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Van's at Mojave Experimental Fly-in 4/21

Is anyone else from VAF planning on attending. I hope to be there with my RV-8 puddle-jumper.

BIG Puddle!! ;)

I’ll probably miss the event - I’m in Oshkosh until Friday and get back to Reno that night - and that’s after last week in Florida, so I think I’ll stay put for at least a few days.....
 
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I'll be there with about 15 other members of my flying club, and happy to meet with other builders if there's interest!
 
Mojave is lowering their gas prices $.50/gal to help support the event. I'll have the RV 7 out and also get to drag out Ares to support. Weather looks good!
 
Van's at Mohave Experimental Fly-In 4/21

Would really like to check it out however; like Axel I'll be at our formation clinic.
 
They have announced that Rian Johnson from Van's will be at Mojave for the fly-in this weekend. It's not clear if this will be an 'official' Van's presence.

Is anyone else from VAF planning on attending. I hope to be there with my RV-8 puddle-jumper.

Hey Mark, Some of us from the flying club are planning on camping at Kern Valley Saturday evening. You, or anyone else, are totally welcome to come! I am not sure if I will be able to make it myself just yet.
 
Photos!

Great day weather-wise to fly up to Mojave for the fly-in. Warm temps, not much wind, clear skies.
I took a bunch of photos here.
It was nice to meet up with everyone. I must have run into a dozen or more people from the VAF community.
 
Pictures

Great day weather-wise to fly up to Mojave for the fly-in. Warm temps, not much wind, clear skies.
I took a bunch of photos here.
It was nice to meet up with everyone. I must have run into a dozen or more people from the VAF community.

Bruce,
Thanks for the picture link.....great photos....Lots of very nice airplanes.
Was good to see Rutan's Ares jet trainer again. That Burt is a real thinker!
The long ez looked like he was sporting a V8 engine.
Yes, Ken's -7 with the faded checkerboard we awesome. Tons of work!!
The -6 with the NX number was spinning a neet prop too.
The F1 rocket with a 4 blade prop looked like it might be a turbine...nice!
And too many other cool things to mention.
Warm temps you mentioned....saw many oil doors open too...
Thanks for posting the pics.
 
Thanks for the pics Bruce! It was good to see you again. Nice to meet Rian from Vans too. Got to speak with him at length but they were tight-lipped as to the next big thing from Vans.... ;-)

-Marc
 
Thanks for the pics Bruce! It was good to see you again. Nice to meet Rian from Vans too. Got to speak with him at length but they were tight-lipped as to the next big thing from Vans.... ;-)

-Marc
I can spill the beans on that... Flight school Trainer version of the RV-12is. Not a big scoop, but that's all he would confirm.

Good to see you guys there, too!
 
I liked bruceh's photos but, I have to admit that his comments on the crappy upholstery in the Legacy kinda' torqued my jaw. I guess I'm just sensitive because my Lancair doesn't have upholstery either. I shopped around and the lowest estimate I could find was $6,000 for a basic job. So I'm sitting on a pad of foam and flying with the fuselage walls covered in indoor-outdoor carpet from Lowe's. I can't afford $30,000+ for a professional paint job, either, so I painted my plane basic white myself and it shows. I've made several mods here and there and those places are just primered. My instrument panel is basic VFR and won't win any awards, either. Funny thing, though, my plane doesn't seem to care that it's an ugly duckling; It has flown me across the U.S. and back twice now at (165 Kts and 6 GPH or less). I won't be taking her to any fly-in's though, because everyone judges an airplane by its paint job and upholstery. She's a working plane, not a show girl.

There, I feel better now :p
 
I liked bruceh's photos but, I have to admit that his comments on the crappy upholstery in the Legacy kinda' torqued my jaw. I guess I'm just sensitive because my Lancair doesn't have upholstery either. I shopped around and the lowest estimate I could find was $6,000 for a basic job. So I'm sitting on a pad of foam and flying with the fuselage walls covered in indoor-outdoor carpet from Lowe's. I can't afford $30,000+ for a professional paint job, either, so I painted my plane basic white myself and it shows. I've made several mods here and there and those places are just primered. My instrument panel is basic VFR and won't win any awards, either. Funny thing, though, my plane doesn't seem to care that it's an ugly duckling; It has flown me across the U.S. and back twice now at (165 Kts and 6 GPH or less). I won't be taking her to any fly-in's though, because everyone judges an airplane by its paint job and upholstery. She's a working plane, not a show girl.

There, I feel better now :p

Can I buy you lunch, next time my wife & I come through Asheville? :)

I bet that Bruce was just surprised by the hi-$ airframe without everything about it being hi_$; most we see really are that way. But there really is way too much focus these days on telling builders that if they don't buy the highest price tools, put them in a climate controlled shop, buy a brand new engine and spend more on their avionics than the rest of the plane combined, they should just forget about building. Sad, really....

Charlie
 
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Thanks!

Can I buy you lunch, next time my wife & I come through Asheville? :)
LOL! Thanks, Charlie. I'd love to meet you. I'm glad you understood that money is a concern for a lot of us builders out here. More power to the Legacy guy to fly his plane before it's "finished" (They never really are, I think.)
 
But there really is way too much focus these days on telling builders that if they don't buy the highest price tools, put them in a climate controlled shop, buy a brand new engine and spend more on their avionics than the rest of the plane combined, they should just forget about building. Sad, really....

Charlie

There should be a whole thread on this, from expensive and unnecessary tools to high dollar avionics in aircraft that'll mostly be day VFR. Add in professionally done this and that, and these airplanes become crazy expensive. We have some great vendors on VAF, but their business thrives on people over-buying for their intended mission, which is generally driven by peer pressure.
 
Hey, no ill will here to flying first and interior/paint later. I flew for over a year with pillow cases on my foam, and waited 3 years for paint. I get it. For those 3 years no one paid any attention at all to my RV. Put some purple paint on it, and suddenly everyone notices it. :)

$6000 for an interior! :eek:

Reminds me of the Lancair Evo I saw at the AOPA fly in at Chino. That plane's interior cost more than my whole little RV.

Duct tape is just a very poor choice for comfort. When I took the picture the main thought in my mind was "I wouldn't want to sit on that and fly for hours". Anyone with a sewing machine should be able to come up with something for their cushions for under $100.
 
There should be a whole thread on this, from expensive and unnecessary tools to high dollar avionics in aircraft that'll mostly be day VFR.

There's nothing wrong with prepping for an exit strategy. That IFR panel will sure make your RV move valuable to the next owner down the road.

-Marc
 
There's nothing wrong with prepping for an exit strategy. That IFR panel will sure make your RV move valuable to the next owner down the road.

-Marc

More valuable, yes. But unless you sell the airplane relatively soon after you buy that panel, the panel is likely to be last year's edition and will no longer command a price premium commensurate with what you invested. Look at the initial adopters of the G3X as an example. Two (?) years down the road, the G3X was still a great system, but it was superceded by the G3XT and Dynon's latest.

In today's world, avionics have a relatively short lifecycle because buyers want the latest, greatest.
 
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