Lack of airframe deice is probably its biggest issue.
Thermal or pneumatic.
Take your pick
The very short video for that therm-X de-ice “boot” is pretty impressive. I was always under the impression that thermal de-ice was a big no-no on the basis of run-back? That video doesn’t appear to show any evidence of run-back at all and makes me wonder why more manufacturers aren’t using them? It appears 100’s times better than boots (which have a limited life cycle) and TKS which is messy and the fluid costs a fortune. From this website, it appears to be some form of overlay which heats.
Why don’t the likes of Cirrus / Diamond etc use something like that? it would be a pretty formidable machine with such a system?
[URL fixed – it uses a trailing underscore which breaks something here]
“The leading edge “parting zone” receives constant heat while the “shed zone” is managed by a digital controller to receive a heated cycle to disbond ice so it can be aerodynamically whisked away virtually eliminating runback"
Apparently.
Lancair Evolution with BRS now
Just read about this on COPA:
Quotation:
Lancair is adding a BRS-developed parachute system to the Evolution turboprop as standard equipment. They say that builders have the option to omit it if they wish, which would save 70 pounds. The kit price is going up $60,000 (to $630,000 minus the engine, which is $510,000).
Finally, there’s an alternative ;-) But $ 630.000 is damn expensive for a kit …
Well it’s not really the garage-built variety kit ^^ – as a matter of fact I’m sure assembly quality is above that of the rest of the certified handfitted spam cans.
Yes, of course it is … but my estimate is $ 2 M until it’s ready … and then you still have a non certified airplane that will be very hard to sell one day. …
Evolutions get snapped up very quickly and have pretty good resale value. Same goes for RV’s: they’re pretty sought after.
No, you are right – the owner works in the factory for two weeks :-) That much about “kitplane” :-)
Maybe you are right, but the other problem would be that you couldn’t fly it IFR in many countries, like Germany. And for VFR only it’s a bit expensive :-)
Great news. When they get pan-European transit and IFR rights, I am IN.
Yes the 51% owner build is a joke. But just as well. I once flew in an RV and it didn’t need windows. You could see the ground through the holes in the airframe. Well, you could stick your fingers out through them. Build quality of homebuilts depends so much on the builder.
I saw one close-up at LDLO. Beautiful build quality, way ahead of anything in certified GA with only the Cessna 400 which I flew in c. 2009 (N400UK) approaching it. And, why use crap parts on a plane costing hundreds of k? It’s just plain dumb. Some homebuilts use cheap transparent pipe for the brakes. I had this conversation with one aspiring €400k certified newcomer a while ago. Use €50 switches, not €5 switches like Cessna and Piper use and which feel like $%^& and look like $%^&. And at the $2M level, it’s a no brainer… you chuck in aerospace-grade-everything.
There is some progress on G-reg homebuilt IFR – I need to write something up and get it “approved” because of the politics… But it won’t help with the cross-frontier permit requirement and the IFR will be UK airspace only. Unless you keep a low profile and just disregard the permits (as many do) but for that you need to keep your enemy count to a very small integer value and post-EuroGA it’s probably too late for me 
What about deicing? Does the Evolution have TKS? Of course “low profile” is possible … but woould YOU want to spend that much money and then every flight is an illegal one?
De-icing… if it has prop TKS that’s all I have now, but I have 1/5 of the climb rate of this machine. This plane is like your SR22 but with 3 turbos screwed on, and then some. In civilian life, the only non-jet thing which will decisively outperform it is a Spitfire.
As regards illegality, what you do in the homebuilt world is you send off for permits to every Tom Dick and Harry along the route. Certain countries almost never reply (Spain). Some are covered by concessions anyway. And then you fly anyway. Any illegality is a “second order” one. But you are right; I would not pay this much money for that.
Also I would have to sell the TB20. Currency on type is vital (1 plane, 1 gurl).
One can dream 
