Jazz can be defined loosely as improvisational music based on playing variations on a theme or musical phrase. So what is RV Jazz? Well, a loose defininition might be improvised variations on a common airplane part or system. This jazz is the heart and soul of homebuilding. It's what distinguishes my RV-9A from yours; it defines our freedom to innovate and to be "experimental" and it seperates us from the certified spam cans. It is simultaneously our strength and our weakness. Not unlike genetic variation, the same forces of nature that Charles Darwin recognized working on genetic expression, are also at work here seperating out and selecting the "fittest" RV Jazz variations.

A couple of things cought my eye at Oshkosh this year (2003). Lighting, cowl pins, and oil access doors were details that seem subject to a lot of variations on a there. Here's what I saw and some of my more printable thoughts, comments and opinions.

Lights

Cowl pins

Oil access doors