So Airventure just passed and the annual pilgrimage to Osh Kosh has ended. They reported over 13,000 aircraft operations over the course of the event, averaging about 1,200 or so a day. That is truly impressive!
On the building front, life has been getting in the way and keeping me busy from building. Between working 6 days a week and the kids keeping me busy, I haven't had any time to build. I am hoping to get some time next week on my vacation or at the latest begin next month when school resumes and I get some free time again.
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| Visited the famous Fisk Approach |
On the Airventure front, Anthony and I went out once again and spent a few days there. I went out a day earlier this year deliberately to attend the RV-10 Dinner at SOS Brothers. Thanks to Martin for arranging a fun event and opportunity to meet a bunch of other builders. I ran into the usual "Social Media" folks like Christine and Tye (Plane Lady), Gil (Build Fly Go), Austin and Amanda (Austin Manke), and a bunch of other builders. Many builders who were active in the VAF and Facebook group were also present and I enjoyed chatting with them and picking their brains. It was nice to meet guys who were finished building and flying, some approaching that point, and some who were just starting out as well. It was a really good mix of folks and productive conversation.
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| Ran into some friends from home. |
I took a few different seminars, some about building, and some about flying as well. I took the RV oriented Fiberglass Seminar and then took the Fiberglass 101 workshop and built a small little project to demonstrate basic skills. Fiberglass seems to be a little tricky to get started and I am going to have to take the full version of that class prior to diving deeper into bigger parts and such. The RV-10 is a bit heavier on fiberglass then other RV kits due to the cabin top and canopy. but everyone says it isn't too bad once you learn the basics. I will definitely be taking the RV Sport Air Fiberglass Workshop when that time nears and putting off my tips and such until later.
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| Fiberglass 101 Project |
I took some good seminars on flying stuff which is important as I feel staying proficient and current as a pilot is truly important. This included some foreflight seminars, avionics seminars, and some general IFR flying stuff. I really enjoy the humorous side of Gary Reeves presentations and the other presenters were good as well.
I also spent a good amount of time browsing the trade show and various vendors who were on display. I've made the decision that I want to try and preplan a lot of what I may need later to make things easier for access purposes. I see stories of builders climbing into the deep tail cone to put together things later and that sounds terrible, so why not do whatever I can earlier if possible. Things like servo mounts, antennas, etc. can be done early and allow easier final assembly later. To go along with that I wanted to start narrowing down things and had some productive conversations about that.
I spoke with Autumn from Evoke Aviation. Evoke is the premier paint and scheme designer when it comes to RV planes. Their planes have regularly won awards at Airventure and they have amazing attention to detail. The big part is they spend a good amount of time cleaning up the fiberglass work and making sure all of them are spot on to ensure a beautiful finished product. Their process has proven time and time again they know what they are doing and I am planning to use them when the time comes. In 2022, I was able to see Kristin and Tom's beautiful RV-10 on display, and this year their was another beautiful RV-10 on display once again. I spent some time talking to Autumn as she was the only one around that afternoon, and learned a bit about the scheme design stuff. Autumn is one of the designers and spent some time talking to me. I explained how I'd like to do a unique logo of sorts to personalize the plane. I discussed my idea for the concept about it and she really liked the idea. So when the time comes, I look forward to working with them on this. And then it will be a nice cross country to Alabama when I am ready to actually paint it.
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| Kristin and Tom's beautiful RV-10 |
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| Evokes 2024 RV-10 on display |
I spent a few minutes talking with Paul with FlyLED, who makes amazing lighting products for the RV line. Everything is reasonably priced and high quality versus much of the certified and alternative offerings. Being a experimental, I can take advantage of this type of stuff and avoid the craziness of certified alternatives. I am planning to go with his Original kit for the wing tips, two seven star lights for the leading edges, and the rudder light for the tail light. It will be an awesome package, I just need to decide if I want to do a "beacon" which is very inexpensive if I chose to do so. I am a bit of a safety and visibility nut so I am leaning towards it, but still not 100%.
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| FlyLED Essentials Lights |
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| FlyLED Seven Star (Right- Landing, Left - Taxi) |
I visited some avionics companies and also some panel builders to get an idea for what I like. I went out to Airventure with a serious interest into Advanced Flight Systems because of their airframe harness kits and the plug and play setup of their Advanced Control Module. After playing with their system, I liked the graphics pixel quality but the actual interface graphics are extremely "cheap" feeling and the interface seems a bit clunky to me. Now I know I am probably a bit bias because I use all Garmin in the planes I currently fly, but their interface and graphics are just leaps and bounds better. I spoke to an Advanced rep and was overall unimpressed with the conversation, in fact it was one of the owners and he seemed uninterested in discussing with me my project and answering my questions which put me off a lot. I also checked out the Avidyne booth to play with their IFR navigators and although they are nice, the interface is totally different. It doesn't seem to bad to learn but having a big change in workflow could be a detriment when wanting to become proficient later. Another thing I noticed, was the Advanced Flight doesn't offer any in person or training coursework for their products, just the manual. So you basically are on your own to learn the software and finding a CFI or someone else familiar may be difficult. This is another concern I have with going the Advanced Flight route.
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| Advanced Flight 6600 Display |
On the retrospect, I visited the Garmin booth and attended some of their seminars on panel planning and equipment. I was overall impressed with the equipment and the interface and graphics are simple to understand. I played with their demo setups, asked some questions, and was given full attention and answers from their rep. It was a relief to have someones full attention who enjoyed chatting with me and talking about my build. With that, I went into main hangars and talked to both Stein Air and Aerotronics about panel building. If I went with Garmin, I think I'd definetely have someone do the main panel build because the Garmin equipment has a large amount of intricate wiring and "leads" that need to be put properly in place for everything to work together. Both builders offer this service and they both work with multiple vendors for other equipment as well. This would allow me to order everything from panel, avionics, oxygen, switches, co detector, antennae, and more from one vendor. Doing it this way would allow me to work with one person at either company and basically have a direct contact to "build out" my panel and system as I go. The major difference I found was that the SteinAir way is to build the panel and the builder brings the wiring to the panel leads as needed. Whereas the Aerotronics way is to build everything to a few CPC connectors which the builder brings the majority of wiring to the CPC connectors instead of the actual panel. This allows Aerotronics a bit more flexibility and easier troubleshooting if their are issues.
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| Garmin G3X Touch Display |
I was overall impressed with both reps from the panel builders and they were a pleasure to chat with. Both provided good insight into the Garmin G3X system, into their companies way of doing things, and they all were supportive of my goal to install things as they are accessible along the way. The one consensus which I agreed with was waiting for the big avionics as long as possible so that if anything new came out, I'd be able to get that and have the most up to date tech. After my discussion, unless something drastic happens along the way, I think I am now leaning towards a Garmin setup eventually. I still got some time to mull it over and decide.
I visited the Van's booth during the show and they had updated their display RV-10. They have partnered with a few of the popular accessory companies and installed many things into the updated plane. This included things like an Aerosport Products interior, Crow harnesses, Control Approach rudder pedals, a Garmin system, and an Evoke paint scheme. Its really sharp looking and they did a nice job with it. I've been watching all of these companies and things they put out and there products do look good. I am really interested in the Control Approach rudder pedals, but I have to see when I get further along what I want to do.
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| Van's Stock Rudder Pedals |
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| Control Approach Rudder Pedals |
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| Updated Vans Show Plane |
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