Great Planes RV-4 electric conversion

[MikeJM]

Here are some pictures of my Great Planes kit. The kit is designed for a .40 gas engine, but I wanted electric and since there aren't any RV electric kits on the market anywhere, I thought I would give a conversion a try. After alot of research, since I'm pretty much a newb to radio control planes (just learned to fly this past summer on an FT-22) however I have built a lot of models, scratch built and kits. Offcourse I had to figure out where to put a battery and how I was going to access it. I modified the fuse with a removable canopy. I also repositioned the elev & rudder servos, modified the cowel and burried the flap and aileron servos in the wing for a cleaner look.

This is what I ended up with:

 

[Christopher14]

Oh cool! I have flown in a RV-4. That is a very nice plane mike. Good job!:applause: Do you have a flight video?

 

[MikeJM]

Video

I only have a couple of short clips that were taken with a smart phone.

Mike

 

[jayz 84]

Very Nice RV-4. Rv's are very nice flying planes( in real life not sure about rc) A coworker buddy of mine has a pair of RV-7's hes building. I go over to his place at times to learn new sheet metal tricks

 

[Joker 53150]

Nice work! I've seen plans for the RV-6F and the RV-3, and the temptation is strong to try scratch-building one some day.

 

[jhitesma]

Looks great! Love the Van's planes and dream of building a real one someday. Have been thinking about a balsa one at some point to tide me over

 

[canuck]

Nicely done. Having built an RV-7a with my brother and an RV-4 myself I can vouch for the these wonderful designs.

 

[MikeJM]

Nice

Nicely done. Having built an RV-7a with my brother and an RV-4 myself I can vouch for the these wonderful designs.


View attachment 36293

My brother is building his 2nd RV, started with a 4 and now he's building an RV-6.

 

[BanditJacksRC]

My father and I have build 2 RV-10s, a Rv-6a, and a Rv-8.
Vans makes some amazing designs and every one I have flown has been a dream.
I really want to try out the Great planes RV-4. looks like a fun one

 

[GT6mark3]

I recently converted a Great Planes RV4 to electric and used the same method for battery access ie make the canopy and decking removable, similar to the hinged section on the full size RV. If you look closely on the attached photo you can see the two lines on the red/white/blue model where the panel separates from the fuselage. The smaller RV in the background is fromStevens Aero, a really good laser cut kit with excellent instructions. The 3rd RV4 is scratch built from from some RV3 plans that appeared in a UK magazine 2 or 3 years ago. I just added 10% or so to the length and span to come up with a reasonable representation of the RV4

 

[MikeJM]

They look nice! I opened them up in another viewer so I could see them right side up.

 

[Rocketman2008]

RV 4 canopy conversion

Mike, very nice, I love your paint scheme. I built mine exactly by the plans but used butyrate dope and getting ready to paint. I have not done the canopy so do you think it's too late to make a removable canopy?. I can follow plans well enough but new to scratch building so i am curious about your process.

Rocketman