Chuck May and his Van's RV-7A being built in his south Anchorage garage.
By Rob Stapleton, Copyright 2008
Chuck May is an enigma. Try to out smile him, out laugh him, or out joke him and you soon find out that this is a man of metal. In this case he is a man of aluminum; Chuck is building an RV-7A in his garage.
The Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 42 members got a first hand look at his project when we visited it for a meeting on May 27. May’s challenge at this point in his project is fitting the bubble canopy over the cockpit.
“I sure could use some help with this,” said May. “Maybe I can kidnap somebody to help me get this done.”
May chose the Van’s RV over other projects because of its popularity, speed and ease to build and fly.
“I helped a friend with a biplane project but after he got it done and saw some of the difficulties he had, I changed my mind,” said May.
The motivation to build the RV-7 is not too different than other builder’s stories.
“When I looked at the price of a 40 year-old Cessna 182, I decided it would be cheaper to build my own airplane, and have something that is new and fun to fly,” May said.
To date May has logged 1,098 hours working on his kit plane since he first received it in 2002.
While May took two years off, due to health related problems he says that he does something on it everyday that he can.
“I usually work on it from two to six hours a day, but I average at least 15 hours a week,” he said.
May has fitted an O-32o 160 horsepower engine on the airframe that will use a fixed pitch propeller. The two-place aircraft will use the tricycle gear configuration, and the aircraft will have a Garmin GPS but will use steam gauges, instead of the glass type instrument panels that are becoming more popular.
The aircraft once finished, will be moved and hangared at Birchwood Airport in Chugiak.
As the project of aluminum, fiberglass and now Plexiglas takes shape in the May’s garage you can see an end is near with his project, that is, if he gets some help with the canopy.
“This is the best kit on the market, and while it is a l-i-t-t-l-e bit more complicated than I originally thought, but I am pleased with the way things are going,” May said.
