i have a friend who is trying to decide between a 10 or 182. Mark may well be a future member if he buys a 10. any nice 10's out there? thanks for any help.
I'm not advocating that your friend buys either a 182 or an RV10 but I would point out something salient that every other poster has failed to address.
Regardless of theoretical performance differences, the aircraft your friend buys will only be as good as the workmanship that goes into its construction.
If he buys a Cessna he purchases an aircraft that has been manufactured by a company that has been building aircraft for 100 years, a company that currently builds high performance twin engine jets, a company that has built more GA singles than any other in history....in other words, a company that obviously knows a thing or two about aircraft construction and the proper installation of essential systems.
He is also guaranteed that if the Cessna is second hand it has been maintained to reasonable certificated standards, has not been modified whimsically, and has been serviced/repaired using only approved replacement components. All very good.
If he buys an RV10 he may well purchase an aircraft that has been built by Bert Crashncrumpel in his backyard shed in Broken Bow, Nebraska. Bert's a nice enough guy but he's not too bright and has virtually zero mechanical aptitude. Bert's never changed the oil in his car and he doesn't know the difference between a conrod and a pushrod. This man will be installing your firewall forward system. Bert also doesn't know the difference between a volt and an amp. This man will also be installing all of your electrical systems. Uh oh.
And if Bert finds himself financially stretched during construction he may just opt for cheap non-aviation components, or hardware from dubious sources, or second hand parts with no credible history. And this would all be fully legal under the Experimental category.
And Bert, in his naivity, may choose to make serious and potentially dangerous structural modifications to Vans plans during the course of the construction, and again this would be fully legal under the Experimental category.
And if Bert makes serious fabrication errors during construction it will be entirely at his discretion as to whether he repairs the damage, replaces parts or just builds on. Once again, all fully legal under the Experimental category.
And you might think that the RV10 that Bert builds will be finally fully checked out by some competent independent authority for any possible structural/mechanical/electrical shortcomings prior to the issue of a Certificate of Airworthiness. But that is not the case in the Experimental category.
If you buy a new Cessna you won't need to have a purchase inspection done by a maintenance engineer prior to taking delivery. Love them or hate them, they're all the same when new, all built to the same competent, consistent aviation standards. And history has proven that if you treat them well they'll still be solid in 50 years.
But buy an RV10 from Bert and you'd better have a really knowledgeable person extensively check out that aircraft from spinner to rudder and from wingtip to wingtip because the Experimental category is fundamentally uncontrolled and there is consequently an enormous spectrum of build quality... and the lower end of that spectrum is just abysmal. And it's best that your friend is fully cognizant of that fact.