Motoring journalist Colin Goodwin describes building his Van’s RV-7 light aircraft as the biggest achievement of his life – hardly surprising when much of it was at the bottom of his garden, without any prior experience, over five long years.
I’ve known Colin since we were at Autocar in the 1990s, but never realised how much this plane-building malarky had consumed his life two decades ago.
He started on the Van’s after many years of classic car ownership, including a Chevy El Camino SS, Sunbeam Alpine MkV, early 6V VW Beetle, five Minis, a Datsun 240Z and a 1977 Porsche 911S bought from friend and broadcaster Chris Harris.
Nowadays, he runs a Saab 9-3 Convertible and is considering a Triumph GT6 Mk3 as his next classic.
The Chevrolet El Camino SS started Colin Goodwin’s classic car passion
“I had learnt to fly in 2006,” says Colin. “That summer I saw one of these planes at an airshow and I had no idea what it was. The whole airframe, less engine, was about the same price as a Caterham Seven, and you bought the kit in batches.”
Having decided to take the plunge, Colin then needed somewhere to assemble it: “I figured out the longest part of the plane and built a shed to fit around it in my garden, not thinking about how I would get it out again…”
Helped by father-in-law Nicholas Boothman, Colin then set about constructing the plane in sections. In total, the pair were to use 11,000 rivets in the RV-7’s construction.
The Van’s RV-7 light aircraft packs 100lb of luggage capacity
While the completed tail section and wings were able to exit Colin’s house through the front door, the fuselage was a different matter.
Fitted with its hefty Lycoming engine plus a full set of wiring and instruments, the only way it could be removed was by making a hole in his garden wall and then having it craned over rooftops to extract it from the confines of his suburban terraced home.
The final assembly was to take place at an airfield near Cirencester.
“There’s a saying with building these things: ‘It’s 90% finished, 90% to go,’” reflects Colin. “It’s absolutely true; there are masses of hours of fiddling around. On a difficulty level, it would be like making a Caterham from raw tubes.”
Colin Goodwin swaps steering wheels for a lever when flying his Van’s RV-7 light aircraft
But after five more months, the Van’s was finished and ready for the last of its LAA (Light Aircraft Association) inspections, amounting to 19 separate sign-offs in total.
Since then, Colin relates the pleasure he’s gained from flying the Van’s as unquantifiable.
Its air-cooled, 360cu in (5.9-litre) Lycoming flat-four he describes as: “Really crude… with roughly Triumph 2.5 PI levels of sophistication.”
But with its redundant systems – it will operate on one of its two magnetos if the other fails, for example – it’s ultra-dependable, which is infinitely more important.
The Van’s will cruise at 175mph and achieve around 25mpg, Colin confirms: “I’ve flown to Malta twice, which is around 1500 miles, but over a few stops. It will do Cannes, France, in one go on a still day, with 50 minutes of fuel left over.”
The Van’s RV-7 light aircraft’s navigation kit
You can see why he is so proud of what he describes as “the 911 of light aircraft”, more so because its registration – G-DMBO – was chosen in tribute to the same one used on his father’s Wellington bomber during the war.
With its vivid graphics, domed cockpit and faired-in wheels, it really does cut a swathe among the workaday Cessnas with which it shares space at White Waltham Airfield.
Colin is clearly smitten, too: “If I’m in Malta and it’s parked next to an Airbus, I think: ‘I built this and flew it all the way here.’”
Images: Jack Harrison
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