grjtucson
Well Known Member
As promised when I reviewed the SportAir RV Workshop in December I am now reviewing the Synergy Air 1-day Fundamentals of Building workshop. I will also post a review of the week-long Quick-Start Empennage Workshop. A read through my SportAir review will help you make sense of some of this one.
Eugene, Oregon is a bit off the beaten track, and in January it rained every day for most of the day, but there is no denying it is a beautiful place to visit. Wally Anderson's hangar is the location for all workshops and is typically buzzing with activity. Our Saturday, Wally was working with a client on his RV-8 so we had a "substitute" teacher, Ken Scott from Van's. Wally says he really likes to teach this beginner classes himself, so he popped in frequently.
In the last RVator Ken referred to Synergy as "RV College" and that certainly does fit. The facility is built with great benches so a bunch of teams can be working at once, there is plenty of air, the tools are first class, and the people there are all great. Wally Anderson has built a couple of Oshkosh award winners for himself and has helped heaven knows how many others build beautiful airplanes.
The day lasted about 7 hours and both the training project and the practice project were built in that time. Lunch was included and that time was also used for Q & A. Classroom time was minimal - Wally's Powerpoint presentation died with his laptop battery. Thus it was 95% hands-on vs. SportAirs much deeper classroom mix. There were 6 students to one or two instructors, plus Eric (Wally's right hand and son-in-law) chipped into help at times, so the ratio was fantastic. I was assigned to Peter as a partner since both he and I were doing the class as prerequisite to the Quick-Start Empennage Workshop the following week. Both of us had a bit more experience, and due to a shortage of kits, ended up building the "old" Van's practice kit which is a bit more challenging. Everyone received all the attention and education they wanted or needed.
Ken seemed to be something of an "it's just an airplane, don't overcomplicate it" kind of guy, and began by comparing an RV to a tractor. While Wally is like that to a degree, as a jeweler/former jeweler he's probably a bit more fastidious, so occasionally we were exposed to a couple of opinions on technique. For the most part, we didn't get anything too unique, though we were taught to skip drilling and deburring on 3/32" holes and go straight to dimple. A controversial technique at the moment, though we had lots of discussion on it. Tests are being done, research is to be published, stay tuned for more. For my part, I am not afraid of it but like most issues that are not black & white, it leads to plenty of spirited debate. In fact, that very debate is going on right now on these forums.
The idea of using this workshop to try a lot of different tools, though, is a bit misleading. 3X rivet guns, Cleaveland Main Squeezes, and an Experimental Aero DRDT-2 dimpler are what you use at Synergy, and as much as possible you back rivet using a c-frame. There are no pneumatic hand squeezers. The next week we got to try a couple of different Sioux air drills, but in the class they were all pretty generic, though plenty effective. Bottom line is that you'll get lots of opinion, with the reasoning behind it, for your choices, but not a lot of opportunity to see for yourself.
There was minimal exposure to edge prep, and none to fabrication or priming, but that is more a function of the practice projects. Expect an occasional "you're not building a space ship" comments from Ken who clearly believes that there is such as thing as over-obsessing about prep and that most builders, in his opinion, do. He is a rattle can priming guy, Wally uses Van's SW wash primer. "Stay off the damned Internet" was heard more than once from nearly everyone there. Further discussion about that made it clear that they believe there is plenty of value there, but so many opinions that you'll never know what to do unless you make some choices, pick some posters that think the way you do, and get to the workshop. Hard to argue with that.
For $150 it is an absolute bargain and completely worth it. Keep in mind you'll get $50 off your next Van's order. Having been to the SportAir workshop, this was clearly redundant and unnecessary for me, but it was prerequisite to the Quick-Start week that followed, and I did get a chance to practice and learn more. I have no reservations about recommending the class wholeheartedly, you will be glad you went.
George
Eugene, Oregon is a bit off the beaten track, and in January it rained every day for most of the day, but there is no denying it is a beautiful place to visit. Wally Anderson's hangar is the location for all workshops and is typically buzzing with activity. Our Saturday, Wally was working with a client on his RV-8 so we had a "substitute" teacher, Ken Scott from Van's. Wally says he really likes to teach this beginner classes himself, so he popped in frequently.
In the last RVator Ken referred to Synergy as "RV College" and that certainly does fit. The facility is built with great benches so a bunch of teams can be working at once, there is plenty of air, the tools are first class, and the people there are all great. Wally Anderson has built a couple of Oshkosh award winners for himself and has helped heaven knows how many others build beautiful airplanes.
The day lasted about 7 hours and both the training project and the practice project were built in that time. Lunch was included and that time was also used for Q & A. Classroom time was minimal - Wally's Powerpoint presentation died with his laptop battery. Thus it was 95% hands-on vs. SportAirs much deeper classroom mix. There were 6 students to one or two instructors, plus Eric (Wally's right hand and son-in-law) chipped into help at times, so the ratio was fantastic. I was assigned to Peter as a partner since both he and I were doing the class as prerequisite to the Quick-Start Empennage Workshop the following week. Both of us had a bit more experience, and due to a shortage of kits, ended up building the "old" Van's practice kit which is a bit more challenging. Everyone received all the attention and education they wanted or needed.
Ken seemed to be something of an "it's just an airplane, don't overcomplicate it" kind of guy, and began by comparing an RV to a tractor. While Wally is like that to a degree, as a jeweler/former jeweler he's probably a bit more fastidious, so occasionally we were exposed to a couple of opinions on technique. For the most part, we didn't get anything too unique, though we were taught to skip drilling and deburring on 3/32" holes and go straight to dimple. A controversial technique at the moment, though we had lots of discussion on it. Tests are being done, research is to be published, stay tuned for more. For my part, I am not afraid of it but like most issues that are not black & white, it leads to plenty of spirited debate. In fact, that very debate is going on right now on these forums.
The idea of using this workshop to try a lot of different tools, though, is a bit misleading. 3X rivet guns, Cleaveland Main Squeezes, and an Experimental Aero DRDT-2 dimpler are what you use at Synergy, and as much as possible you back rivet using a c-frame. There are no pneumatic hand squeezers. The next week we got to try a couple of different Sioux air drills, but in the class they were all pretty generic, though plenty effective. Bottom line is that you'll get lots of opinion, with the reasoning behind it, for your choices, but not a lot of opportunity to see for yourself.
There was minimal exposure to edge prep, and none to fabrication or priming, but that is more a function of the practice projects. Expect an occasional "you're not building a space ship" comments from Ken who clearly believes that there is such as thing as over-obsessing about prep and that most builders, in his opinion, do. He is a rattle can priming guy, Wally uses Van's SW wash primer. "Stay off the damned Internet" was heard more than once from nearly everyone there. Further discussion about that made it clear that they believe there is plenty of value there, but so many opinions that you'll never know what to do unless you make some choices, pick some posters that think the way you do, and get to the workshop. Hard to argue with that.
For $150 it is an absolute bargain and completely worth it. Keep in mind you'll get $50 off your next Van's order. Having been to the SportAir workshop, this was clearly redundant and unnecessary for me, but it was prerequisite to the Quick-Start week that followed, and I did get a chance to practice and learn more. I have no reservations about recommending the class wholeheartedly, you will be glad you went.
George
