Welcome to Wallace and Karen’s Blog!
We bought this 2010 RV-12 ELSA in September 2022 to economically replace our 1979 Piper Dakota. Our first time around with experimental aircraft. The Dakota was more of a traveling plane, not good for a beach/bay flights as our area to fly on the Gulf. We also wanted to do our own maintenance and yearly inspection annuals, which I got an FAA issued LSRI (Light Sport Repairman Inspection) certificate. We don’t get the speed and payload with the RV-12, but we burn 3.5 to 4.5 gallons per hour of 93 octane no ethanol compared to the Dakota fuel burn of 12 to 13 gallons per hour of 100LL aviation high dollar gas, big difference in fuel prices.
Our new RV-12 needed many upgrades and several Service Bulletins. The comm radio started giving us trouble and the Dynon D180 EFIS 7″ screen was hard to see, not bright. So, the order was placed to Van’s Aircraft for new all glass avionics. We went with the Dynon Skyview HDX dual 10″ screens with autopilot and strobe/nav/landing light kit. The catch – you have to pull out the old wiring harness and install the new updated harness, that’s every wire from the firewall to the tail end. Plus, many little things like new snap bushing holes, wire holders, light holders, micro switches, etc..
