RV-Super Cub.
Please.
Modern day plans and a devoted, passionate user base. The perfect compliment to your existing RV. Total
FLIGHT ENVELOPE Performance! I would order the tail kit the day after it’s announced and broaden the scope of VAF to include RV backcountry flying in a nanosecond. Something the thousands of us RV pilots down south from Arizona straight over to Florida can stick our hands and feet out into the air while flying.
Why? Because for all those days folks in the NW complain about rain, those of us in the south deal with this:
Those four days each year Portland reaches 100*F? Go sit in your RV on the ramp at that temp and close the canopy. Then imagine what three months feels like. Still want to go fly? ;^)
RV-8(ish) front and back, PA-18(ish) in the middle. Windows/doors optional. Make the fuse out of tubing like a Super Cub and offer it as a finished part like we already get with the current motor mounts. Garmin G5 or equivalent and an oil pressure gauge for a panel - this model isn't about avionics. It's a Jeep.
I would quite simply love to land at 15mph in the pic below
in an RV, get out and fish for half an hour, take a picture, then feature it on the front page of VAF ;^). There are dozens of spots just like this a ten minute flight from my field, and my RV-6 just shakes its head no.
Click here and see for yourself:
https://goo.gl/maps/d37ptBXMRyj
That Rans S21 looks pretty sweet.
RV-Super Cub? You had me at hello...
One could argue there is too much competition, but I would counter that statement with the real belief Van’s would have one of the, if not THE, largest slice of the backcountry pilot market shockingly fast. Almost every RV pilot I talk to here in the hot south wants something 1) open door and 2) bush plane to compliment their existing RV. Maybe my area of the country is a statistical RV anomaly, but I have to believe it's not.
I’ll own a true backcountry plane with big tires someday….I'm saving for it now (
wanna buy a 1967 Triumph Bonneville?). I’m pulling for it to be an RV so I can champion its existence here. That’s my hope and best case scenario. Over the last (46) years or so, our favorite airplane company offered us (14) versions of aircraft with a closed canopy and smooth surface gear (3,4,6,6A,7,7A,8,8A,9,9A,10,12,14,14A). This fanboy would certainly appreciate an offering that allows more air in...and real off road utility.
An RV-Jeep if you will...
How many first time RV builders would choose this as their first build, given the factory’s stellar history,
amazingly detailed plans and customer satisfaction record?
Hundreds? Thousands? After all, at the end of the day it's about sales out the door being needed to keep the lights on.
Is the average pilot growing in girth at a rate to warrant another ‘wider RV-7’? (The RV-14 to me is an RV-7 XL. Is there enough demand for a RV-7 XXL?). I don't know. That demographic, the *really* big pilot who can keep a medical, seems to me to be a dwindling pool to choose from if the objective is sales out the door. Don’t get me wrong, big vehicles are very popular here where I live. People drive trucks here so big they don’t fit in the garage. They sell ‘em by the boatload, and an airplane equivalent would probably have its audience. But having said that, about every fifth vehicle that you pass around my neck of the woods is a Jeep. Myself included.
So if it’s about kits being sold (which of course it has to be), I’d respectfully ask for an RV bush plane….specifically an RV-Super Cub. It is an untapped RV market with potentially thousands of customers craving that most valuable, dare say incalculable, of known quantities:
the RV build experience and networking community.
That sense of community, that the-company-is-behind-you safety net that swings people on the fence over to this company when you're in uncharted waters (contemplating building your first airplane).
I think it would be a hit (
Piper built 10,222 of them after all). I would absolutely commit to building an RV version.
In a heartbeat.
Respectfully,
A future RV backcountry pilot (hopefully).