Mark - you now just cut the market into another segment. Vans will never do a bush plane unless they have clear direction on what the market wants.
Thus far, all this poll thread has done is shown how little in common the VAF subscribers have when it comes to this type of aircraft.
If, together, this group can not settle on what they want and show Vans there are enough people that would buy it, they will not make the investment.
In a crowded market with lots of bush plane kit options, we better all settle on what you want Vans to do that is different, and what you would buy.
If I am sitting at Vans right now looking at this thread, I would be confused....
Well, I tend to disagree with you a little bit. For starters, this thread is just about having some fun and daydreaming about a few “possibilities” if Vans were to introduce a bush-plane kit. I don’t think they’re confused in the least and if anything they probably enjoy reading the wishlist of all of us daydreamers. But if they were to ever actually take any of this seriously I see no reason why they shouldn’t look at the bush-plane market just exactly as they do the sport-plane market.
Obviously, they saw a need/desire for a four place and several two place kits (both side-by-side and tandem) as evidenced by their current lineup and with the many differences in opinions/desires that we’ve seen here on this thread alone, I don’t think they’re confused in the least as to the fact that there’s many different wants/needs from many different people.
From a business point of view the hard part would be determining where the most profitable niche is...or at the very least where the best place to start is. I think all of our imaginations can go wild and fantasizing about the possibilities that are only limited by those imaginations, but I also think if you’re in the kit plane business you have to keep your finger on the pulse of what your potential customers want.
So with that said, I’ll go back to my original thoughts of “why not” a bush-plane lineup exactly like,....but just a mirror image “opposite” of the sport-plane lineup. Once again, I think the hard part would be to decide on which one should be the “first” one to be introduced, but after that only the sky...(or market) would be your limit.
I think these airplane kits are just like anything else that there’s a market for and as a business you must decide what demographics your going to go after and I think there’s a fine balancing act that you must pull off. It’s kind of like a house building contractor....do you want to build one or two multimillion dollar homes a year or do you want to build a bunch of middle class homes a year??
I think when your dealing with “regular guys” like the majority of us are that are interested in kit-planes, then you must not only offer kit(s) that are desired, you must also keep them in a price range that “regular guys” can afford. Would I love a four place SUV bush-plane?....sure I would....just exactly like I’d love an RV-10. However, at this point in my life and with everything else in life to take in account, my budge will only allow me to build a fixed pitch prop RV-7.
There’s a lot of guys that can afford an RV-10 with all of the bells and whistles and I’m really happy for them...and maybe at some point I’ll be able to join their ranks, but right now I’ll be VERY happy with my new RV-7. Once again, from a business/market point of view, I think there’s a lot more RV-7 out there flying around than there are RV-10’s, but obviously Vans saw a market for both.
I also think the exact same analogy holds true with these bush-planes that we’re talking about. Confusion?....no, I don’t think so. Diverse desires....yes!! Once again, from a business point of view, where should/would they start?? Who knows, maybe the market is over saturated with bush-planes and maybe there’s no room for another player...but on the other hand, with the reputation that Vans has, maybe this is just exactly what the bush-plane market has been waiting on. I guess this is call that only Vans can make. Until then, we can all just keep on dreaming and keeping our fingers crossed.
Oh, BTW, if Vans is reading any of this, if I can’t get my Vans tandem bush-plane I’ll be building a Rans S-7 next...after I’m finished with my Vans RV-7. So, you can see what demographics I fall into. LOL!! .....it’s all fun though!!
Mark ��