Alan Carroll

Alan Carroll

Well Known Member
The current issue of the RVator carries the headline "The Last and Final Issue ...Ever". Inside, Ken Scott explains that the immediacy of the internet (including the VAF site) has basically reduced the usefulness of a bimonthly publication. Modifications apparently will be made to the company web site to replace the functions and "content" of the RVator.

Will anyone miss the RVator? Or, can it be effectively replaced by website content?
 
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My observation as well

apkp777 said:
IMO, the RVATOR turned into the RV12ATOR a while ago. Still, I'll miss it.
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In all honesty I will not even notice it isn't there but it reflects a more isolated position by the company. I tend to see that as an unfortunate development for the RV"community" - like the golden age has past. Oh well life goes on as I have been told herein. I will miss classic articles like the prop test conducted for our benefit by Van's and reported in the RVator several years ago and the competitive speed mods and results between two friends in the same era. I have the feeling that we are loosing a bit of Van in Van's and the elimination of the RVator is just another step. I will miss Ken Scott's clever writing as well as Van's precise dealing with technical subjects outside the production box.

Bob Axsom
 
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I have an idea, how about the money Van's will save by not publishing the magazine, they give to VAF instead? I'll bet VAF has sold 100 times more airplane kits than Van's charming personality.
 
RVator what?

Sorry guys, I haven't looked at it in a long time. This, VAF, is my source of information! None better. :D Thanks Doug.
 
Articles

As long as the excellent articles continue on their website (or another), then no problem. I really hope that they do.
 
Van's might be experiencing a economic problem with the announced price increase and now the RVator coming to an end.

I don't know about your area in the country but most of Georgia is still pretty hard hit... and of course the price increase is going to take effect before I get started .

Smilin' Jack
I just needed a couple more months.
 
I am guilty :D After I registered here on VAF I just scanned RVator on the web never read it thoroughly as before. I liked printed copies and subscribed before starting my project and while building the empennage and wings.
Well at least we can brag to future builders that we matured when RVator was still printed on real paper. :) I hope Vans will still use "The Oregonian" for packages.
 
RVator

I'll hate to see it go. Especially for the thoughtful and informative articles by Van and Ken as well as other Van's personnel. The occasional articles on alternate powered RV's which have appeared in the mag were terrific and will be missed at least by me. Plus, it was just fun to open the file and see what was there; I loved it, although less than in the paper days. I hope the pithy educational and editorial articles will continue on the Van's site.

Bill
 
Don't assume anything yet,...

I know Ken pretty well. I doubt it has anything to do with the economy or anything other than becoming more efficient. It is a natural progression.
As much as I love this site, there is still a lot of misinformation posted here, some of it mine, that lives forever.
The RVator was an excellent source of "official" information, Ken and others trip write ups, reports, and other great stuff.
Knowing Ken, I would imagine that this will continue on in some form or another directly on Vans site. Ken is a prolific writer and I can not imagine Vans not having some place to publish "official" factory information.
 
We'll see!!

I have always enjoyed the RVator because it connects Van, Ken, etc with me and gives the company a 'face' and because it did give us some news and insight into what was happening at the factory.

Many of us have never met Van,Ken, etc., and probably won't as they are pretty well isolated (busy) even at Homecoming, etc. This is not a criticism, I realize that they are busy and it probably is kind of like being a celebrity - they can't talk to everyone - too many of us!

I hope that Ken will use his RVator time and skills to up-date the whole VANS on-line presence. The state of their in line presence is illustrated well by their 'what's new' offering which shows stuff that is at least 5 years old. Also, when ordering, finding something specific can sometimes be hard to accomplish. Enough said, I guess - I am hopeful that Van's will make an honest attempt to keep us up to date.:)
 
I'll miss two things about the RVator...

...and I just got here!

As part of my (overly analytical?) effort to understand what it means to tackle an RV project, I downloaded the current on-line supply of past RVators (2008-2010) and I've found them very helpful in gaining a different perspective from the 'nuts & bolts' topics here at VAF. Perhaps the Vans website will be different, but most websites lack this ability to offer a sense of continuity and retrospective perspective, and I wonder how someone coming along in 2012 or 2013 will get some of that.

The perspective on kit building - and of course 'RV kit building' - aside, I've come to understand there's a special kind of identity associated with building/owning/flying an RV, which in part has been communicated thru those RVators. There's even a sense of perceived elitism held by other Experimental pilots towards RV owners, I've come to learn, which I attribute to the success of the visible & broad RV 'community' - the commercial success of Vans, the quality & high participation level of VAF, the fact some vendors custom package some wares for the RV audience, and those bi-monthly newsletters. I wonder if (or how) this 'identity thing' can be sustained to the same degree by the Vans website alone.

But absolutely no doubt about it, the Web has fundamentally changed the nature of periodical publications of all kinds. My bet: the Vans folks have looked carefully at this and benchmarked this choice against what other businesses have done before making this decision.

Jack
 
My .02.

IMHO, factory communications that were previously delivered via the RVator aren’t going away at all, just taking on an updated form. Van and Ken S. and Ken K. and the gang will continue to write just as many pieces (if not more), they will just appear on a revamped website instead of in your mailbox and/or inbox. And as they are written….not six times a year.


Take a look at www.CubCrafters.com and see how they have a ‘News’ section: specifically look at the 2010 archived section HERE. I suspect Van’s will do something similar to this (and will help spread the news of these articles through my site as well as a company-maintained facebook presence (like CubCrafters and Lycoming do HERE and HERE).

I see it as a positive, especially given the fact that wait times will decrease to almost zero between when the factory wants to get out a piece of information and when it is delivered to the community. Also, the search engine I am tweeking HERE should easily incorporate any company FB site and online articles into its search criteria. You’ll be able to search the entire VAF site, all its forums, the company site and all their future articles from one spot.
 
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It's only natural that the RVator would reach the end of it's life sometime; I'm surprised it lasted this long.

An overhauled Van's website with regular updates can only be a good thing. I just hope they steer clear of Facebook, as I was hoping to get rid of my account!
 
Smilin' Jack said:
Van's might be experiencing a economic problem with the announced price increase and now the RVator coming to an end.

I don't know about your area in the country but most of Georgia is still pretty hard hit... and of course the price increase is going to take effect before I get started .

Smilin' Jack
I just needed a couple more months.
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Vans has a price increase about every year in January to reflect higher manufacturing costs, nothing new here.

DeltaRomeo said:
My .02.

IMHO, factory communications that were previously delivered via the RVator aren’t going away at all, just taking on an updated form. Van and Ken S. and Ken K. and the gang will continue to write just as many pieces (if not more), they will just appear on a revamped website instead of in your mailbox and/or inbox. And as they are written….not six times a year.


Take a look at www.CubCrafters.com and see how they have a ‘News’ section: specifically look at the 2010 archived section HERE. I suspect Van’s will do something similar to this (and will help spread the news of these articles through my site as well as a company-maintained facebook presence (like CubCrafters and Lycoming do HERE and HERE).

I see it as a positive, especially given the fact that wait times will decrease to almost zero between when the factory wants to get out a piece of information and when it is delivered to the community. Also, the search engine I am tweeking HERE should easily incorporate any company FB site and online articles into its search criteria. You’ll be able to search the entire VAF site, all its forums, the company site and all their future articles from one spot.
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I agree there will most likely be even more info distributed by Vans once the site is updated. Electronic publication is where we are in 2011 and Vans is merely in the process of culling 1990-think from their information services.
 
Facebook??

I'll miss the RVator. It was always a pleasure when it arrived in the mail.
The Web is more effective etc. for communicating, but not quite the same anticipation as sitting down with the just arrived RVator.
And to move (as Ken says) to the "brave new world of Facebook". I don't have a Facebook page, I don't want a Facebook page, I don't like the idea of having a Facebook page, I don't understand why anyone would want a Facebook page. But it seems I am a diminishing minority. It must be a generational thing.
Bill Brooks
Ottawa, Canada
RV-6A
Stein helping me with the panel
 
Skeptical - sorry

We'll see how well this pans out. Now that they are getting rid of the RVator, I am not optimistic that there will be improvement in the level of communication from Van's. They could start the 'revamping procedure' by hiring a part time person with real internet skills. Maybe one of the employees knows a young man or woman with skills. Or maybe the (problem as I see it) wouldn't be solved that way. Or maybe it can by taking a fresh look at what it is that Van's wants to do with their on line presence and then decide 'how to' do it.

In my opinion, putting it on FACE BOOK would be a big mistake. Sigh up for FACE BOOK and you loose a lot of your privacy. I, for one, will not - so if Van's goes that way then I loose if the info that is presented by Van's is pertinent.:(
 
C-GRVT said:
snip....I don't understand why anyone would want a Facebook page....snip
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Hundreds of thousands of companies have corporate Facebook pages:

Mercedes-Benz for example: http://www.facebook.com/MercedesBenz#!/MercedesBenz?v=wall

...and the Ford Motor Company: http://www.facebook.com/ford#!/ford?v=wall

It's just another avenue to get information out - you can select when setting it up if you want to lock it down where only the company can post info (which is what I suspect Van's...and most companies...do). You don't have to sign up with FB to view a company's facebook page - you view it anonymously like any other news site (CNN, etc).

Updating the company's digital footprint is how it communicates with tech-savy future builders.
 
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I'm an old fart, too. And I have a facebook page. I started it at first just to keep up with my grown kids who are scattering out all over. Later on, I began to find out how really great it is! You're missing out, Bill (and others) if you don't at least give it a try. "Try it, you might like it"

For those concerned about privacy, just take care to incorporate the safeguards that are available to limit access to your information, and you'll be fine.
 
I too hope they can spend some effort on keeping the website up to date. The price changes seem to get updated quite timely, but the engine section for instance still reads as follows:
"Introduction - Powerplant Choices

RV aircraft are designed to use Lycoming aircraft engines."

Strange, every RV 12 I have ever seen photos of has a Rotax, and there are nearly 100 of them in the air now!
Such errors (that is not the only one be far) bring upon the reader a need to read with a view towards sorting everything by a truth filter.
 
Alan Carroll said:
The current issue of the RVator carries the headline "The Last and Final Issue ...Ever". Inside, Ken Scott explains that the immediacy of the internet (including the VAF site) has basically reduced the usefulness of a bimonthly publication. Modifications apparently will be made to the company web site to replace the functions and "content" of the RVator.

Will anyone miss the RVator? Or, can it be effectively replaced by website content?
Click to expand...

Van's was perpetually late with the quarterly, then bi-monthly RVator. Their website is stuck in 1998. I'm not complainining about their communications - they get the important stuff out through Service Bulletins and other means, but communicating non-critical items has never been a particularly high priority.

I have no reason to believe that discontinuing the (pseudo-deadline driven) RVator and switching to Facebook will improve their communications. If it wasn't a big priority when it had a deadline, why will it get better without a deadline?
 
DeltaRomeo said:
My .02.

IMHO, factory communications that were previously delivered via the RVator aren?t going away at all, just taking on an updated form. Van and Ken S. and Ken K. and the gang will continue to write just as many pieces (if not more), they will just appear on a revamped website instead of in your mailbox and/or inbox. And as they are written?.not six times a year.
Click to expand...

Hopefully this is true. News shorts such as those on the Cubcrafters site are fine as a way for a company to update its product info, but they don't compare to the kind of in-depth flying stories, test reports, maintenance tips, flying advice, etc that have appeared in the RVator. It will be interesting to see if the Vans crew can keep this up in the absence of a deadline.
 
Van's ought to be paying Doug a full time salary. :)
He is saving Van's tech support a HUGE amount of time and money with these forums.
 
As much as I like the immediacy of the web in general and these forums in particular (and I like it a lot), I'll miss the RVAtor. Anticipation hightens the fun of a treat that you can't have every day.
 
On the other hand, now I can wait for the *ultimate* NN years of the RV-Ator collection, without hating the fact that five years down the road i'll just want another one anyway.
 
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