Van's RV-10 wanting to buy? [Performance, costs, build time, and more] 

My RV-10 is a quick-build assembled by my wife and I and completed in 2007. At 15 years in service, it has just passed 1250 hrs TTSN, all of which I have flown as pilot in command. It started life with a factory new Lycoming IO-540 and Hartzell blended airfoil prop, and they have been 100% reliable for the roughly quarter of a million miles it has flown to date. Accessories have needed to be replaced beginning in the past few years, such as a new alternator, new EGT and fuel pressure sensors, and both main gear tires and brake pads seem to last about 200-300 landings. The avionics have been a continuous story of upgrades over the years, beginning with dual Grand Rapids EFIS displays, a TruTrak 2 axis autopilot capable of shooting coupled ILS and GPS LPV approaches, a Garmin GNS480 navigator, SL40 second comm, and GTX 330 transponder. The EFIS's were upgraded to Synthetic vision, the GTX 330 became a 330ES for ADSB-out, a Stratux homebuilt ADS-B In receiver was added, an additional EFIS display was added to the copilot side, and one of the mags was replaced with a SureFly electronic ignition which noticeably improved power, operating efficiency, and solved a problem with occasional difficulties doing hot starts. The original cost including professional four color paint scheme was just about exactly $150K, and over the years an additional $15K has gone into avionics upgrades. As a previous owner-pilot of a Cessna 172 and 182, and builder-owner-pilot of an RV-7A and RV-12, and with a total of about 3300 hrs PIC in the logbook, I can say that the RV-10 is clearly the best aircraft I have ever built, owned or flown. It is a cross country magic carpet in which one can easily log 2000nm of cross country flying in a single day and still be feeling like wanting to fly some more at the end of the day. It is particularly at home flying high, in the mid-teens (with portable tank O2 for pilot and pax), and is an honest 170 KTAS aircraft that will hold that cruise speed up through about 16000 ft. burning 13-14 gph. Mine has GAMI injectors and can be run lean of peak at 10.5 gph doing 155 KTAS. It is basically a responsive, lightweight homebuilder's Cirrus SR22 at a quarter of the price. Just a wonderful bird if one's mission is cross country travel with "speed, style, and comfort" as the Van's description says. The major problem in 2022 -- along with inflation--is that if you order one you may have to wait up to a year or more to even get your first subkit (the empennage). The supply chain issues and order backlogs at Vans are an extremely severe issue at present. So the best time to build one seems to be, say, 2007. ;-)

Built my RV-10 standard build kit over 19 years with 6000 work hours logged including all helpers. This includes major changes to the door hinges and latch mechanism to prevent unexpected door opening and detachment during flight, a unique 12 gallon third fuel tank design located in the baggage compartment, overhauling my IO-540-N1A5 Lycoming, dual electronic ignition, dual alternators, etc. etc. Fling off the forty hours now. A great aircraft. Fast build kits would have saved about 1500 hours of build time.

Best plane anywhere! It’s a family member! Lots of happy memories in my 10!

Well presented and informative video. Good sound quality. I like the modest way of presenting; asking comments, tips and experiences from Van RV10 owners. Well done.

Great video Captain MIke!

Looks cool!

The cost to build a regular 2 person RV is over 100K with basic VFR panel. It will easily cost over 200K for a 4-person RV10 today. This applies all of the airplanes that can carry four people. The Sling is even more expensive but it has less performance than the RV10. Why does it cost so much? It is because owners of the RV10 want to have a great looking IFR panel, premium interior like the Cirrus, and professional paint job. Plus they want the brand new Lycoming engine from the factory. All of these push the price up to 1/4 million dollars. There are a few inexpensive experimental kits but they don't have the performance like the Vans aircraft. They aren't easy to build or have the customer build support like Vans. This is why Vans has high resale values because the owners know the company will be a round for a long time, has inexpensive parts in case of minor paint scuff, and all A&Ps know how to work on a normal Lycoming powered Vans aircraft.

So this baby made into my top 14 list: My needs , Range and Price 1 Velocity V-Twin 2 Risen 3 Seabear 4 Riven 500 5 CH77 Ranabot 6 SuperStol 7 Advantic WT10 8 Argon GTL 9 Rutan Long-EZ 10 VL3 Evolution 11 Velocity XL RG 12 Super Petrel Xp 13 TL-Ultralight Stream 14 Van's RV-10

The true cost for someone who's just getting started and doesn't have the tools is going to be around $250,000 realistically. An experienced builder could do it for $200,000 if they already have their collection. However, I think that if you're already spending $250,000, you may as well spend $300,000 because that means you get $50,000 to spend on the interior which means you can get really good avionics with IFR equipment and you can get some really nice custom fabricated handles and you can get leather upholstery and other mods

Thanks for the new kit. The permissions is for experiment? Than i can use diesel engines? And is it allowed to be built in Germany?

If you would consider a Cessna 182, then you have to consider a piper Dakota 235.

have a nice day. 0 km for 4 people. Can I buy the ultralight plane for $300,000? thanks.

What a beautiful aircraft. 4 pax, baggage and short field performance together with 165-170 kt cruise speeds and reasonably low fuel economy. I'd love to fly it but I'd never dare to even attempt to build one. Way too complicated and I'd much rather have someone who knows what they're doing build it for me

A beautiful plane which I was looking at. But at the end of the day you can’t beat Sling with Rotax 915is engine. Full FADAC sipping 5 gal/hr

Hopefully TurbAero gets the turbine figured out!

1050 for 4 people who are 6'4??? So they don't need any fuel then?

A detailed complete build: youtube.com/@buildingthe10

Shouldn't the landing gear suspension have much more resistance since that drop test was an empty airframe that still bottomed out from a few foot drop? Imagine full loaded aircraft.

Great video but way off on the pricing. You're looking at 200k + depending in how's its configured. The quick build kit, new engine, and prop will cost you 175k. Add interior, paint, and avionics and many people are now close to 300k to build. Most I've seen lately are selling for 300k+ with the odd higher tine with basic avionics and options selling for 240k.

So it doesn’t require any special skills to build one? Kidding right? 9.3 gph. I don’t think so. Try 10.5-14.0 gph. You need minimum $200K. Enjoy. They are a blast to fly and can get you into trouble much faster than your 172 trainer.

Imagine a replacement for this terrible wing

Neighbor built one. I couldn't believe the amount of cutting, boring holes, sizing components etc and other tasks that should have been done in a factory. This problem isn't unique to Vans. Call me when there's a kit plane available that consists of bolting together factory assembled finished components.