, under his expert guidance. We did the work but Herb taught us and inspected our work every step of the way. It was a privilege to be able to benefit from his knowledge.
 
The first RV-6 is still in flying condition but has not flown for a while. It belongs to Peter Thomson and is hangered at Placerville. 999RV if you want to look it up. Registration has expired but I talked to Pete and he is going to get it going again. Mike

Hey Mike, send me a note with Pete's contact info if you have it - Placerville is about 23 minutes from here in the RV!

Paul
 
Paul, My RV-6 S/N 20084 has an airworthiness certificate date of December 1995. I bought my RV-6 through Herb Ross (Custom Aircraft) located in Payson AZ at that time. My airplane is still flying and has about 750 hours and I still get the RV Smile every time I fly her.

Danny
 
Charlie Calivas RV-6

Charlie Calivas in Enid Oklahoma built what I believe is the second customer built RV6. He recently sold it to his hangar mate, but retained flying rights. Still flying. It was my first RV ride.

I can get contact info if needed.

Paul / Jerry: Charlie once told me he was just barely beaten out by a couple months by the first RV-6 to fly. Charlie no doubt knows who that is if you ask him since he is such a history book when it comes to RV's, etc. I remember he first flew his in 1989, and took it to OSH that year.

Doug Lomheim
RV-3A sold
RV-9A 13B (FWF)
 
1st RV-6?

The first RV-6 is still in flying condition but has not flown for a while. It belongs to Peter Thomson and is hangered at Placerville. 999RV if you want to look it up. Registration has expired but I talked to Pete and he is going to get it going again. Mike

The FAA web site re. 999RV doesn't list a mfg. date. Does the mg. date drop off for some reason when its de-registered? Does anyone know if it was manufactured in 1989?

Doug
 
The FAA web site re. 999RV doesn't list a mfg. date. Does the mg. date drop off for some reason when its de-registered? Does anyone know if it was manufactured in 1989?
Doug

Airworthiness date 3/23/1989
 
Mine first flew 2001
s/n 20030
Van's mentioned it probably was #12...
Still flying..almost 800 hrs now.

Won best 6 at LOE #3

Sheldon N858SB
 
Mine first flew 2001
s/n 20030
Van's mentioned it probably was #12...

There was at least 12 already flying by 1990 so I think there was a misunderstanding regarding you being # 12 in 2001 (by that time the count was probably well over 1000)
 
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