Brian Walker’s RV-7 First Flight | Lethbridge Victoria Australia RV-7 #73909

Brian writes in about the first flight of his RV-7! Congrats!

This is the aircraft I have always wanted: it is a dream to fly, short take-off roll, climbs without effort, extremely light on the controls and super quick, we were 167 Knots indicated at 25″ and 2500 rpm. Staying close to the field when you’re covering almost 4 miles a minute required lots of fun turns. The flight was over all-too-quickly. ending with most of the strip remaining unused.

I have a Hartzell constant speed prop fitted to a 195 HP IO 375 with dual electronic mags. I was surprised how easily the motor starts particularly when hot.

I painted the fibreglass sections and have started to polish all the aluminium to a mirror finish, still a lot of polishing to go for days when the weather prevents flying.

The build was basically completed over a four year period when you factor in the periods I was working overseas.