The airplane will be done at the paint shop soon. My plan is to fly it to the airshow at Lakeland, FL in April. While I didn’t build this airplane, I am planning to enter for judging at the airshow. If it were to win an award, it will be properly credited to Lester (the builder).
I wrote an e-mail to the Sun N Fun organizers to confirm that the airplane was eligible for judging since it flew before last year’s show. They said that there is no requirement that the airplane be “new” to be eligible.
I really don’t know if it is award worthy, but I know it is an extremely good build. With an Evoke paint job, it will be one of the nicest RV builds I have ever seen. Stay tuned.
I spoke to Jonathan McCormick from Evoke. He told me that the airplane was moving from the body shop to the paint booth this week. He expected the painting to take 4 to 5 weeks!
Before I had even bought the new airplane, I knew where I would want to have it painted. My RV-14A was painted by Evoke in Gadsden, AL back in 2021. They did a magnificent job. I definitely wanted this new plane to get the same treatment. The only problem is that they have a two year waiting list.
I reached out to Jonathan McCormick at Evoke hoping to get a little sooner spot since I was a two time customer. Turns out that Lester had already reserved a spot for the fall of 2025 and I could keep that spot. Woo hoo!
I won’t sugar coat it, Evoke costs a lot of money and is not fast. Having said that, there is no doubt in my mind that they are totally worth every penny and the long wait. They are meticulous in their prep work and are true artists with paint. There is a reason that the planes they paint win awards at the big airshows (Osh Kosh and Sun n Fun) every year.
Besides the great results that they create there is another reason why I would never take my airplane to any other paint shop: Customer Service. I got to work with Autumn Baugh who is one of their very talented designers. She offered lots of suggestions and even was willing to tell me when one of my ideas wouldn’t look good. She sent me countless revisions and made all the tiny changes I asked for. When it was time to take the plane to Alabama, I got to meet with her and Jonathan and review everything. We had a great lunch at Local Joe’s BBQ. Jonathan commented that my new plane was one of the best RV-10 builds he had ever seen (I wonder if he says that to every customer).
BTW, Evoke has a YouTube channel and they do some really cool videos that document what it takes to paint airplanes. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/@EvokeAviation
Here are pictures of the airplane in Gadsden (Sept 2025). I expect it to be ready by February 2026.
Local Joe’s BBQ is really good.
In case you are wondering what the paint job will look like…
I asked them to use the same colors and scheme that they used on my RV-14A. I made a few very minor changes but it will look almost exactly like my old airplane. While perhaps not as edgy as some of the designs they have done, I really like the classic under-stated design.
It took me four tries to build a paint booth that I’m happy with. The key was using heavier (4mil) plastic. I used two exhaust fans and a single inlet vent. I also have a small electric space heater that can quickly raise the temperature in the booth to about the surface temperature of the sun.
Today’s goal is to paint more interior parts and the canopy frame. I need to get the frame painted so I can install the plexiglass windshield and rear window.
The biggest thing I’ve learned about painting is that the set up to paint takes 10x the time it actually takes to paint.
Meanwhile the panel should arrive on Wednesday. Jon thinks it will take a couple weeks to get the panel fully in. He is probably right, but I am hoping it is quicker than that since the engine should be arriving in three weeks or so (and I still have to glue the canopy).
Jon and I painted sone of the access panels. They came out pretty good. Some minor contamination (dust) and the paint needed to be reduced a little more but quite happy with the result.
We also began prepping the rear window for Sikaflex (glue). Jon took measurements for the engine grounding strap.
I ordered the new firewall forward hose package from Aviation Specialty. Steve gave me full credit for the slightly older hoses I bought toward the new ones with integrated fire sleeve. The hoses are beautiful.
The engine looks to be three weeks out and the instrument panel is two weeks away.
I mentioned this before, but I realized that I wouldn’t be able to install two rivets near the canopy aft frame because I had already installed the canopy latch mechanism. I certainly was not looking forward to uninstalling the latch mechanism just to put in two rivets on each side. Last night, my father and I decided to do it. It probably took about 2.5 hours to uninstall, rivet and reinstall everything. Very frustrating!
Funny story, I very nearly managed to get a closed end ratcheting wrench stuck in such a way that I would not be able to get it out. I was tightening a bolt for part of the latch mechanism when I realized that the wrench on the nut side was trapped between that bolt and another nearby bolt. I couldn’t back the bolt out because my wrench would just ratchet when I turned the bolt. I yanked, pried and cursed. I seriously thought I was going to have to leave the wrench where it was forever. I finally managed to get a second skinny open end wrench on to the nut so I could back the bolt out. Man, that was close!
