AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2020 - 32

PILOT BRIEFING
2020 SWEEPSTAKES

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No more flying yellow billboard
Exterior transformation underway
B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N

YOU MAY NOT recognize the AOPA 2020
Sweepstakes RV-10 the next time you see it.
"All that yellow paint will be stripped
and gone," said Kendall Horst, owner of
Lancaster Aero, of the fading, pudding-yellow paint that has covered the Van's RV-10
since it first flew in 2007. "In fact, it seems
to be doing a pretty good job of removing
itself."
The splotchy, mismatched, peeling
yellow paint was one of the most recognizable and talked-about aspects of the
AOPA RV-10 at the AOPA Fly-Ins and
other events where it was displayed in
2019. And large blotches of paint peeled
away from the leading edges and fuselage
when the airplane flew through rain or had
vinyl decals removed.
AOPA selected Lancaster Aero in
Smoketown, Pennsylvania, for paint by
virtue of its reputation as a top-quality
shop, and owner Horst's enthusiasm for
the project.
"I'm an AOPA member and a pilot, and
I've been following AOPA sweepstakes airplanes for years," he said. "I've wanted to
participate in a project like this for a long
time, and since we paint many RVs, I knew
we could do it well. This RV-10 is going

32 | AOPA PILOT March 2020

to show people the kind of workmanship
we're known for."
Craig Barnett, founder of Scheme
Designers, presented AOPA with more
than 20 potential designs and innumerable paint combinations, and the one AOPA
selected (with some modifications) turned
out to be the very first one on Barnett's list.
Barnett has designed many RV-10 paint
schemes, and they're typically tasteful and
understated. This time, AOPA asked for
something that would make this unique
aircraft stand apart. It had to be instantly
identifiable as the one and only AOPA
Sweepstakes RV-10, which will be given
away at the end of the year.
"The aggressive design and colors are
meant to stand out," Barnett said. "It's not
going to get lost in the crowd. It's not just
another pretty face."
At the moment, the AOPA 2020
Sweepstakes RV-10 isn't pretty at all.
It's been stripped down to bare metal,
and all the control surfaces have been
removed and sanded. The good news is
that the underlying metal construction
of the airframe is easy to inspect, and the
quality of materials and construction is
excellent.

The gorgeous leather interior installed
by SF Sport Aviation has been covered with
protective plastic, and so has the digital IFR
instrument panel by Advanced Avionics
Systems, Avidyne, and Aerosport Products.
There's a great deal of detailed and
painstaking work still to do. Some of the
fiberglass supporting the windshield and
windows had cracked over the years and
needed repairs and reinforcement.
Also, it was time to upgrade the RV-10
door-latch system with a kit designed by
Sean Strasburg of PlaneAround LLC. The
original RV-10 door latches connect to the
airframe in two places, and multiple doors
have been lost or damaged on other RV-10s
over the years when they were closed
improperly or failed to connect securely.
The PlaneAround system adds a third
point of contact between each door and
the airframe, and it complies with a service bulletin from Van's Aircraft.
RV-10 builders and pilots have long
regarded the doors as a potential weak
point, so making an additional connection
to the airframe on each door addresses the
issue permanently.
"I'm looking forward to working on the
doors," said Horst of Lancaster Aero. "The
[PlaneAround] kit seems like an elegant
solution, and I think we can get the doors
to fit a little better, too. The pilot's door has
some gaps that we can correct."
Who knows? Smoothing the airflow
might even give the sleek RV-10 another
knot or two.
EMAIL dave.hirschman@aopa.org
AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2020

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