Build or continue flight training....or both?

Folks,
First let me say, as a newbie to the forums, new to the idea of building and the EXP-AB category - with a LOT of questions - I am strongly encouraged by the warmth of the VANSAirForce community! You have offered some sound advice, opened your hangars to me (literally and figuratively) and I believe I WILL begin building my RV-9A during the upcoming summer.....pending the following decision:

I am a middle-aged A-SEL PP with roughly 150 hours TT (just celebrated my 3rd anniversary of passing my checkride!) and I am slowly building hours towards my PIC cross-country time in the interest of obtaining my IR. No hurry. Purely recreational.

Like many of you, I live on a budget, with a wife and a hungry Shih-Tzu to support )) and I need to have some foresight as to where I will spend my aviation $$. I sense from everyone that has either successfully built an airplane or completed their instrument training that each deserves momentum and focus...and each is vastly different but equally challenging!

So here's my personal quandary...Do I:
a) Invest in building an IFR-equipped RV and defer my instrument training until I can train in my own personal RV?
b) go for the IR and defer the start of my build to ease the (internal) pressure of obtaining my IR?
c) do both very slowly (and lose the economies of doing each succinctly)?
d) forget the IR & build a VFR RV because RV flying should be a CAVU experience anyway?!?!

Your personal experiences welcomed.
Cheers!

**********************
Paul Catterson
RV-9/9A Preview Plans in hand
Van's Factory Tour complete
Demo and WAF Flight complete!!
Denver, CO

I temporarily gave up flying so I could build. If you can't afford to do both at the same time, I say put a hold on getting the IR and build your plane. If you get the rating now and then take a 3+ year break, that is just more you will forget. I would rather wait to get the rating and have it fresh when I am ready to fly.

Catflight,
I was in the same boat that you are in...
I started building my -8 with around 100 pic. I all but ceased flying during the build due to the limited number of avbucks and my desire to remain married.
My choice was to push every free avbuck towards the project with the understanding that as I neared the big day, I would have to sink a small fortune into getting sharp enough to fly her. I wasn't flying enough to be safe, so this plan worked for me. By the time that I was ready to fly her for the first time, I had reached a training plateau and felt ready. (And SAFE!) The truth is, I spent more getting tuned up to fly my-8 than I did to earn my ppl years ago
As far as how to go about building your panel, good luck! There are going to be many opinions...
I built mine day/night vfr with enough goodies to bring me through a cloud layer in case I did something dumb...it is not a full ifr bird, and I am not an ifr pilot.

cattflight said:

So here's my personal quandary...Do I:
a) Invest in building an IFR-equipped RV and defer my instrument training until I can train in my own personal RV?

Click to expand...

You're going to get many opinions on this. The only one that matters is yours. This is a workable option. It really depends on your priorities. If you want to quit renting and get the RV-9 quicker, this is the option I would choose. Also, keeping your IFR currency will be tough while you build.

I don't know what the insurance hurdles are for the RV-9. On the RV-10 you need 300 hours and an instrument rating to get decent insurance. I don't think the two place aircraft have similiar requirements.

cattflight said:

So here's my personal quandary...Do I:
b) go for the IR and defer the start of my build to ease the (internal) pressure of obtaining my IR?

Click to expand...

If the instrument rating is important for your current rental flying then this option is workable. But you are going to delay the enjoyment of flying the RV-9 that you built.

cattflight said:

So here's my personal quandary...Do I:
c) do both very slowly (and lose the economies of doing each succinctly)?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend this approach. It's the worse of the options. Like you stated, no economies. I would recommend compressing your instrument training into a small time window as you can afford. It will minimize the total hours you'll need. You will find as you start your training, you'll become very frustrated during the first ten hours or so. Then the light bulb clicks on and everything starts happening as anticipated. If your aren't flying 2 or 3 times a week, you'll be increasing the hours you'll be flying.

cattflight said:

So here's my personal quandary...Do I:
d) forget the IR & build a VFR RV because RV flying should be a CAVU experience anyway?

Click to expand...

It's an option and many people will recommed this option. I'm a little biased since I had my instrument rating before I started to build. I think having the rating and an IFR rated aircraft has the potential to make you a safer pilot.

The choice is yours

rleffler said:

You're going to get many opinions on this. The only one that matters is yours.

Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more.

I'm also a low-time pilot and, after months of contemplation, I decided to place flying on hold in order to build a RV-7A. Yes, I would rather be flying than in the garage building, but, in the end, I know having my own RV will make up for it. In the meantime, I'm having a blast building!

Only you can decide what will make you happiest in the long run.

Good luck with your choice...

Why not build an IFR -9 and then get your IR in it?

Just my cheap 2 cents

I am a high time pilot with 2 instrument ratings, but I have learned over the years that I am now in no rush to get anywhere, except when I am flying for work. In my opinion, the IR ticket will be the best you ever get, in terms of making you a more skilled and proficient pilot. So if it were me, I would get the ticket, and build your airplane, if you can afford to do both. When you get towards the end of your build, you can decide to go VFR or IFR. My airplane will strictly be a VFR ship, but others will probably disagree with me....

choice (e)?

I think (c) is a great choice. Once you're building, it will dominate your aviation time. But if you are still forcing yourself to schedule lessons for IR, it will help you to keep your flying hours going. Most of my flying hourse during the build were for instruction. I earned my taildragger and my multi-engine during the build.

how 'bout choice (e) - go buy a used RV with IR and do your training in it? You can probably get a great deal now, and you'd save cash on the IR training and probably come out cheaper than building your own.

A good quandry to have!!

Just my two cents...the learning curve for building and the learning curve for IFR are pretty steep. Lots of new skills to learn. Commit to one, then do the other. You will enjoy it more. If you are trying to do to much at once it may do nothing but create stress.
By the way, a medical study published awhile ago indicated that people who focus on learning and doing new things have a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease occurrence. So maybe learning two things at once could be a good thing.

I chose "D".

Here's my reason. Recreational flying in Montana is a VFR event..for me. The number of IFR days vs VFR days heavily favors VFR. Mountains Obs and Icing are not my cup of tea. With 300+VFR days/yr, I'll go sking on the IFR days.

I'm a 250TT ASEL. I chose to keep flying while building in order to keep my skills up and log some TW time for insurance reasons. Lately with a limited budget, I found I was spending most of my money in the shop and only flying once in a while....my skills were deteriorating. With a big wad of cash(engine/prop) going out the door this month, I quit the flying club.no more Citabria time. But freed up some money and time for the big push this winter and finish MY flying carpet. I'll bum seat time for now and spend some extra $$ at Mike Seagar's to get tuned up.

Also NO IR for me. I'll take the $5000 and spend it overnighting waiting out the weather at obscure locations around the country.

YMMV

I like D, but get your instrument rating after your RV is flying anyway. Denver, much like Albuquerque, isn't a single engine IFR location anyway. The rating is good to have but if you have IFR conditions at home, it's either convective, icing, or both. I have friends that commute to work in their airplane every day. They can't stay IFR current here.

Much like you, I'm a low time VFR pilot and live in an area with 330+ VFR days a year. I used to hord cross country time--it was such a rarity that I thought I would never be able to afford enough CC time to get an IFR ticket. Now that my RV is flying, I log 2+ flying hours a week. Many of these hours are cross country. No way I could have afforded that while renting.

Just my 2 cents.

Guy

Yeah... like the other RV bro's here, I am in the same dilemma ... a 280hr ASEL who a) wants my RV done, but b) also wants my IR. Many guys stop flying altogether while they're building for lack of both time and/or money. I dislike that idea, even tho' it twangs the pocketbook and schedule to do both. I have definitely postponed the IR, since putting a CFII on the payroll would really kill my checkbook, but I fly 35-50 hrs a year and log 40-50 hrs /month on the build. For me it's the right combination to satisfy my aviating/bugsmashing fix and make progress toward RV completion.

build vs fly vs work..

I've been struggling along the last few years building, flight school and running my business.

The house needs repairs (roof, floors, etc), the cars need work (all past due for oil changes etc) & my office is a mess and I have no money left

I have about 3 hrs left in flight school and I'm working on the finish kit.

The upside: I'm having the time of my life, I'm almost done with all this plane building & my lovely wife still loves me (I think)

Dave
-9A finish kit

I originally wanted to build an IFR airplane and use it to work on an IFR rating (which I do not have). After a couple of years of building, budget-creep became an increasing concern, and I started to think more realistically about my purpose in flying. I realised that even after the significant increased price of equipping an airplane for IFR, there were ongoing costs associated with keeping the equipment and an IFR Pilot rating valid. For the number of times I will be doing IFR, it just doesn't makes sense. For now. Down the road, who knows? For that reason, I built VFR, but made my own modular panel to make it easier to upgrade down the road. I also do have a basic set of backup steam gauges (as well as my Dynon D-180), and I installed heated pitot and alternate static air. This way I have a good base of equipment already in-place should I decide to upgrade to IFR one-day.

Same boat...kinda

I am also a low time pilot like you and faced some of the same questions. I was flying (renting) about once a week before starting my project. I now fly only about once a month just to get my 'fix' and to remember how. When the plane is nearing completion I plan to invest time/money into getting sharp again. As for right now, I do miss the flying but the project and knowing there is a light at the end of the tunnel (which includes my very own plane that I built) helps get me through.

As the famous ski film producer Warren Miller says, "If you dont do it this year, you'll be one year older when you do!"

I say start the project and put the flying on hold....but thats just me.

This was an easy decision for me, because ...

I'm a builder at heart. I have not started my PPL yet and don't plan on it until close to finishing a build (now if I could just decide what to build). I know that I will thoroughly enjoy the building aspect of this endeavor and even if I never take flight lessons, I will end up with a great sense of accomplishment when the plane is done. I fully intend to get my PPL though, but feel a greater urgency to build right now than fly.

Now, having said that, if the idea of spending years building a plane seemed laborious to me and just a means to an end (flying), then I would be very concerned about starting a build for fear of never finishing. In that case, I would get my license first and if I really enjoyed flying and was inspired to build, then the kit can wait until then.

So I think the question goes like this. Which thought makes you come alive the most, building or flying? Do the soul search and go with your strong instinct, regardless of what others tell you to do.