Eyland Aviation RV-10 Build

Spider related delays are a common thread in a lot of my projects, and we have our first related to this one.  I wouldn't say I'm in hurry up and wait mode since I need the four month wait for my empennage kit to get things ready for the build, as well as save the money to pay for tools and the balance of the kit.  That being said, the one thing I can build right now is the work tables for my garage that I mentioned earlier. As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been using spare lumber I had sitting around for the table since 2x4 prices are somewhere north of stupid right now due to the pandemic.  My largest source of spare 2x4s that will work for this is a wooden platform I had used for a flight simulator project that I'm not tearing down.  Well last weekend I upended the platform to begin disassembling it and was met with spiders and a half dozen or so egg sacks. Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope.    I can do snakes.  I can do angry dogs.  I can do conflict oriented mi

 I've spent the past few days getting my shop (garage) cleaned up and organized in anticipation of the eventual delivery of my empennage kit in four months or so.  As of May 2021, that's the estimated delivery timetable, but honestly, I don't mind.  I need time to prep and do research, and this gives me that time.  And with the amount of crap my kids and I put in my garage, I'm going to need every minute. Part of that prep is creating the EAA recommended workbenches.  Most builders I've stalked via Youtube recommend the benches (two of them) for building the kit, and they seem to work really well, or so it appears from the videos.  I also dig the idea of having a workspace on wheels. If you run into trouble building this, maybe give up now Because the world is still fouled up from COVID, lumber prices remain stupid expensive - particularly for 2x4s.  I know this because I'm in the early stages of building a backyard fence, and have generally found that fence pic

I spent a considerable amount of time considering the various Vans aircraft when I decided that going experimental might be the best option.  Honestly, I didn't really consider any of the other brands, though - mostly because the popularity of the Vans kits meant tremendous resources both online and in my local EAA chapter - resources I was sure I would need.   Van's site does an excellent job of addressing the very real question of which Vans to build by taking site visitors through a decision tree of sorts that focuses on narrowing down the mission 1)  Do you need four seats? Maybe?  It's not so much of a need as it is the fact that two seats or four seats will define the mission itself.  I have a wife and twin (currently) nine-year olds.  When I joined my current flying club I had visions that we would take a lot more family trips via GA than we've ended up doing.  A couple of problems have limited this - namely: 1) Even with an instrument rating, I've had a lot

And we're off!  May 28th, 2021 marks the the date when the Eyland Aviation RV-10 project officially kicks off, as I just filled out the Vans order form for the Empennage kit and called to give them my 25% deposit.  I would have probably preferred to have waited a bit longer to throw money down, but with a current estimate of a four-month wait for the empennage to be delivered, better to get a place in line now. There go the first of many American dollars I've struggled with which Vans aircraft to build (more on that in a later post) and whether to build at all, but at the end of the day I had a YOLO moment as the kids say, and decided to pull the trigger, with the justification being that the empennage kit isn't a huge financial investment - if I end up getting bored along the way, or hate building, I can sell off what I have and cut my losses. Jason Ellis has a great vlog on YouTube detailing his RV-10 build journey, and in one of his posts (I can't seem to find it at

I've always sorta viewed the experimental aircraft world with skepticism - mostly driven by innate desire to not die, let alone in a giant fireball of my own creation.  But, as it turns out, even self-preservation has a price - and that price is somewhere near that of the $150K clapped out 182 built before man walked on the moon.   Let me back up.   I started flying when I was 16 (~1996), with the goal of going to the Air Force Academy, becoming a fighter jock, transitioning to the airlines at some point, etc. etc.  That was before I got "Little Miss Sunshined" with a colorblindness diagnosis during my USAFA physical.  I was eventually granted a SODA from the FAA that gave me the green light (which I could see, btw) to move forward with a civil aviation career.  But this was pre-9/11 when you needed perfect vision and a moon landing to get on with even the crappiest regional, and I had been given some decent scholarship coin to go to college, so flying fell out of focus.