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Arts Web Site
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Date: 10-22-2017
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Number of Hours: 0.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Van's factory visit and empennage order
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The shop is about ready, so it's time to head north to visit the Van's factory. I hopped a flight to Seattle after work on Thursday, 19 October and drove to Aurora early the next morning.
The factory is a lot quieter than I thought it would be. Our guide, one of the Van's tech support folks, explained that while they do build the E-LSA RV-12 for those who want a fully assembled airplane, most of the time it's a pretty quite shop. The machines that do the prepunching and cutting of the sheet metal aren't that loud either.
Lastly was the demo flight. I only got about 10 minutes of stick time but it was enough to get a good feel for the handling qualities. It's well balanced and reasonably responsive. The most impressive thing was the view. It's what I imagined the view would be from a F-16. It's certainly not the same as flying a C172. I can see where this will be probamatic on a hot sunny day, but that's what big floppy hats were made for, right?
I ordered the empennage kit with the optional AeroLED LN-210 Suntail position light. Shipping is not too expensive for a 220 lb, 9.5 ft long crate at around $140. The shipping company (probably FedEX I was told, but it varies) will contact me when it arrives to arrange a delivery time.
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Where the adventure begins!
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Here's one of the RV-14A empennage kits being packed (not mine)
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Horrible picture, but here's me in the Van's RV-14A demo plane.
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