Back from the fire: A history on N966RV and its builders
by Richard Fazio

            This RV-6 kit was purchased by my father Dominick Fazio & myself, Richard. The kit was ordered on 5/12/97 and received the following August. This would be our second kit plane. The first was a Rans S-10. I purchased the Rans in 93. Coming at flying from the hang gliding and ultralight world, I went for the two cycle powered Rans. My father did not like the idea of a two cycle engine in a plane. I was used to it from the ultralights I flew. My father wanted to build an RV. At the time it was just not possible for me financially. So I went to see the Rans and my father tagged along. When I decided to purchase the kit, all of a sudden I had  partner. We got the kit in '93 and finished it in 1 year and 9 months.

Here is a picture of my father and the Rans.

We flew it for about 5 years and put over 400 hours on it. The problem was the engine. It seized up on my father 2 times. I thought he was doing something wrong as it hadn’t happened to me. Then it happened to me. It seized up solid when I had my son in the plane with me. Luckily all three times we were in the pattern and landed safely.

My father decided he wanted the RV-6 with a real aircraft engine. He said he would buy it and we would build it. Once done we would sell the Rans and the money would go to him and the RV would be both of ours. Ok, I liked the idea. Once we received the kit we started working on it immediately. This was the quick build version of the RV-6 (HA). My father was retired so he did put more hours into it in the beginning. I worked on it on the weekends with him.

After a year or so it was looking pretty good. We had the wings on in his garage and the engine was on the way. Then my father started having trouble with his lungs. He was to the doctor a bunch of times until they finally diagnosed him with mezothelioma. It was caused by asbestos he had been exposed to while working as an electrician in his younger years.

By the end of the summer in '99. he was no longer able to work on the plane. I would go to his place to be with him but no work got done on the plane. He passed away in March of 2000. Then I had to battle his wife for the plane. My mother had passed away in 1991 and my father remarried in 1999. He left the plane to me in his will, but there was the problem of its value. I basically had to buy the plane back from his wife, since the value of the plane came out of any inheritance left me. That was not my father’s intent, the plane was to be mine.

Finally in the summer of 2000 I got the plane home to my house. It didn’t get worked on for another year while I figured out what I wanted to do with it. A few times I was close to selling it as it was, unfinished. Then in the summer of 2001, I started on it again. The airframe was basically done. It needed the wiring, plumbing, interior, instruments, and paint. I did the wiring and instruments that summer. Then again it sat for a while. I stuck it up in my barn in upstate NY.

My daughter was bugging me to finish the plane. She wanted to go flying. So in the summer of 2005, I started again. We installed the interior fabrics and seats. I was going to paint it but kept putting off actually getting started. My friend, Dwight, kept bugging me. “Stop fooling around. Just bring that thing out here to the airport and put it together. Worry about painting it latter”.

He volunteered to help and even gave me a place to put it together. He has a big hanger with only his RV-4 in it. So I finally gave in and dragged the thing out to the hanger. We put the wings on and I started working in earnest. I wanted to have it looking fairly finished for our annual EAA chapter fly-in.

I could have done more things at home but having it out at the airport definitely gave me incentive to finish it. Everyday all the pilots would stop by and ask what was left to do. I finally made a list and taped it to the wing. When people asked what was left I would point to the list. They could see what I had left and what was crossed off.

I had the final inspection by Charlie Terry our local DAR. I did the things on his list and the plane was just about airworthy. It was kind of ugly because it wasn’t painted but I figured I’d fly it somewhere and have it painted.

RV-6 Awaiting Final Paperwork

            I was waiting for my registration to come through from the FAA, another problem. Seems I had to have my father’s wife sign it over to me on a bill of sale. Even though I inherited it, I needed a bill of sale from his estate to me. Then a new bill of sale from the kit manufacturer to my father. Needless to say it went on for months. Then I got the phone call. Dwight called at 10:30 p.m. and said he had bad news. There was a fire at his hanger. My plane was OK, but it melted the canopy and the cowling was a little messed up. I jumped in my truck and headed out to the airport. It was bad!

After The Fire

            The plane was covered in a thick, black soot. By far the worst thing was the soot damage. The soot was everywhere and any bare steel was rusted.  The stainless firewall was rusted on the inside of the cockpit. The outside was discolored an awful brown. I was disgusted.

I pulled the plane apart and took it home. I was ready to sell it again. I couldn’t get myself to work on it again. Everyone I knew was calling me up and offering their condolences. It was like someone had died. I was worried about the aluminum. If it was heated up too much the temper was lost and the plane was worthless.

I brought it to Lawrence Ripak Co., Inc. and had the aluminum tested. They do aerospace testing. At the time they were testing F18 bulkheads. They do a test called eddy current, continuity test that can tell if the temper was effected. Luckily the skins all came through ok. We tested the skins compared to some unused skins I had left over from the build. They were exactly the same. I completely dismantled it. Every nut and bolt had to come out. Every part was cleaned thoroughly and gone over. I felt like I was restoring and old car.

Everything I touched was filthy. Most of the hardware I replaced.  It needed a new cowling top, new canopy plexiglas for the windshield and the sliding part. The wingtips were a little melted. I decided I was not going to be beat. I was going to come back with a vengeance. Not only would I fix it up again, but it would be better than it was. I wasn’t going to bring it out there again until it was completely done and painted and looking great.

            Fast forward two years. I have completely cleaned and painted the plane. The interior fabrics were pulled out the paint was stripped and it was acid etched. Then I epoxy primed the interior and painted it with Imron The Instruments were each pulled out and cleaned. The panel was repainted. All new fabrics were glued inside. A new canopy was installed. A new cowling as well as new tips and lights.

Then started the painting. I had to paint it as my father would have, with lots of stripes and colors. He always said planes should be red white & blue. Not so much because he was patriotic, which he was, but because he just liked the colors together. It had to look sporty. The only things I had painted before were done with a rattle can. I finally settled on a design and started painting. It was red, white & blue and asymmetric. I made a lot of mistakes but it came out looking ok. I brought it out to the airport and started assembling it again. Again

Here she is before the flaps were installed

Ready to go

Everyone started asking when was it going to be done? I just pointed to the list. When  was it going to fly? I didn’t know. I kept plugging away at it. I took a week off work and went out there everyday dawn to dusk. My list kept getting shorter. When the time came to get it inspected I learned the DAR who had looked at it all along was no longer a DAR. I was worried that  would have trouble getting it inspected. The new DAR in our area was Jon Ross. He came out and looked at it. He found a few things he wanted me to change, no problem I had them done in a few days. Jon was very good, straight forward, and really looked her over. He came out again on 1/10/09 and signed her off.

            All my friends at the airport were congratulating me, and all wanted to help. Let's get the cowling on, should I get fuel, what’s left to do? I told them I wasn’t rushing at this point. I was taking my time and closing her up. The DAR wants to see all covers off, cowl off, everything open that could be open. So I had a lot to close back up. By Saturday the 28^th she was ready, but it was getting dark. She was sitting there fueled and ready to go. I just had to roll her out and start her up. The forecast was for lousy weather the next two days. I came out Sunday the 19^th and was going to just clean up the hanger and put things away. By noon it started clearing. By 1:00 it was sunny and no wind. I had the pre-heater running for two hours.

I rolled her out and started her up. I was really nervous. I announced the wrong runway for back taxi and taxied to 36. I eased on the power and off we went. She climbed at full power like the proverbial homesick angel. Before I knew it I was at 3000 over the runway. I had stayed in the pattern. I flew north to be over Calverton, which is an unused airport with 9000 ft runways. I figured if anything went wrong I could put her down there. My friend Dwight was behind me in his RV-4. He was asking how high was I going? I was at 7000 ft. She flew perfectly. Hands off straight and level trimmed out right from the start. I was just too nervous to really pay attention to any of the instruments. I flew her back toward home and got setup for landing. I greased her on, my best landing to date.

This story appeared in the January 31, 2009 issue of the RV Builder's Hotline.