Building an airplane is similar to designing an airplane in that it is all about choices. And the obvious first choice is: What airplane to build? This seemingly simple question has been the topic of my research for a considerable number of years. The basic decision for any airplane is: What is it's purpose? And since I have many interests in flying (local sight seeing, long trips, warbirds, aerobatics, etc.), every time I tried to come up with the 'perfect' plane I would end up with a different airplane! Finally, I realized that I needed the best compromise that would allow me to do as many of these things well without perhaps being the best in any one category. That made the choice much simpler: Van's Aircraft has long been known to provide aircraft kits that meet this general choice of doing many things extremely well. Thus the choice then became which model from Van's choices would be best for me (and my partner). Here, both my partner and I had independently arrived at the same answer: the RV9A. This model is a derivative of earlier models and is designed to be fun, very docile and easy to fly. The 'A' stands for the tricycle gear option. We chose this option because of the better ground visibility even though it gives up a small amount in flying performance.And within this model there are still more choices to be made! First we had to decide on the type of canopy we desired. Van's offers two choices here: a slider canopy (shown in the photo), and a tip-up option. We chose the tip-up option because of the better visibility (which is fantastic!). Then we had to choose the size of engine and type of propeller. We chose the 160 hp option with a fixed pitch propellor (primarily for cost considerations). And then we had to choose the type of flying that we would do (VFR or instrument flying); we chose to do VFR flying only. This decision dictates the amount of avionics and instrumentation required in the aircraft (as well as the ratings of the aviators!).Another major decision is how much does the bui
