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Van's Aircraft in China

David-aviator

Well Known Member
I just completed a 12 trip to China. It was very informative and a totally satisfying experience.

One day, a local guy, can't remember what he was doing with the group, maybe loading bags, pointed at my Van's Aircraft T-shirt and smiled. He could not speak a word of English but apparently know about Vans Aircraft.

Later riding a bus toward the Wuhan airport for flight to Shanghai, I noticed several bill boards advertising an "Air Carnival". Those words in English, the rest in Chinese along with a image of 4 airplanes in formation.

I asked our guide about Air Carnival, was it private aviation in China? She said with a smile, yes, all the celebrities have airplanes. I asked her if she wanted to learn to fly, is that possible? Of course, she responded.

Not sure our guide understood question, could an airplane be imported to China and built like here? She thought so but probably really did not know.

I've since learned China had a presence at OSH this year. Anyone visit it?

Commercial civil aviation is first class operation in China. They fly relatively new aircraft, Boeing 737's, AirBus 321's. We flew into Beijing, internally to Xi'an, Chongqing, Wunan and home from Shanghai. The airports are very large, modern and busy. The country is thriving. Tour guides were most friendly, open and had a number of "ask me a question about China" sessions. We learned they have an income tax like here, pay a penalty for having more than 2 children and are quite free to do as they wish, except street demonstrations are not permitted. Guide said, demonstrations are legal if permit issued, but permits are never issued. We drove by a government building with perhaps 100 people milling around outside. He said, I tell you about that place, it is where you go to complain. They assign a person to go for a walk and taik. He had gone there over a bad investment in government owned company and felt he should get his money back. He said with a laugh, I have been walking every since and will not get a refund, is why he is in such good shape. (he was in good shape as are many of their people, do not obesity epidemic we do)

I believe the place could be a huge market for Vans Aircraft if the bureaucratic barriers were removed. It was a hassle getting a tourist visa, say it is just as much a hassle getting a visa from US embassy to travel to US.

I would image it is a nightmare of hoops to jump through having a private airplane in China but for sure legal if you can get it approved. :)
 
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I've since learned China had a presence at OSH this year. Anyone visit it?

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I believe the place could be a huge market for Vans Aircraft if the bureaucratic barriers were removed. It was a hassle getting a tourist visa, say it is just as much a hassle getting a visa from US embassy to travel to US.

<snip>

The Chinese are very interested in general aviation. They own Mooney, Continental Motors, Cirrus, and others. Their problem domestically is they want GA but can't figure out make GA and the government's need for control play well together. Until they figure it out, there won't be much GA in China. The guys who went over there with one of the RV formation teams had some extremely funny/frustrating stories to tell about their adventure.

However, if they ever do figure it out, lookout. CNC equipment isn't expensive over there and it is easy to reverse engineer RV kits. I could see them cloning and selling popular US designed kits almost overnight and exporting them at relatively low prices. The one thing I don't know about is the price of aluminum there.
 
aluminum production in China

As of 2014, 2/3rds of the worlds aluminum production was from Asia and 5 of the world's top 10 producers were located in China. Probably wouldn't be too difficult for them to make clones of many of our aircraft. However, I understand that fuel is very expensive, as of percentage of an individuals income. Necessity being the mother of invention, it could be that this is where the next line of aviation deisel engines will be developed!
 
I did a series of airshows in China a few years back. It was an amazing experience to say the least. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85EPxZtTaLM
General aviation is virtually none existent there. But.. The Chinese government saw the writing on the wall and started promoting these airshows to get people interested. The only airspace in China is commercial and military. At the time I was there China had some small private aircraft like Cirrus and Cessna's but very little space to fly them, no GA fuel. GA airports had been build but abandon. The response to GA was big but I don't see China having the GA we, or most other counties, have. There's still much of the Chinese government that treats the people with communist rule, this making GA for the common citizen nearly out of reach. Even during the airshows we were not allowed to fly to other venues, we had to disassemble all the aircraft and transport them to each show. Note: The silver Lancair is my plane.
 
There is at least one RV-12 in China. Shortly after the Chinese bought Glasair, before S-LSA RV-12's were available, they (the new Chinese owners)thought they wanted to assemble RV-12's and ship them to China, though there is no LSA category in China, at the moment (even though Glasair designed their own S-LSA).

They (the new Chinese owners) wanted to display an RV-12 and a Sportsman at a similar event in 2012. They (Glasair) bought my completed RV-12 and loaded it and their first carbon Sportsman into a container to ship to China. To the best of my knowledge they are both still over there.
 
The former Pan Am flight academy at KDVT has a contract to train airline pilots for multiple regional Chinese airlines.

I did a short term gig out there and out of my my first group of 4 students, only one had ever driven a car. None of them had ever been on an airplane before they had flown over to the states to get flight training.

They were already hired and basically had jobs for life. If they made it through commercial multi instrument they were sent back to china to be airline pilots. If they got cut from flight school, they went back and became gate agents or baggage handlers or whatever.
 
Keep in mind that nobody in China is going to say anything negative about the state to a foreign visiter. To do so could have very negative implications for ones sell and family. You will not get a honest answer on any subject. ?Everything is great, everything is possible and we are very happy? is pretty much the answer to any question.
 
Keep in mind that nobody in China is going to say anything negative about the state to a foreign visiter. To do so could have very negative implications for ones sell and family. You will not get a honest answer on any subject. “Everything is great, everything is possible and we are very happy” is pretty much the answer to any question.

Your wrong about that.

One tour guide said he did not like communists, they caused his parents to flee during cultural revolution....he stuck it out working in silk factory, learned to speak English and is personal economic success today.

Another talked of "walk around the block" to settle grievance that was never settled. He also freely admitted cultural revolution was failure.

In surfing through 74 channels of TV in hotel, found 2 in English. Rest were formatted after what we see, game shows, talk shows, weather shows, news shows, many move shows, they love Hollywood stuff. .

One thing government does do is block social media internet. They blocked Face Book on my phone and actually did me a favor. It is still blocked.

The system is adjusting to make life better for 1.3 billion people, is only way it can survive. People have more freedom than we traditionally believe. They may well be building RV's at home in future. There is nothing political about that.

PS There are 900 Million cell phones in use in China, they are yakking and texting as much as we are. :)
 
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Kahuna needs to chime in.

The RV's on the poster we're probably Team Aerodynamics.

They sent planes over, performed in airshows and brought the planes home. The thing that struck me as odd was that they couldn't fly between showed so the planes had to he dissembled and trucked between shows.
 
There is an airshow next week in Jingmen. I have three friends over there as part of a show team. They indeed have to put together their aircraft, fly in the show and then it gets trucked like mentioned.
A group of South African RV owners also took their RVs over there last year for a formation flying competition.
 
Look this video ... these people are REALLY experimental builder/pilots!

Take the time and look this video.

These people are in my eye's really experimental builders and pilots. They do not have access to all the right stuff ... nor can read/understand all the stuff we have access to ... but they never give up there dream!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlXVDicfQOQ
 
I've been to Xi AN airport several times. I found the Chinese very excited about general aviation. I've given a handful of them them their first flight. I enjoyed their company each time. America leads the world in Aviation. Let's keep it that way.
 
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