Synergy Air South or EAA Sport Air Workshop

Hello everyone. I’m somewhat new here but I’ve been doing a lot of reading. I recently bought a 7 tail kit and I’d like to get started as soon as I can but step one is for me to take a fundamentals course.

I have been considering the Synergy Air South class for quite some time (1 day course for $225). I’ve heard many great things about Synergy but recently the EAA offered up their 2 day course for $319. Both courses are located south of Atlanta.

I am hoping that in the infinite wisdom of this forum someone could share some insight about pros or cons of each to help me make a decision on which course I should attend.

Thank you,

Brian

Synergy

You will see more rv s under construction at Synergy East than at the EAA class. It?s impressive to have a dozen projects in one hangar in various stages.
However, if you come to Spruce east for the course, you will be at the home of the Falcon RV Squadron where we have about 120 enthusiasts with close to fifty RVs on the field and witness formations and flying with perhaps a chance to jump in a pit.Tuesdays we have a weekly gathering at Mellow Mushroom pizza at 11:30

So, do both!

Hope to see you

Vern

I took the EAA Sport Air workshop first, and then took the 1 day Synergy Air (Oregon) workshop as required just before taking their 8 day RV-10 Empennage class. Both of these introductory classes are similar, but with the EAA class each student worked on their own demo kit, while at Synergy Air we shared a demo kit between each 2 students.

My opinion is that if you are going to take the Synergy Air Empennage class (which I highly recommend), then just take their one day intro class the Saturday before you start the Empennage class. But if your intent is to only take one of the intro classes and then dive into building your tail kit, I would recommend you take the EAA class as you will get a bit more hands-on practice in the 2 day class working on your own practice kit.

If you are not going to take the Synergy Air Empennage class, I strongly recommend you find an experienced builder to work with you and/or provide frequent reviews of your early work. Check with your local EAA Chapter for a Tech Advisor as a good resource.

By taking the Synergy Air Empennage class, I benefited from working with a very experienced A&P builder who made sure I did things right, knew the difference between good technique/results and not-so-good, got the opportunity to work with several different A&Ps to learn a variety of approaches to the work and techniques, and left the class with a nearly complete empennage. (The RV-10 class takes longer due to the larger sizes and also due to the inclusion of the tail cone in the empennage kit.) Having completed the Synergy Air class, I was very confident moving forward with building my kit! (At least until I got to all the fiberglass work included on the RV-10.)

Note: I have no connection or interest in Synergy Air. I'm just a very satisfied customer.

Best of luck with your new project.

SYNERGY vs EAA

I did both. Though the EAA class was informative, most of the information was directly from the EAA manual. Granted, everyone got their own airfoil to work on, but the working conditions were far from ideal and there was only 1 instructor for 15+ students. Also, the quality of tools and workmanship was night and day. At EAA, the compressor was constantly losing pressure, leading to poor rivet quality not to mention having to wait in line for the C- frame dimpler.

On the other hand, the student to instructor ratio was much better, really one on one and all the tools and equipment were professional quality with no degradation in pressure, plus you use a DDRT2. Lastly, Allan and William are great instructors. They furnish you with the ? best practices? to help, you produce show quality work.

As a first time builder- I was so impressed, that after having attended the Synergy class , that I built my tail feathers and tail cone at their place.

They teach on Saturday, but reset the table and are building RV?s on Monday morning.

My opinion, read the EAA book, then go to the Synergy class so you know what they are talking about......1 day is plenty to build the airfoil, and you aren?t running around trying to make up for inferior hose pressures and equipment.
Jt

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who responded! I knew I could count on everyone here to give me a better idea of what I am looking for. I wish I could afford the week long empanage class that Synergy offers, but unfortunately that is not in the budget at the moment.

Vern, I?d love to see the squadron. Perhaps in a few years with a bit of luck I can fly down and visit in a finished 7.

Brian