EAA - EXPO 2007 Hartford

Sticky1

Sticky1

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Sticky1
Well I just got back from the expo......IT SUCKED,

I was very disappointed..!!

If this is there first or second in hartford, then I can understand it. The transportation was great however, the amount and quality of exhibits were poor.:hairraise:
 
Sticky1 said:
Well I just got back from the expo......IT SUCKED,

I was very disappointed..!!

If this is there first or second in hartford, then I can understand it. The transportation was great however, the amount and quality of exhibits were poor.:hairraise:
Click to expand...

Could be because EAA's Expo is in Oshkosh in late July, early August. :rolleyes:
 
HA Mike ya beat me to it.

I went to the Expo in Tampa about two years ago and I though it was Awesome.
 
I was there today and thought it was a good show and worth it. I spent about 1.5 hours at the airport checking out the planes then went to the convention and it took me at least 4-5 uninterrupted hours to go through all the booths.

I would say that if you were not going to go to the seminars then 1 day is pretty much enough for the show.


Jon
 
I did the Tampa thing as well. I went there with the mind set of an experimental builder, possibly the same as Sticky. Just like Sticky, I was pretty disappointed. I guess I've been spoiled by SNF and Oshkosh.

The best part was heading out the Peter O'Knight airport. That is one awesome field!!
 
Sticky1 said:
Well I just got back from the expo......IT SUCKED,

I was very disappointed..!!

If this is there first or second in hartford, then I can understand it. The transportation was great however, the amount and quality of exhibits were poor.:hairraise:
Click to expand...

Yes, it's the first time in Hartford for AOPA Expo.

It's pretty much exactly like I expected it to be (my first AOPA Expo). Is it Oshkosh? No, nothing else is Oshkosh. Is it Sun 'n' Fun? No.

There are seminars, and there are exhibits, and there are airplanes, and there are press conferences and product introductions. It's a tiny fraction of the size of Oshkosh.

That said, that's perfectly OK with me. I expect to make it through the exhibit hall and do all the interviews I want to do for The Pilotcast by the end of the show. I've also noticed that I can spend more time with the vendors because they're not being overwhelmed by the huge number of attendees like they are at OSH.

OSH is wonderful, but you can't possibly see it all even if you're there all week... Not even half of it. You'd have to sprint through the exhibit hangars and the Fly Market and the aircraft displays and the aircraft parking areas and AeroShell Square while simultaneously attempting to watch the takeoffs and landings and the airshow, causing you to trip over small children and mow down their parents. AOPA is a lot calmer.

I like 'em both. :yes: Of course, I'll be at OSH every year and probably won't be at AOPA Expo every year.
 
I went there with the intentions of purchasing a face lift for my honey. Yes, she has been screaming at me for a few weeks now; so I caved in. I thought that EAA was geared to the expermential market, however instead I saw high end certified leaning towards the commercial market. Ok-Ok so certified is part of the game however a lot of what was displayed both inside and outside is out of reach for most if not all attendees.

So in L@@King for an efis I saw many priced above 30k with all the necessary options (what a joke, necessary options). Most of the products displayed were certified, kicking the price into the HOLY S hit catagory. Once again, a little higher than I wanted to spend. Not that she is not worth it.....well you know. So I stumbled across Aspen. Much smaller than I thought, nice efis, but smaller than I thought. I saw the Dynon and think its simple....HOW BOUT SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE..!!! Yea fat chance...NO ONE ELSE WAS THERE..!!

OK I am done......

NOPE....no I am Not.....

LSA - What a joke market Least Significant Aircraft..?

Now I am Done.....
 
I wandered through the exhibits yesterday for about an hour or so. and found it good compared to previous expos. I got to meet with folks and not have to wait forever for attention.
 
The one AOPA convention I went to was in Orlando.

The one thing I remember from that event was the blue haired biddies at my table stole my 50th anniversary commemorative glass mug while I went to the restroom.

I still have all my Airventure mugs, btw.
 
Sticky1,

You might not have noticed the gentle ribbing in this thread, but you didn't go to the EAA expo in Hartford...you attended the AOPA expo in Hartford. Yes, EAA is geared toward the experimental market...but their "expo" is called Oshkosh. AOPA, on the other hand, does not cater to the EXP market. Your disappointment in the Expo may stem from this jumble of the alphabet groups.
 
Was at the AOPA Expo today in Hartford and found it quite impressive. Greatly enjoyed Rod Machado's Aviation Humor seminar and the various vendors I spoke with. Looking forward to visiting again tomorrow.
 
Yep U all R right and awake......Thats amazing....!!! It was AOPA and I still stand by my comments. It was geared towards the commercial market....out of the reach of most....

Oh well....poop happens..... and then there is " ......IWIN........ "
 
AOPA is geared towards the GA pilot flying manufactured airplanes - no arguments. But when the guest of honor in the show is the Cessna LSA, you can't claim that they're pushing the turbines on people. I saw the new Diamond 50, with a wooden panel (to make it look like a Lexus) and I liked the airplane but felt that "tarting up" an airplane to make it look like a luxury car (which was tarted up to make it feel like a ChrisCraft from the 50s) was sort of silly.
 
Sticky1 said:
Yep U all R right and awake......Thats amazing....!!! It was AOPA and I still stand by my comments. It was geared towards the commercial market....out of the reach of most...
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By "commercial" do you mean certified, or do you mean bizjets?

If you mean certified, I agree 100%. There's a couple of Velocities at the aircraft display at HFD and that's all the experimental I've seen.

If you mean bizjets, I disagree - Yeah, there's some here (Cessna brought the CJ2+ and Mustang, Piper and Cirrus have their jet mockups, Eclipse is here, Hawker-Beechcraft had a jet present) but there's as many LSA's as jets (Allegro, Flight Design, some new Russian thing, SportCruiser, Skycatcher, SRS, and a bunch of other ones).

It does kinda seem like there's not a whole lot in between. Besides the Jets, Piper has all of their cabin-class stuff here, there's a PC6 on floats, a Grand Caravan, a turbine Duke, a King Air, a Comp Air 12... Buncha big turboprops, plus the jets, and the LSA's...

Cessna, Diamond, and Mooney had a "one of each" sort of approach to the 4-seaters. Piper didn't bring anything smaller than the Matrix and didn't even have any product literature for their 4-seaters. Smallest thing Hawker-Beechcraft had on hand was a Baron. It really does seem like the "LSA and VLJ parade."

BTW Sticky, are you building a Seawind? (I'm guessing based on your avatar and a comment in some thread...) If so... Coooooooooooool. :yes:
 
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Some say tomatos, I say "2 mot toes". Anyway, Like is but a "cherr of bowlies" and if "frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their asses on the rocks. With that said, the expo was ok just not geared to the middle range market wich most of us are in. Who here will be purchasing a biz jet or a platus(sp) within the next year without winning the lottery. And which of you would be foolish enough to purchase an LSA when you can purchase a good used cessna or piper with much better specs. at a better $$........

As for the seawind......I have been flying this one since jan.

ALMOST BETTER THAN SEX.......she flies like a dream and multiples are not uncommon.
 
OK....I know what you were looking for and why it wasn't there.:dunno:

Blue Mountain Avionics.....is what you were looking for and they will not market with certified aircraft (AOPA), hence, the reason for the lack of their presence.

Wait and go to Sun-N-Fun. They will be there. Or, go to Oshkosh next year.

I'd imagine that AOPA would be strong in the seminars and pilot training and weak in equipment showing. If they don't show it at the open house in Frederick I'm probably not gonna see it.

I'll stick with either Oshkosh or Sun-N-Fun for the neat stuff.:goofy:

PS. I'm having trouble understanding the LSA market also....Why would anyone want to spend $100's-O-thousands of dollars on LSA? The resale isn't there.
 
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Checkout_my_Six said:
PS. I'm having trouble understanding the LSA market also....Why would anyone want to spend $100's-O-thousands of dollars on LSA? The resale isn't there.
Click to expand...

Well..one market is pilots who can never get a medical certificate like the "older pilots" with health issues and the disabled like Kate's paraplegic http://www.ableflight.org new LSA pilot.

Kate says he's buying a model of the LSA plane he got certified in.
 
Exactly, for medical reasons. Hummm,

I am not sure which would be safer;
To be in the air so I dont get hit on the ground??
-or -
To be on the ground so I dont get hit in the air??

Unless I am missing something, LSA does NOT sound safe...!!

NOW, down to the nitty gritty...............

I am L@@kING for an efis for my baby. All I want is an efis. I am not interested in engine management since I have an MVP50 that WORKS GREAT.

So the blue mt. is nice however I am constantly hearing about problems...just read there board.

The aspen is nice but is is smaller than I thought.

The dynon is bland but more of what I think I want.

So what the hell do I want....I dont know.......
 
Sticky1 said:
Exactly, for medical reasons. Hummm,

I am not sure which would be safer;
To be in the air so I dont get hit on the ground??
-or -
To be on the ground so I dont get hit in the air??

Unless I am missing something, LSA does NOT sound safe...!!

NOW, down to the nitty gritty...............

I am L@@kING for an efis for my baby. All I want is an efis. I am not interested in engine management since I have an MVP50 that WORKS GREAT.

So the blue mt. is nice however I am constantly hearing about problems...just read there board.

The aspen is nice but is is smaller than I thought.

The dynon is bland but more of what I think I want.

So what the hell do I want....I dont know.......
Click to expand...

We have a Dynon D-10 in the RV. I did all my IR training in the RV last fall and have done several 'hard IFR' flights with the Dynon so far. Granted, it takes some getting used to as far as sensitivity, etc., but it's still a great (relatively) low cost unit.
 
Sticky1 said:
Exactly, for medical reasons. Hummm,

I am not sure which would be safer;
To be in the air so I dont get hit on the ground??
-or -
To be on the ground so I dont get hit in the air??

Unless I am missing something, LSA does NOT sound safe...!!

NOW, down to the nitty gritty...............

I am L@@kING for an efis for my baby. All I want is an efis. I am not interested in engine management since I have an MVP50 that WORKS GREAT.

So the blue mt. is nice however I am constantly hearing about problems...just read there board.

The aspen is nice but is is smaller than I thought.

The dynon is bland but more of what I think I want.

So what the hell do I want....I dont know.......
Click to expand...
I have an older EFIS lite and it works good as a backup to all of the other stuff. Along with the AI is also has an HSI, moving map and a few other features and goes into a standard hole.

I'd think with a diode battery backup that's be the trick you'd want.

Most of the problems I've heard about are related to interfacing the BMA boxes with other equipment. Mine is a stand alone and have had no problems.

If you get near FDK give me a holler and I'd be happy to give ya a demo.
 
Thanks for the invite for the demo....

I have an oil cooling issue I am dealing with now which keeps me close to my home base.... However, I am getting the temps down with cowling and baffling modifications. The temp on a hot day was 230* and now down to 216*. Still a little hot. As far as the battery backup....no problem since I run 2 batteries that can be switched independently onto the buss. Hey remember, I dumped that certified stuff and went experimental. Best move I ever made!! 24/24 - 160mph
 
Sticky1 said:
Thanks for the invite for the demo....

I have an oil cooling issue I am dealing with now which keeps me close to my home base.... However, I am getting the temps down with cowling and baffling modifications. The temp on a hot day was 230* and now down to 216*. Still a little hot. As far as the battery backup....no problem since I run 2 batteries that can be switched independently onto the buss. Hey remember, I dumped that certified stuff and went experimental. Best move I ever made!! 24/24 - 160mph
Click to expand...

What engine are you running? We had oil temp issues with the IO-360 in the RV. We tried moving baffles, moving the oil cooler, etc. etc. We finally solved the problem by throwing money at it -- bought a bigger oil cooler. :)
 
IO-540, 300hp tricked to 325hp.......The 2 coolers are the large ones.
The air inlets were to far behind the prop. I had to install 2 - 8" tubes to within 2" rear of the prop. The inlets were also to low and had to be raised. As I have been told that Cowling is a black art and I now know why.
 
I'm bumping this instead of making a new topic 'cause I only have 1 question.

Does anyone know or has heard anything of what happened to the Comp Air 12 project??

I read somewhere that they borrowed 150 million for it and now 6 years later... :dunno:
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
I'm bumping this instead of making a new topic 'cause I only have 1 question.

Does anyone know or has heard anything of what happened to the Comp Air 12 project??

I read somewhere that they borrowed 150 million for it and now 6 years later... :dunno:
Click to expand...


Aren't they in Central Fla..:dunno::dunno:..


6 years ago anyone could borrow 150 million from a bank... The owner is probably sitting on a beach in the south pacific sipping on a drink with a tiny umbrella in it and had 140 million stashed in an offshore account...
 
N801BH said:
Aren't they in Central Fla..:dunno::dunno:..


6 years ago anyone could borrow 150 million from a bank... The owner is probably sitting on a beach in the south pacific sipping on a drink with a tiny umbrella in it and had 140 million stashed in an offshore account...
Click to expand...

That's a disappointment. I was hoping to see if it could actually make its claimed 2500 mile range @310 kts.

If it could've achieved those performance goals, that would've made it capable of flying from the West Coast to Hawaii and at a much lower cost than a Lear 36.
 
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