http://youtu.be/Wr4KRnqn79E

That's me in my RV4 - practicing for this years - 2012 - sportsman. I was planning on doing it at the rocky mountain house contest in Sept. I'm in a trade deal however on a unlimited acro machine - that has fully inverted systems. so I may be flying that instead. Only cavote I have to fly mine out 3000miles to Quebec. from the west coast.

I would agree with some of the comments of course. My Rv4 - is very capable of doing up to the sportsman catagory - which is a ton of fun - and the price of these are reasonable - usually 40 - 50 K can get you into a nice RV4. I have also flown the RV7's - they are much heavier and not as good at performing aerobatics as the RV4 is. The RV4 is the basis that was used to develop the F1 rocket and the Harmon Rocket. I would lean towards the F1 over the harmon - but of course it's the quality of the build that matters and the equipment on board etc... watch my video I think it demonstrates the capablity of the RV4. It's restricted to +6 and - 3 G - I have never gone beyond 4.5 - sustained anyways. Most loops I do about 3 - 3.2 G. I don't do a lot of Neg. g as mine is a non inverted bird. I would need to get a ellison throttle body or fuel injection and a inverted oil system installed. But it's not really worth it because it's not a competitor in the intermediate catagory - main problem I have is the smaller rudder - you don't have the rudder authority you need to do - snap rolls for example - also that wing is designed to FLY not stall - so it's hard to do good spins - you have to hold it in the spin and force it into one. snap rolls not so pretty - at least with my plane. If I had maybe more throw - or a larger surface area perhaps. it's a fun plane for the price and can do lots - similar to the RV8 but slightly smaller . Great plane for the money. Also most of the true aerobatic planes in this price range - would be cloth - or wood - metal - cloth combination - here you would need a hanger - due to winter - snow etc... rain etc... and heat from the sun etc... just not good for them - I considered a pitts but I have a paved spot but no hanger space - it's very expensive here for hanger space if any were avialble. so that's why I got the RV4 I needed an all metal plane. What you need to do - is follow your heart - is aerobatics something that you are going to live and die by? that's the reason I'm trading mine in on another Acro machine - because this is what I live to do. But if you only want to do some rolls and the odd loop - or cuban 8 once and a while - and perfer to go off to the fly ins etc... and use it for X - country etc... then the RV's may be what you need. Glass air's also fast and can do basic aerobatics - but land fast.

Hope you find what you are looking for.