Chirp, Chirp...
I spent a fair amount of time talking with Ken Kreuger at Van's since he has been so heavily involved from the start. My concern was that they were still on the path to certify as an SLSA because I want to do ELSA and not go thru the hoops of the new 20% fab etc. He said they were absolutely committed to SLSA and as others have said, paperwork is holding things up....operating handbook etc. He said all the airplane testing has gone great and one of the reasons they plan to go SLSA is because it gives them so many options...including in-house production of fly-aways. I asked if the 296/496 was chisled in stone. He said, "no, you will have the option to use a 296, 396 or 496." He also said that the auto pilot would be optional but that if you did want one it would have to be a Dynon. And there will be more options announced as time goes on. In talking with Van I mentioned something about the 738 empty weight being such a selling point for me....he said "it's 720." When I inquired why...he said they work on the reducing it all the time. He loves the airplane, even showed me the best way to get in and out...told me to get in so he could put the top down and see how it fit me. I asked him about the auto-pilot and he scoffed and said, "I don't understand why anyone would want an autopilot in a plane like this."
I undertand his point but as Ken said, once you have Dynon efis all you need to buy are one or two servos...pretty cheap autopilot. Ken did say that one of things that really slows them up is their desire to put together the detailed plans that they do. After having built the wings I can attest to the value that they represent and I am certainly willing to wait.
Also if you will notice...the FAA has recently announced that they have decided to put teams together to collect ASTM info from current SLSA's so that they can go back and determine their compliance. Something tells me Van's will come out better than most.
Pete