Cal, if you haven't flown for over 30 years, you're probably not a kid
anymore and would like to get in the air as quickly as possible.
I was where you're at at one point and looked at all the designs before
I chose, so don't think I'm biased just because I made a long, thought out
decision and finally decided. And yes, I chose the Van's RV7-A Quickbuild
kit.
The QB kit is well worth it for us older builders because, let's face
it, we may not have all that many years left before we bust our medicals. We
don't need to be spending 5 to 7 years or more building something we may
never get to fly.
So the reasons I chose the RV7-A QB over anything else is:
Time - While it's going to be around 1-1/2 years before I'm flying, one
recent Van's QB kit builder was flying after 5-1/2 months. I'm finding that
availability of spendable cash limits my progress more than building time.
Still, I'll be flying by next summer.
Quality - The quality and accuracy of the pre-punched kits from Van's is
now legendary. Do some heavy google searching and find out how long the
average Van's kit builder takes to get flying, and more importantly, the %
of Van's kits that actually get completed. Then see if you can find the
average time it takes another kit maker's customers to get flying as well as
how many kits were sold vs. how many will ever fly.
The Numbers - There are now almost 4500 of Van's aircraft flying. That's
a pretty amazing number compared against ALL other kit makers COMBINED. With
those numbers, you have a multitude of online sources for support and
information specifically with regard to the exact aircraft you build.
So make your choice and don't look back. I'm just saying that after I
looked at everything I could, the ONLY choice for my purposes was one of the
Van's QB kits.

MJC

"Cal Vanize" wrote in message
...

Thinking of building. Have been looking around and not found the kind of
selection I though was available. Found Zenith, Sonex and Vans. Of the
three, I'm looking a little harder at the two seaters from Vans (RV-7
and -9) and Zenith (Zodiac XL). Obviously different performance but costs
don't seem that much different.

Would anyone be willing to share their experiences with building kits from
these companies? Any comments on flight characteristics of these planes?
Reliability? Any information to share? Reputation? Etc?

I stopped flying a little over 30 years ago but have ~ 1200 hours and a
CASMELI.

I'm in the midwest U.S.

TIA,

CV