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RV’s at Sun N Fun 2021

Paul K

Well Known Member
I spent the week at Sun N Fun camping in HBC and didn’t see as many RV’s as I thought there would be. I did see several very nice examples and am wondering if any RV’s were judged winners? Is there a published list of winners? Can’t find one anywhere.
 
Judging ended at 2pm on Friday. Awards ceremony is at the end of the show, so it may take a little time for results to be posted.
I was there too, and I agree. Not a ton of RV’s showed up. I was in HB parking, and there were only 4 rows of airplanes. HBC had more airplanes, but I don’t know how many, or who was entered for judging.
 
Plane Schemers/ Evoke Aviation

I know that 7 of Jonathan’s customers won awards, with 5 of them being RV’s. No wonder Jonathan has a bit of a lead time 😉

Randy Vanstory won Reserve Grand Champion with his beautiful RV-10. Also winning were Michael Foss RV-8, Kenny Cole RV-10, Darwin Barrie RV-7 and Tim Huneycutt RV-10. There may be other RV’s, but I haven’t seen a list published yet by SNF.

The link from 2019 is here - https://flysnf.org/event-activities/aviation-activities/2019-judging-awards/

Substitute “2021” for 2019 and I expect once it’s published, you’ll get the entire list.
 
I know that 7 of Jonathan’s customers won awards, with 5 of them being RV’s. No wonder Jonathan has a bit of a lead time ��

Great paint jobs are well... great, but are also very expensive!

IMO judging should be based on more than just "pretty", which for many "builders" these days simply means how much money you have and how much you paid someone to do most of the work for you like build airframe/mega buck paint/mega buck panel/leather interior/etc. etc..

100% built by owner (no quick build kits either), length of time flying etc. doesn't appear to mean as much to the judges.
The low budget average builder likely doesn't have a chance at winning an award, it's a shame cause he deserves it more.

I'm not saying that the above is true in all cases, but from what I've seen as Osh, it pretty much holds true.
My apology to any winners that actually built your airplane and won an award, congratulations to you, you are certainly in the minority.

Ok rant over...
 
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Great paint jobs are well... great. But IMO judging should be based on more than just "pretty", which for many these days simply means how much you paid someone to build/paint/install a pretty panel/interior for you.

100% built by owner (no quick build kits) doesn't mean anything anymore to the judges. The low budget builder doesn't have a chance at winning an award these days which seems a shame.

The “buy a trophy” program gripes my derierre too.
 
Well, no. In the plans built category, Hatz biplanes win Grand Champion with some frequency -- at least, at Oshkosh. There's lots that goes into Grand Champion that doesn't necessarily meet the eye. I'm not a judge, but I've been with the Awards group for 30 years, the last 10 as chairman -- seen a lot in that time.
 
IMO judging should be based on more than just "pretty", which for many "builders" these days simply means how much money you have and how much you paid someone to do most of the work for you like build airframe/mega buck paint/mega buck panel/leather interior/etc.

+1. Let's hear about winners who painted their own. I mean no ill to those who hire out a lot of work, but homebuilt awards should reflect personal craftsmanship.
 
+1. Let's hear about winners who painted their own. I mean no ill to those who hire out a lot of work, but homebuilt awards should reflect personal craftsmanship.

Agreed, but only kind of. If the award winner has to do everything themselves, you've then cut out most all of the "average" guys.

I note that there are lots of things that are not judged that I think should be: maintainability; documentation of not just the build but also wiring diagrams and parts installed; flight test and documentation; economies of building time and cost without going way into not necessarily airworthy practices. In other words, an airplane that exemplifies homebuilding as opposed to a show-car type airplane with ridiculous budgets in time, skill and money.

For what it's worth... and history has shown, not much...
 
SNF and especially OSH are the Concours d'Elegance of the airplane world. I doubt there are many "did it all by myself" winners at Concours either.

Sorry if that bothers some folks, but it is the reality.
 
It's the same with car shows. I did a full frame off restoration on my car. All the mechanicals, body work, paint, and interior was done by me. It's not perfect but it's better than it was when it left the factory. I've never won an award with it because it's surrounded by cars that people restored or built with a checkbook. Doesn't make me any less proud of my car, and I'm not afraid to take it out and drive it.
 
Agreed, but only kind of. If the award winner has to do everything themselves, you've then cut out most all of the "average" guys.

Aren't the awards supposed to go to the "above average" guys? haha

Obviously, I'm not a judge, but I would hope they are looking "through" the paint job at fit and finish, riveting, construction etc.
 
Show planes.....vs SHOW planes.....

I've never been to S-n-S but will go some day.... I hope it doesn't go the Way of Oshkosh....oh, wait: AirVenture.

Gonna probably step on some toes here....

I've been going to OSH long enough to have seen some MAJOR changes. Many of you "older" pilots know from where I speak. The Display Hangars at one time had all kinds of cool things like belt buckles, patches, name tags done before you left the show.....fly-in aviation stuff. Independent vendors that sold stuff they made at home or in their shop back at their home base. There were several T-shirt vendors that made shirts that were WAY cool, including some that were screened from hand-painted graphics and signed by the artist. Those vanished as they were fierce competition with "other vendors":rolleyes:. Can't remember the last time I saw them. Remember "Dirt Shirts"? Some of the greatest graphics! Now: a lot of very expensive things and sometimes the same vendor in each building. Or several of the same in ONE building! Aviation related? Yes. Usually. There is a lot in the outside area that used to be inside. I still walk the buildings but it is at a faster pace......

Some if the airplanes have gone that way to an extent as well. I remember when an average Joe/Jane built/restored an airplane in their garage/hangar and did everything themselves. Quality construction and produced a very nice airplane that was an award winner or at least something to be proud of. When I am cruising "the line", I concentrate more on the "down home" builds than those that look like the paint weighs more than the engine. If you need a mirror to show the graphics on the belly of your airplane.......:confused: I might walk past and not really look (Mine: Um.......sir is that straight weight or multigrade oil on your belly? :D)

AirVenture is turning that way as well. I remember Paul was talking about having a "small" fly-in somewhere that was not OSH. Do I REALLY like going to OSH? OH, yeah! Will I always go and enjoy myself? Of course! Is mine a well-built, functional airplane I don't have to worry about people leaning over and bumping their camera into the fuselage (have those marks)? Yes. Is it a SHOW plane? Not by a long stretch. But I don't have to truck it in to keep the bugs off (some look like they were!) and can fly it with gay abandon. I wonder how many hours those "perfect" airplanes acquire in a year. Don't want to scratch anything.... That air, you know.....:D

But I also don't mean to take away from those types of SHOW airplanes. If that is your thing, thank you for bringing them for us to see. But if I find myself saying "I wonder who had THIS airplane built?" I may not pay as much attention as the majority of airplanes that are begging me to look at them. Just saying.....

Off my soapbox.....
 
Agreed, but only kind of. If the award winner has to do everything themselves, you've then cut out most all of the "average" guys.

With a contrarian view here, why should average guys win awards? Kind of like my young children's soccer teams. Everyone gets an award so no one feels bad. Pretty hard to build excellence that way. Paraphrasing Henry Ford, it takes a lot of failure to produce success. Average athletes can't realistically win a medal in the olympics. Should we change that? Most awards exist to show who's the best of the best; Not sure how average fits into that.

Maybe we should be calling these prettiest plane awards, as opposed to craftsmanship awards. Not a lot of craftsmanship involved in writing a $25,000 check for a paint job. Maybe both cosemetic AND craftsmanship awards makes more sense. I saw a gorgeous interior on an RV10 being built. Unfortunately no real kudos to the builder. He just happened to have access to $20,000 to spend with a high end, custom interior shop. Doesn't really seem award worthy in a "best build" category, but certainly does in the most attractive interior category.

Just another opinion.

Larry
 
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Sort of insulting

The “buy a trophy” program gripes my derierre too.

Hate to disagree here but nowhere did I buy a trophy!!! I would have put my plane against most any RV prior to paint for innovation, safety, FWF, quality of composite work and pure elbow grease. Nothing was overlooked in the "attention to detail," category. I painted my first 7 and won awards with it. On this plane, I opted to not do the paint. Heck I even had a couple of people a few months ago tell me my tail numbers were illegal. Interestingly that was one of the most popular thing about my plane. Also, my local FAA guy said they were the cleanest he had ever seen.

I don't care who does your paint nowadays, it is going to be expensive. The cost of paints, materials and labor have gone up considerably!!

So, if you think most "bought a trophy," I suggest you look deeper into the plane and builder. Yes, there will always be a plane here and there that was a "paid build." I certainly did not see that with the top 5 in our category.
 
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Hate to disagree here but nowhere did I buy a trophy!!!

If you go back and read the post I was responding to, the scope of my comment was much broader than the paint scheme. The gripe is that aircraft built at pro build shops win a lot of awards in the "homebuilt" category. They aren't homebuilts.

Based on everything I've seen you post over the years, I have no doubt that you built yours well within the scope of homebuilding.
 
Cool

If you go back and read the post I was responding to, the scope of my comment was much broader than the paint scheme. The gripe is that aircraft built at pro build shops win a lot of awards in the "homebuilt" category. They aren't homebuilts.

Based on everything I've seen you post over the years, I have no doubt that you built yours well within the scope of homebuilding.

Thanks Kyle. I figured that's what you meant. I firmly believe there should be some rules as to "builder of the plane." If it is professionally built, it can't be entered. It usually pretty easy to tell if someone built their plane.

Great discussion!!
 
Not OSH

Roadjunkie, I could not hold back because we had a small flyin at our place last July that we called Not Osh. You may see a tee shirt or two with not osh on at Oshkosh this year . Ron
 
NotOSH

Roadjunkie, I could not hold back because we had a small flyin at our place last July that we called Not Osh. You may see a tee shirt or two with not osh on at Oshkosh this year . Ron

Great! I'll be looking for those T-shirts this year.........!!:D:D:D I heard Oshkosh, Nebraska had a few airplanes show up.....:D
 
I heard Oshkosh, Nebraska had a few airplanes show up.....:D

A few...:D

109-B2-CF5-BAED-4528-9-DB9-443-E23-EACCC7.jpg


4-C35901-B-C4-E1-43-DA-8-ED5-0-F9031-A9507-E.jpg
 
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