Why I Chose to Build the Rans S-21 Outbound

Let me start by saying that I have been very fortunate to have had all of the opportunities outlined here and I am very grateful for that.

The road that led me to the point where I am going to build another aircraft is a rather long and winding one. Of course, it helped that I grew up around airplanes and was exposed to them early and often. It was that experience that led me to join the Air Force in 1985 which gave me a lot of training and experience in aircraft maintenance. Enough, in fact, that I was able to qualify for an Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) license, now referred to as an Aircraft Maintenance Technician (AMT) just before I got out of the service.

The next phase began in May of 1999 when I received my Private Pilot License. I spent a couple of years renting airplanes to fly, but I had always dreamed of owning my own airplane. I had also spent a lot of time around old airplanes that had been restored and dreamed of doing my own restoration. The first airplane I owned was a 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champ basket case. It had been ground looped in Canada in the 1970s and never repaired.

Some assembly required!

I like the above photograph because in it , I am not the old guy. In this case at least, it turned out that restoration was not really my thing and I didn't get very far with the project. It also turned out to be a much bigger project than I expected and was missing far more parts than I first thought.

Next I thought that maybe building and airplane from scratch might be more to my liking so I obtained several sets of plans. The two that I thought the most about were the Fly Baby and the Pietenpol.

Bowers Fly Baby

Pietenpol Air Camper

My absolute dream would have been, and still is really, a Steen Skybolt.

Steen Skybolt

The problem with a Skybolt, or Starduster, or Acrosport, etc., is that it requires welding and I never developed the skill for welding and was concerned I wouldn't be able to do a good enough job that I would feel comfortable getting into and flying it. I figured maybe I could build something out of wood.

While puttering around with the Champ, I came across a Pietenpol project that had been started. I picked it up and started doing some research. I made some rib jigs and started whacking out ribs, but still hadn't seen one in real life. Once I finally did see one, I thought it looked a lot smaller than I was interested in, so I passed the project on to someone else.

While all of this was going on, I managed to obtain my first flyable airplane, a 1966 Cessna 150.

My first airplane!

The venerable 150 was the first airplane for many people and remains popular today. It is relatively inexpensive to own and operate and is a good airplane to learn on. To learn not just how to fly, but also how to own an airplane. There are many things about owning an airplane that they don't teach you when you learn to fly. It is best to learn on an airplane where everything costs less than larger airplanes. Airplanes are never cheap to own, but some are more affordable than others. This is where having an A&P license really comes in handy, it allows me to do the maintenance on my own airplane rather than paying someone to do it.

Even as I was flying the new airplane, I still had a desire for something to build. I figured that I would do better with a kit aircraft since it would include all of the parts needed and there would be clear instructions on what to do and how to do it. Enter Van's Aircraft. There is a popular kit manufacturer that is only about 200 miles away that makes a range of aircraft kits. That range has expanded since I was first introduced to them. Anyway, long story short, too late, I settled on the RV-7 and ordered the first of the kits.

Van's RV-7 kit.

I really enjoyed working on the RV-7 and learned a lot doing it. Unfortunately, it took me a very long time and after eight years or so of work, I had the tail and wings finished and was working on the fuselage.

Around this time Van's came out with the RV-12 E-LSA. My Dad was very interested in this model, not because we had any interest in LSAs, but because it was built almost entirely with pull rivets and looked to be a very easy and fun kit to build. So we bought one.

The RV-12 that we built.

I spent so much time helping with the RV-12 that I hadn't worked on my RV-7 in almost a year, so I sold the project. Fortunately, the guy I sold it to kept in touch and he did finish it and fly it.

Once the RV-12 was finished I sold the 150. I really enjoyed flying the RV-12 and it was a step up from the 150, but it was still small and slow. One of the nice things about it was that it had better visibility than anything I had flown before or since. We ended up selling the RV-12 and bought a flying RV-4.

RV-4

While I was flying the -4, which was an absolute blast, I was going to build an RV-8, which is really just an RV-4 on steroids. I figured that with the experience I gained flying the -4 I could build an -8 that would be just what I wanted. I now had enough experience to know that the RV-8 is what I really wanted.

While all of this was going on, my Dad was working on rebuilding a Glasair Sportsman that he managed to obtain and once it was flying we once again faced the dilemma of too many airplanes. I know, first world problem.

The rebuilt Sportsman.

The Sportsman was a really good airplane, but I noticed after flying it for a couple of years that it had one main drawback. It wasn't an RV. The RVs fly like sports cars, the Sportsman flies like a pick up truck, one before the advent of power steering and power brakes. It's not bad and it is just right for the mission it was designed for, but it wasn't what I was looking for.

In due time the opportunity presented itself to sell the Sportsman and buy a flying RV-8.

My current ride, the RV-8.

The RV-8 is an awesome airplane and I love flying it and have no regrets. It does most of what I want an airplane to do. It is a little harder to get in and out of than the 150 or the Sportsman and there will come a time, if I live long enough, that I will be of an age where getting in and out of it may be more than I can handle. High wing airplanes tend to be easier to get in and out of than low wing airplanes, particularly low wing airplanes with canopies.

In addition, there are places I would like to go that the RV-8 is not really the ideal candidate for. It is not really built as an off-road airplane, though some people do use it that way. There are a number of small grass or dirt strips, particularly in the mountains, that I would love to visit, but that the RV-8 is not well suited for. The Sportsman is designed for that kind of use and excels at it. At the time, having both the RV-8 and the Sportsman wasn't really an option, but it would be about the ideal fleet.

Enter the RV-15. Van's finally decided to get on the band wagon and design a high wing off road airplane that would fly like an RV. I have complied some information about the RV-15 here.

Van's new RV-15.

The RV-15 checked all of the boxes for us and my Dad was every bit as excited about it as I was.

High Wing

Back country capable

Pull rivets

Flies like an RV

Tons of room

Easy to build / easy to maintain

We were planning to build one as soon as the kits came out. To date, the wing and tail kits are out, but none of the rest are available yet. I even went so far as to order a wing kit when they first went on sale at Oshkosh 2025. That turned out to be a tad premature. I just got caught up in the hype of a new airplane.

After doing some back of the napkin calculations, it quickly became clear that the cost of the RV-15 was going to add up to more than either of us were comfortable spending. We canceled the order for the wing kit and sat back to watch how the whole thing unfolded.

That still left one issue to work out. I really like to fly airplanes and I really like to work on airplanes, but I don't want the airplane I fly to be the airplane I work on. That creates issues of its own, like the ones detailed starting here. I was still interested in a high wing airplane and the ability to land on other than paved runways. So what to fill the void?

I had heard of Rans aircraft and when the RV-15 first came out some people were comparing it to the S-21, which I was totally unfamiliar with.

Rans S-21 Outbound

The S-21 does pretty much all that the RV-15 does, it just doesn't do it as fast or while carrying as much stuff, but it comes pretty close. The best thing about it is that it costs significantly less to purchase and build and should also cost less to operate. The complete airframe kit which, as of 6/21/26, should be delivered within a week or two, is about half the cost of the RV-15 airframe kit. The engine will also cost significantly less and will use less fuel, thereby making it more affordable to operate.

One big difference is the kit itself. Van's wanted to make the RV-15 the most advanced, easiest and quickest to build kit they, or possibly anyone, has ever produced. That is one reason why it is so much more expensive. Many tasks that used to be the responsibility of the builder are now being done at the factory. Airplanes, like many other things, require large amounts of money and time and one can trade one for the other. Don't want to spend as much time, you'll have to spend more money. Don't want to, or are not able to, spend more money, you will have to spend more time.

Early Van's kits, like the RV-3, RV-4 and early RV-6 were somewhat difficult to build, at least by today's standards. While many parts came already formed, they still had to be drilled to each other, which required at least some level of jigging and holding.

Relatively simple RV jig.

After a couple of other projects, I decided to try my hand at the old school method and ordered an RV-4 tail kit. I think I did a good job of getting the Vertical Stabilizer frame built, I just couldn't master the art of getting the skin to fit so that it could be drilled to the frame.

The theory is that after you have the frame together, you put it into the jig to hold it steady and to make sure that it is square and all in the same plane before fitting the skin. Once the skin is on, you lay out a rivet pattern and drill through the skin and though the frame. Once that is done, you take everything apart, deburr and prime, then put it back together for final riveting.

The next evolution of kit technology was what they call matched hole manufacturing. In this process, the skins and substructures and pretty much everything else comes with the holes already punched. The holes that are there are slightly undersized to allow for any small amount of misalignment that will be taken care of during the drilling process.The builder has to simply cleco the structure together and drill the holes out to final size then take everything apart, deburr and prime, then put it back together for final riveting.

That is the level I was at with the RV-7 I was working on. It was easier than the old way, but still required a large amount of work and required some parts to be fabricated by the builder.

RV-7 wing frame on saw horses.

This method also removed the need for any jigs. The wings, for instance, can pretty much be built on a set of saw horses, just by getting it to where all of the holes line up. It is still easier though to have a stand to hold the wing vertical for riveting the skins on.

Wing stand to facilitate skin riveting.

Starting with the RV-12 and much more completely done in later kits, all of the skins and structures began to be punched to final size at the factory so that , theoretically, it was no longer needed to put a structure together and drill it just to take it apart again. The whole thing could be put together once and then final riveted. No fixtures or holders needed, just put it on a flat(ish) table.

The RV-15 takes that to the utmost with not only all holes final sized, but holes that need to be dimpled are already dimpled and even much of the difficult and critical riveting is already done at the factory.

The S-21 kit lies somewhere between the RV-4 and the RV-7. The skins are punched and one side of the ribs are punch, allowing the assembly to be clecoed together on one side. Once that is done, the whole structure is flipped over and then leveled and squared and then the skin is used as a drill guide to drill the ribs on the other side. Once that is done, you still get to take everything apart, deburr and prime, then put it back together for final riveting. It requires more work from the builder, so the cost is lower.

While the RV-15 kit will go together very quickly and easily, it won't present as interesting a challenge. The S-21 kind of offers the best of both worlds. There is enough to do and to figure out to be a challenge, but it is not so challenging as to cause one to lose interest in the project.

Stay tuned for many exciting tales from the building of the Rans S-21 Outbound.