It’s not often you see a zebra in Texas. It’s even more rare to see one flying — unless you live near Cleveland, Texas.
That’s where Larry Elliott and his Van’s RV-7 is based at Cleveland Municipal Airport (6R3).
Building your own airplane is a challenge in itself, but the long-time pilot took a little longer as he also built a hangar and bought an airport to develop during the same time.
Elliot’s immersion in aviation began in 1969 when, after finishing college, he joined the Air Force.
The day he earned his wings was a harbinger of a great life in aviation.
“The day I graduated from pilot training in 1970 at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, it was also my birthday, the Air Force acrobatic team, the Thunderbirds, performed that day at the air base, and there was a total eclipse of the sun — all in the same day! That was a great way to start my flying career,” Larry says.
After flying USAF transport planes for a couple of years, including the C141 Starlifter, he went on to a career at the airlines. After more than 30 years he retired in 2006 from Southwest Airlines.
“As I approached retirement, I began wondering what I would do to keep busy,” he recalls. “I loved flying and hated the thought of not being able to fly any longer. I knew a number of Southwest pilots who had their own airplanes so, though I was never interested in buying an airplane, I have always liked to build things, so the thought of building an airplane began to emerge in my mind,” he says.
After an exhaustive study of all the kit options, as well as talking with his wife about which model to choose, Larry made his decision.
“I settled on a Van’s Aircraft because I wanted a fast airplane and one that had a long history of success,” he explains. “The company was started in 1973 and, as of today, more than 11,000 RVs have been built.”
Larry choose the RV-7, which has two seats, side by side. He chose to build it as a tailwheel, but it can also be built with a nosewheel, he notes.
“Van’s says that most builders take 3,000 to 4,000 hours to build their airplanes. I was not among that group, as it took me about 6,000 hours to finish my airplane,” he says. “I did most of it myself, other than connecting much of the instrumentation to ensure that it all worked correctly.”
He started the build right after he retired in 2006, completing the wings — the second kit in the process — and the fuselage, the third kit. He also did most of the work on the instrument panel and engine, which is part of the “finishing kit.”
But soon after he started his build — as is common with so many homebuilders — life got in the way.
“I bought an empty lot on a grass airstrip and built a hangar and apartment so I would have a place to keep the airplane when finished,” he says. “Again, I did most of the work myself, so it took about a year and a half to finish. I worked a little on the airplane in my garage at that time, but made very little progress.”
“I knew very little about building an airplane, so I always worked slowly, and worked by myself, which added to the slow pace,” he continues. “After four or five more years when I was getting close to finishing, I bought an airport to develop, which brought the airplane project to a complete stop.”
Larry and a friend bought Ainsworth Field in Cleveland and changed the name to CAVOK Airpark (06TE), based on the aviation acronym for “ceiling and visibility OK.”
“Unfortunately, a year and a half into the project, my partner, who was a builder and pilot, crashed in his airplane and died. That essentially destroyed the airport development project, and I eventually sold the airport,” Larry reports.
Finally in 2020, Larry’s friend, Johnny Whitson, who owns an FAA approved repair station at the airport in Cleveland, Texas, encouraged him to bring his project to 6R3 to finish the the plane.
Thinking it would be ready in six months, Larry laughs when he says it took more than two more years to finish the airplane.
It was finally inspected by the FAA in October 2022.
“It flew for the first time that same month —16 years after it was started!”
Although Larry had accomplished the most difficult part of the process, there was still one thing left: Choosing an attractive, eye-catching paint scheme.
“I wanted a unique paint scheme, so I experimented with many ideas on my computer,” he says. “I saw a picture of an RV with a paint job resembling one of those white cows with black spots. That gave me the idea of painting it with zebra stripes.”
“I have a grandson who was about eight when I started the airplane — now he is about to get married — and he was big into animals, and with his encouragement, I drew various pictures on my computer and came up with the unique zebra stripe paint scheme.”
He explains the stripes are only on the fuselage and gear legs.
“I painted the fuselage all white and the stripes are actually vinyl that I cut out and placed onto the fuselage after studying the stripes on real zebras so that I would be accurate,” he says. “Notice that the stripes on the fuselage are vertical to the ground, but the strips on the gear legs are parallel to the ground — just like on the real animal.”
The result is simply brilliant.
Larry is a frequent visitor to fly-ins around the Houston area, where he captures a lot of attention from other pilots and airplane owners.
And, of course, he especially catches the attention of children and young people, which leads him to introducing the next generation to aviation.
One of those youngsters is Halison Pena, 15, who had never flown in an airplane before meeting Larry.
“It was my first flight and I was lucky that Larry explained to me throughout the flight each of the procedures he performed — from the pre-flight to how communications are made in flight,” she says. “The sensation of flying was great! Upon landing, he told me about the possibility of joining the Young Eagles program and about EAA Chapter 1698 at the Cleveland airport. I definitely want to be a pilot someday.”
After all this effort, is Larry satisfied?
“I get lots of interesting comments about the paint scheme, such as cool, unusual, and looks great, but recently a guy walked by my airplane, admired it and said to me ‘are you going on a safari?’ Very clever of him! I think I achieved my goal of having a unique paint scheme,” he concludes with a big smile on his face.
