September - October - The Recreational Aircraft Association

Sixty
Evo
Hours
I have just passed the sixty flight
hour mark with my new aircraft
and it has met all of my expecta-
tions. This plane is a F1 Rocket
with the addition of the EVO
tapered wing. It is the first EVO
wing to fly in Canada and the third
in the world. There are currently
six flying at this time.
by Tom Martin
My background is agriculture and I am currently
farming a 450 acre cash crop farm in southern Ontario.
This leaves my winters open and in December of 1993 I
started a RV4 project. It’s first flight was in May of 1995
and I flew all over the place with that delightful aircraft.
After a year, the building itch settled in, and there were a
few things that I felt the RV4 needed. More cabin room,
more passenger and baggage capability, and of course
more power. This was the time when the RV8 was introduced,
but there were none yet flying. My friend Gord
Baxter pushed me to build a Harmon Rocket. I had never
heard of this California based plane but after reading a
couple of articles it certainly seemed to satisfy all of the
things that I found lacking in my RV4. There were 11
Harmon Rockets flying at that time and no RV8s. I took
a chance and went with the Rocket and started building
late in ’96. It first flew in the spring of 1998. My Rocket
was the first one that I had actually seen. There were no
websites or email lists and it was a bit of a challenge to
build but that just added to the fun. I won a workmanship
award at AirVenture 99 with that aircraft. I flew it
for a year and the building itch struck again and I started
another Harmon. It’s first flight was in 2001, and two
months later I was building again; this time two F1 Rockets.
One for myself and I was assisting another builder
with his F1 at the same time. After that I assisted another
F1 builder finish his plane. It flew in the spring of 2005.
With six planes under my belt I was looking for something
a little different.
The F1 is marketed by Team Rocket, Taylor Texas.
While it looks very similar to a Harmon Rocket all of the
parts are completely different with the whole aircraft
being engineered for the increased speeds and loads.
There are numerous parts that have been strengthened
in different areas of the aircraft. With few exceptions the
plane is only offered as a quick build. Two years ago
September - October 2006 Recreational Flyer 7