It's been some exciting weeks! The inspection of the empennage (tail) section by the aviation authorities is completed and soon I will start the construction of the wings. The wing jig is completed and inspected by the aviation authorities. Wing build will probably start first week of September. I would like to thank everyone who has helped, supported me so far to reach this intermediate milestone.

Receiving a positive feedback from the inspection has re-insured me that I can bring this project to a good end.

This is definitily how I want my RV-7 to look like.

This bird belongs to Paul Paeleman, a Belgian builder based at Sanicole (Leopoldburg). Paul invited me in Oct 2010 to give me an impression on how the RV-7 performs and behaves in flight. 'Skypassion' is a masterpiece of craftmanship and clearly build with a lot of passion and eye for little details.  What a difference in experience with flying the cessna's I have been flying until now. Just some key thoughts: smacked in your seat on take off, extremely responsefull on cruise flight and approach, smooth slow landing speed and remarkable control on the ground.

Yes that's really how I would like mine to be. Well, I'm only 2000 hours away from that point, so let's go build! (Update Dec 2011: 2000 hours, hahahahaha, make that 4000 )

Thank you Paul for that wonderfull experience. It made the decision on which kit to build much much easier.

I didn't know about the expression 'RV Grin' in October 2010, but I can assure you that I had my first RV Grin while flying this bird.
I ordered my preview plans the evening I returned from the flight.

Some interesting links related to the Vans Aircraft Building.

Take a sneak view at Vans Aircraft factory.

Look here how a propellor is made at Hartzell.

My name is Jurgen, I live in Belgium. Welcome to my builders log.

 Some people call me nuttzzz. Some people buy a porche when they get into the mid life crisis age. Other people take a second wife. Others get depressed.  I decided to build an airplane.  A what ???? Yes, an airplane ! I skipped the phase of building the small plastic versions with glue and paint and went right into the real thing. My time is precious now so let's cut the obvious questions upfront. I heared them too many times already so here is the FAQ -mandatory reading- for a visit to my workshop.

 "You're building an airplane?" : Yes, I am.
 "A REAL airplane?" : Yes"
 "In your garage?" : Yes. "
 "One you can actually fly in?" : Yes!
 "You can do that?" : Yes!!!

 I'm very proud to call myself an aircraft builder. If you look at history, it's been thousands of years that people have dreamed about flight and it's only in the last 100 years that we have now the opportunity to build our own airplanes and fly. The current project work is the results of years of deliberation, evaluating and planning. I took the advice of other builders very seriously. The better you plan upfront, the less problems you encounter later. The type I have decided to build is the Van's aircraft, RV-7. I will motivate my choice in one of the subsections of this site.

I hope you enjoy following my building adventure and that you will return frequently to check on the progress. Another way to follow my progres is by subscribing to the RSS feed. This will send you an email each time I post new progress. For subscription, click on the RSS icon in the bottom of the left menu on this page.

For people that live nearby, feel free to come and have a look. Don't forget to bring a six-pack. The most frequently used lubricant in my workshop is called "Jupiler", bring some as I'm frequently running out of stock.