Hi All,
I had a rather intersting day today! I ended up in Duluth in some meetings at Cirrus Design (no nothing worth rumoring about so please don't ask....we can't tell and neither can Tim) with some colorful characters. Perhaps the most interesting was the fact that my chariot was none other than Tim Olson's RV-10 (with Tim flying of course). The whole experience had some rather funny points worth mentioning....
First, all the controllers thought the plane was an Cirrus (from the time we left MSP)...probably because his N Number ends in "CD" - which is what Cirrus uses for a lot/most of their planes. I know they noticed but didn't say much.
Second, we didn't exactly know where to park in front of the Cirrus factory, so we just pulled up and parked at the end of a row of new planes. Turns out this is the "new plane delivery" section...with all the finished planes. Tims plane was on the end of the row for everyone to see. Lots of people noticed (a few mentioned the "homebuilt" parked there), but overall there were lots of good questions from the Cirrus executives.
Third, we were in a conference room most of the day with Cirrus folks, including Dale Klapmier - the conference room incidentally overlooked the parked/finished planes. Dale K asked quite a lot about the RV-10, and was quite surprised that we flew up there at 170kts true, loaded up the RV-10 with fat people/parts and LOTS of heat with really low fuel burns.
This worthless post really doesn't have much of a point other than to underscore just what a phenomenal machine the RV10 is. We had Tims plane loaded up with people, parts, etc.. The temperature was about 11 degrees F when we left his morning and we could have easily flown in t-shirts. We had to turn the heat down actually. The Lycoming purred perfectly, although one of our other esteemed passengers (who also has an RV-10 with an Aerocomposite 3 blade) commented that his prop was noticeably smoother. I didn't notice because I thought is was plenty smooth anyway.
We got to spend some really valuable time in the factory examining various things and learned a lot. Mostly we learned that for half the price you can get a plane that is almost equally as good. Their interiors and panels are unbelievable (as is the paint/finish)...it's where a good share of the cost adds up.
Anyway, if you're still building use this as a dumb motivational story. The RV-10 is an awesome plane. All the people in Tim's plane today were over 6' tall, and nobody had any tightness in the cockpit at all! The autopilot worked flawlessly, and having those Cheltons up front was REALLY nice!
Have a great week,
Stein
I had a rather intersting day today! I ended up in Duluth in some meetings at Cirrus Design (no nothing worth rumoring about so please don't ask....we can't tell and neither can Tim) with some colorful characters. Perhaps the most interesting was the fact that my chariot was none other than Tim Olson's RV-10 (with Tim flying of course). The whole experience had some rather funny points worth mentioning....
First, all the controllers thought the plane was an Cirrus (from the time we left MSP)...probably because his N Number ends in "CD" - which is what Cirrus uses for a lot/most of their planes. I know they noticed but didn't say much.
Second, we didn't exactly know where to park in front of the Cirrus factory, so we just pulled up and parked at the end of a row of new planes. Turns out this is the "new plane delivery" section...with all the finished planes. Tims plane was on the end of the row for everyone to see. Lots of people noticed (a few mentioned the "homebuilt" parked there), but overall there were lots of good questions from the Cirrus executives.
Third, we were in a conference room most of the day with Cirrus folks, including Dale Klapmier - the conference room incidentally overlooked the parked/finished planes. Dale K asked quite a lot about the RV-10, and was quite surprised that we flew up there at 170kts true, loaded up the RV-10 with fat people/parts and LOTS of heat with really low fuel burns.
This worthless post really doesn't have much of a point other than to underscore just what a phenomenal machine the RV10 is. We had Tims plane loaded up with people, parts, etc.. The temperature was about 11 degrees F when we left his morning and we could have easily flown in t-shirts. We had to turn the heat down actually. The Lycoming purred perfectly, although one of our other esteemed passengers (who also has an RV-10 with an Aerocomposite 3 blade) commented that his prop was noticeably smoother. I didn't notice because I thought is was plenty smooth anyway.
We got to spend some really valuable time in the factory examining various things and learned a lot. Mostly we learned that for half the price you can get a plane that is almost equally as good. Their interiors and panels are unbelievable (as is the paint/finish)...it's where a good share of the cost adds up.
Anyway, if you're still building use this as a dumb motivational story. The RV-10 is an awesome plane. All the people in Tim's plane today were over 6' tall, and nobody had any tightness in the cockpit at all! The autopilot worked flawlessly, and having those Cheltons up front was REALLY nice!
Have a great week,
Stein
