Isn't the RV-3 above a Lance Manf. ARF, and not Wendell's RV-4??
The tail is the wrong shape as I see it. Food for thought.
PS Hello Steve!!
Craig

Craig, Go to vansaircraft.com and you can see the difference on all his aircraft. The RV-3 was a single seater while the RV-4 was a two person bird.
Looks like the tails are about the same to me.
Frank

Hi Craig. Are you thinking about building one?

I see where I made one big mistake and that was with the landing gear. I set the tie down area parallel to the 1/4 ply plate. If you do that your gear may be spread with toe out as mine are. I would suggest you have the wing center section on the fuselage and drill one screw hole in each gear leg and get the toe in correct before drilling the other holes. Probably a common practice but us old fellas tend to get ahead of ourselves. If you use Wendell's suggestion for the canopy latch I'd sure make some sort of a lock on the latch handle. I'm about ready to go again with this bird. I fixed my ailerons so I could have more throw than suggested and they should be okay now. Need to re-balance and go fly ,weather/wind permitting.
Frank

Tommy,
This thread has gone from being a "BUILD" thread to a" BUILT AND FLYING" thread. I have taken great time and care into documenting my work. If you or any one else is interested in seeing the rest of my "​BUILD" thread I have moved it to www.rcgroups.com under the same title . Thanks for the support of all that want to see it "BUILT"

Frank - any luck getting the RV back in the air??
Craig

Hi Craig,
Yes I got it back in the air two days ago. I had a good flight and all the changes worked great Increasing aileron throw helped a lot in roll rate and the canopy lock worked great. I'm sure you have heard the song with the part " if I had no bad luck I'd have no luck at all". Well, on landing my touchdown was long and rollout was pretty fast. Our field has a cross runway at the end of the main one and I attempted to turn right on the dogleg and clipped the tall grass with the left side main gear. It ripped out the gear again and poked a hole in the wing stub and on the left outer wing panel. Holes were from those wheel pants. Two more things I learned on that flight. 1. Use flaps and two, land on the near end of the runway not half way down it. Maybe the third thing will be is to leave off the wheel pants on our grass strip. I'm not to disappointed in this incident- I had a good flight and was pleased with flight characteristics of the bird. Oh yes, the plies in the plywood actually separated on the gear mount as the 6-32 t-nuts pulled thru with the rest of the plywood intact. The landing rollout really wasn't that fast to cause the damage it did.
Frank

Frank - I'm glad to hear that the RV got back in the air, but sad to hear you have more repair work to do. I admire your perseverance. Covering with Monocote as you did should make the repairs easier, I hope. Have you kept Wendell up to date regarding your experiences?? It almost sounds like 6-32 hardware is not strong enough for the landing gear - and maybe 8-32 or even 10-32 hardware should be used to increase the surface area of the T-nuts (blind nuts) so they can't pull out as easily. Hopefully, you have a couple more months of flying weather there in Maine. Keep us posted about your efforts. Good luck!!
Craig

Craig,
The screws wasn't the problem the pilot and the ply plate were. The whole landing gear 3/8ths ply came out. The lamination just separated in the plywood. I'm going to drill holes and pin it down. Next time it will do more damage if it rips out. LOL.
She is ready to re-cover as soon as I get some time.
Frank

JP I would like to continue viewing your thread, but cant find the new one. I understand your frustration with the foram, but this landing gear stuff is some decent feedback. The top flight giant scale stinson had a similar problem-beautiful and elaborate model, but too small a plywood plate for the gear and it would rip out
ANDY

Andy,
I started this thread to show the build process start to finish of the RV-4. I enjoy the input from others but I didn't intend for this to turn into five pages of crash and rebuild. If someone would like to start a new thread regarding issues they are having I would be the first to tune in. If you or any one else would like to continue to follow the build this is the link to it. www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2277479

Jperkins.
Sorry I upset your site but you didn't have to be so cocky about it. You can have both of them because I just don't like your attitude. You won't see me here or on the other one again.
Frank

Question… why are some people cutting the “cheek” cowl and making it part of the fuselage permanently. Thank you