Eyland Aviation RV-10 Build

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.