First Ever RV-12 Expo

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SportPilotCO

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Nov 22, 2012
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Colorado Springs CO
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CarlH
Well I just finished attending the RV-12 Expo up here in lovely Sunriver Oregon. What a great event. Tonight the event was wrapped up with a really nice dinner and a presentation by Van himself.

Prior to the event Rainbow Aviation offered the two day class required for E-LSA owners to perform their own annual condition inspections. I attended a full day class on the Rotax 912 engine that was incredibly valuable. The expo included two full days of sessions by folks from Dynon, Lightspeed, and a bunch of folks from Synergy Air. Synergy is the company building the S-LSA version of the RV-12 for Vans. The sessions covered all of the challenging points of the build with pointers from guys who build these things every day. It was great. They also offered transitions training and demo rides. They even had a factory built plane right next to the expo center for one day.
RV-12%20Expo.jpg


All in all it was a great show. 150 builders and owners of E-LSA and S-LSA RV-12's were there. Several flew their completed planes in. Synergy announced they were ramping up production from 3 to 4 planes per month and by the end of the summer will have produced the 50th factory built RV-12 S-LSA. That is a pretty incredible number given how the overall light aircraft market is these days.

Carl
 
I'm glad to hear that the S-LSA RV-12 is being embraced by the market. IMO, it represents the greatest value in this market by far and would be my choice. I was impressed with the plane at the price point when I first saw it back in 2010 at the AOPA Summit.

I was uncertain about Van's commitment to the project. It seemed rather reluctant at the time. I was also unsure how well it would stack up in the market place against sexier looking composite planes being offered, but the performance, price and reputation of Vans seemed like a winner to me. I'm glad to see that one does not have to turn to Europe to buy a great S-LSA!

Now if we could just get an American engine company to build a proper engine for this segment...
 
Four planes per month? That's good news. I hope the RV-12 starts showing up in the rental fleet soon.
 
FormerHangie said:
Four planes per month? That's good news. I hope the RV-12 starts showing up in the rental fleet soon.
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They make a great trainer, with the same cruise speed as a 172 for CC, but burning 5 GPH of mogas. Mine would cruise at 140 MPH all day. Easy & forgiving to fly, easy to land, simple & cheap to operate.
 
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As usual, Vans can do what so many other manufacturers can't do. Provide value to the customer at a reasonable price point with a stellar track record. RVs are always leading the way.
 
Something for everyone.you have to love it.
 
Richard VanGrunsven clearly won over Randy Schlitter a big time on this. If you compare RV-12 with S-19, both are all-metal low-wing LSAs, but the former carries more and costs noticeably less.
 
I will say however, having flown both the RV-12 and the S-19, the S-19 is also a very nice plane. I bought plans for it but ultimately bought the RV-12 kit to build. Obviously however Vans has had a lot more success with the -12.

Carl
 
zaitcev said:
Richard VanGrunsven clearly won over Randy Schlitter a big time on this. If you compare RV-12 with S-19, both are all-metal low-wing LSAs, but the former carries more and costs noticeably less.
Click to expand...

One thing to note about the S-19 is that it was designed for a gross weight of 1475 lbs, vs 1320 lbs for the RV-12.
 
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