Builder: Brian Rogers

Project: F1 Rocket

After a year or so of trying to decide what aircraft I would build, I had it narrowed down to either a Van's RV-8 or the soon-to-be-introduced F1 Rocket.

 

I was able to wrangle a brief 'try-it-on-for-size' sitting in the RV-8 prototype at Kerrville. My wife (at the time still 'Girlfriend 2.0) asked about the dual control feature and insinuated that she might like to drive sometime, so the plane that I built must have dual controls. An unpleasant conversation with Van followed by a conversation with charismatic Mark Frederick soon found me leaning more towards the F1 Rocket. Being a clever salesman, Mark took the (now) wife for a ride and before she hopped out of the back seat, she asked if I had brought my

checkbook! Done, F1 Rocket for me.

 

I took delivery of kit #28 on August 9, 2000. Sure, it is a quickbuild, but it has been competing with many other interests and projects, so the current stage finds it on the gear with the tail in place. A visit to Sun-n-Fun last year in our Kitfox occurred right about the time that I had begun wading into the fiberglass fairing portion of the build and I was not liking that. I saw a few demonstrations of a tool called an 'English Wheel' which could make METAL fairings and I was hooked. The most recent F1 Rocket progress has been in the (almost finished !) construction of said tool. I expect to be back at the fairings (metal) by mid-September 2006 and hope to keep the building fire lit for an extended period this time!

 

Brian