To many, building an airplane in a two car garage seems crazy. While I don’t speak for other builders, I can say that my reasons are very similar. We all seem to have some key similarities in our reasoning. I’ve known about building airplanes in garages since as I early as I can remember. My uncle has been building a Rutan Long-EZ in his for over twenty years now. I hope to have mine done in 8 at the most…just in time for a mid-life crisis ;-). Below are my own answers to some common questions asked of builders.

Why not just buy a plane?

Well…that’s simple…not only are they the cost of a house; they are more expensive to maintain and have less performance than an RV-7 which is 1/4 to 1/2 the price. Let’s compare a couple of production 2-seat aircraft to the RV-7A (with a 180 HP engine). A Diamond DA-20, brand new, will cost about $200K-$210K. It cruises at 138 kts, has a range of 547 nm, takes off in 1600 ft, lands in 1200 ft, and climbs out at 1000 fpm (at sea level). Too much money? Well for a modest $160K, you can get the Flight Design CTLSi which cruises at a blazing 115kts, has a range of 800 nm. Both planes have decent fuel economy burning about 5 gph. Both of these certified planes will require that I spend between $500 and $2000+ a year having an annual inspection done by a certified A&P. For between $65K and $85K, I can build an RV-7A. A plane which will cruise at about 180 kts, takes off and lands in about 500 ft, climbs at 1600-2100 fpm, and does light aerobatics. Also, because I built the plane, the FAA will give me a Repairman’s Certificate which allows me to perform the maintenance on this airplane saving me thousands per year. Many of the used RV-7’s in Trade-a-Plane are selling for roughly what one could spend building one, which tells me they have excellent resale value. Speaking of Trade-a-Plane, while looking for how much of a plane $70K could get me if I wanted to buy a certified production plane. In general, I was looking at a Cessna built back in the 70’s.

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