Back in August during our family trip to the west coast, I took the opportunity to visit Van's. I've meant to do a writeup on the experience, but just never took the time. Well, I'm taking the time...

Location

Van's is located on the Aurora, Oregon airport. Aurora is about a half hour south of Portland. Van's facility is a relatively large series of buildings and hangars.

Initial Introductions

The entrance is small but attractive. I got the impression, Van's doesn't expect a lot of walk in traffic, but is set up to handle the traffic they get.

The person who gave me the tour gave me his name. But, well, I'm going deaf. I had to look up the name on their web site -- it was Gus.

Gus was very nice and exceptionally informative.

Packaging and Shipping

Van's facility appears to devote more space to storage and shipping of kits than the actual production. Parts were organized very carefully, suggesting the sort of care we'd like to see from an airplane manufacturer. Packaging actually seemed a little chaotic to me, but I'm sure that's an unfair impression. It's a complex task collecting that many parts together into one box for shipping. The warehouse area appeared to organize parts to optimize shipping.

Production

The production area was far more intersting to me. Part production is dominated by two large machines. The operator placed a sheet of aluminum on the bed of the machine. The entire bed moves, and various heads on the machine perform a variety of operations including drilling and cutting. This machine is why the kits are all pre-drilled for us these days. Gus indicated two more machines were on order.

Bending is performed by another operator at another machine. Ken didn't bring me very close to that machine -- we'd have had to cross the actual production area, which might have gotten us in the way of the people getting work done and would probably have given Van's insurance company a fit.

Gus indicated some production work is outsourced and specifically mentioned bending of ribs over the forms.

The Hangar

After that, we stepped out to the hangar. A couple of guys were working on the firewall-forward of a new RV-10. Spread around were all the demo planes -- RV-7, RV-8A, etc. Van's personal RV-4 was on the tarmac outside the hangar, parked right next to....

The RV-10 prototype. I think my comment was "Oooh...."

Gus let me climb in. I started in back, actually, as I didn't actually believe him when he said there was room for a full-sized adult back there.

Gus wasn't lying.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm 6-2 and weigh 250 pounds. Yeah, I need more exercise. I'm not a small guy. Getting in and out of the aircraft with the gull doors was a different experience, but getting in and out of any aircraft is always interesting.

Once I was in, the back seat was spacious! Two of me would fit back there easily. (I don't want to think about the center of gravity shifts that might cause, however.) Clearly there is plenty of room in back for a couple of adults.

The front seats were just as comfortable.

I want one.

Comparisons for the RV-10

Gus and I talked about the RV-10 for a fairly long time. I actually feel badly about taking up so much of his time, but I was having a nice time picking his brain!

As we were talking, a Cirrus flew past on climbout. We compared the RV-10 to the Cirrus.

Gus was actually quite kind. An IFR RV-10 is going to cost around $110k to build, depending of course on options. A new Cirrus is $250k. They provide similar cruise speed performance and appear to be suited to the same type of flying.

Gus pointed out that part of the price difference are the toys in that Cirrus. You get some NICE electronics in that package. Plus the ballistic chute. An RV-10 equipped with a radio stack to compete with the Cirrus is going to cost more than $110k.

But of course, Gus didn't sway me. I want an RV-10. Just have to finish this RV-6A I'm building, then come up with a lot of money.

Other Tips

Throughout our conversation, Gus had a number of tips for me. I told him from the beginning that my kit was currently in storage while I build the garage. He warned me about the blue plastic on all the parts. "You'll want to take that off. It's not meant for long term storage, and it can become pretty hard to get off after a while." Oops. He also said he doesn't want us to peel off just a section for riveting. Take it ALL off. It's there to protect the aluminum during production and shipping.

Paint

Van's personal RV-4 is polished aluminum, not paint. At some point, Ken mentioned keeping the planes light, that it's easy to make the plane heavy, which saps performance. I mentioned the unpainted RV-4.

Gus basically told me to go ahead and do whatever I wanted with paint. "We had someone come in with a fabulous paint job, and it only added 15 pounds over the unpainted aircraft."

Other Weight Savings

Still on the weight savings topic, I asked about fairings. "We didn't think they added enough performance to be worth the effort. Some guys put a lot of work -- and a lot of weight -- into nice wing root fairings, but our experience is that it just doesn't do much for performance." Save the weight, save the effort.

Final Comments

Gus gave a nice tour and was filled with good advice for me. Everyone I talked to at Van's was very friendly, and I truly enjoyed seeing how our kits are put together.

I want an RV-10! Did I mention that yet?

But mostly, I just want to finish this garage so I can get back to my -6A. The RV-10 would let me take my entire family, but the -6A is still going to be a beautiful plane to fly.