Luis Orozco’s RV-7A | Cedar Park, TX RV-7A

Hi guys,

After 12 years (don’t look up my tail kit order…it may be a little longer!), 2 houses and 3 jobs, this thing is now a flying airplane!

Terry Turner, the inspector from our local FSDO was kind enough to drive up from San Antonio one day before the government shutdown to perform the inspection and issue the airworthiness certificate.

The airplane is a stock RV-7A with an YO-360-A1A, a Catto 3-bladed fixed pitched prop, and it weighs 1066 lbs empty. The avionics are ‘simple’ with an eye towards getting my IFR ticket: A Dynon Skyview EFIS, COM radio and transponder and a GNS480 GPS. I designed and built a custom interconnect/power board to keep all the wire harnesses point-to-point, provide redundant power to the avionics with a backup battery, and use power transistors for all power switching rather than routing ‘hot’ wires through switches in the instrument panel. I also designed my own flap controller, landing, nav and strobe lights. Hey, I’m an electrical engineer! I wasn’t about to mess with engine conversions, but avionics? Yeah, I can do that…

We finally had some nice weather and calm winds on January 5th 2019, and even though I tried to keep the crowd to a minimum, that’s hard to do in an airpark community. When people saw me carrying gas cans into the hangar and moving the airplane to the front of the hangar, they knew something was afoot…

I flew for about 45 minutes and verified it flies straight, even hands off, and so far all the temperatures and pressures are normal. It stalls at just under 50 knots clean, and it is fast even with no fairings!

Scott Card flew chase on his RV-9A and made sure no bits fell off the plane. Scott and Tanya Card, Joel Smith, John Farrington, John Harlan, Patrick Jeitler, Frank Leff, Dave Snapp, and Dennis Haverlah are just a few of the other pilots and/or builders who would regularly stop by, inspect the current work, and offer encouragement to keep going.

Ultimately, this airplane got finished because my current boss, Fabiola, lured me away from my old corporate job to come work for her software/hardware engineering consulting company, and made it clear finishing the airplane was a priority project and it was to receive no less than two hours of work each day. She also shot every rivet in the wings and about 80% of the ones in the fuselage. I also happened to be married to her and she is now finishing up the paint scheme. Jealous? yeah, you should be 😉

See you in Oshkosh….

Luis Orozco & Fabiola de la Cueva
Cedar Park, TX