I had my paint scheme designed back in 2020 by Jonathan at Plane Schemer (now Evoke Aircraft Design). I also was put on the waitlist for paint in 2020 or 2021 with a May 2023 drop off date. Of course, I wasn’t ready for that slot when it came up, so I pushed it out to October of 2024. Evoke Aviation has been really busy and drop off dates kept getting pushed out. When I looked at the schedule right around the time I finished up the plane, I saw my slot had pushed out to June/July 2025. I was sort of bummed. I really wanted my plane painted by Oshkosh 2025. Not long after that, I heard that Evoke was changing their waitlist to more of just a list without drop-off dates. Only the next 4-6 airplanes would be scheduled per quarter and you had to be flying!. It makes a lot of sense. With the amount of changes going on in peoples builds and having to maintain drop off date for a waitlist that is several years long. Having to adjust those dates all the time has got to be time consuming.

Looking at the list of planes in front of me marked as flying, I was figuring I might get in early 2025. However, Evoke contacted me to say they had a Nov 1st drop off date and if I wanted to take it. Yes! I do!

My friend, and CFI, Scott had asked if he could tag along for the trip, so we shoved off on Friday Nov 1st to drop the plane off at Evoke. My plan was to leave Friday and we had a commercial flight scheduled late Sunday afternoon in Atlanta. That would give us a couple of days to account for weather, if needed. The weather turned out to be decent for the majority of the day. It was, however, breezy. Another gusting into the lower 30 Kts on the surface kind of day. Winds aloft were also brutal and my plan to fly down to Frederick, MD area had us pointed directly into the wind. We stayed low at 4500′ to keep out of the wind as much as possible. Even so, we saw 40-50 Kts headwind on the nose.

My original plan was to make the first stop at KCHO (Charlottesville, VA), via Frederick, MD to avoid the Washington DC ATIS area. However, the wind killed those plans. It was already looking like 3 hours just to get to Frederick and it was already lunch time. So we decided to stop a little early for a bio break and to eat our sandwiches that we brought for lunch.

The winds were really gusting and it proved to be a very challenging approach. I was fighting it with airspeed deviations of +/- 10kts. I, once again, made a smooth landing given the conditions.

We then stayed to the east of the mountain range all the way to our 2nd stop in Canon, GA. This was a small little airport in the middle of nowhere with nobody around. Thankfully, we found the code to the door to use the bathroom, fueled up, and headed back out.

The weather was very marginal through the hills between GA and our final stop in Gadsden, AL. Again, we were both constrained to VFR only as neither of us had been able to complete an IPC, despite our best efforts. South of Atlanta seemed to provide a VFR path around the weather and allow us to get in on Friday. We planned to head to the SE corner of the Atlanta bravo where the floor of the shelf was 3000′. So we ducked down to 2500′ and transited under the rectangular shelf of the Bravo. Once through, we then headed NW to our final destination.

We pulled the plane inside the Evoke hangar and decided to come back the next morning to discuss the details and go over the plane and take a tour. It had been a long day of travel and it was a good idea to get some dinner and sleep. Scott and I headed to a hotel and grabbed a room, then headed downtown to Blackstone Pub on Jonathan and Autumn’s recommendation. It was yummy.

The next morning we met at 9am and Autumn and I went through the design and any last minute changes. We also picked out colors.

We went over the plane and discussed areas that needed attention etc.. Jonathan mentioned that it was just things that the typically see and nothing too bad. Then we took a tour of the facilities. We were originally thinking of heading to Birmingham for the night, however Jonathan and Autumn suggested Chattanooga, TN as an option with stop in Fort Payne for lunch about half way.

I recently got an update that everything had been disassembled, cleaned, sanded, and the aluminum has been treated.  Everything has been primed except for the engine cowlings. The rivets have been wiped as well. Almost everything is prepared for the bodywork to begin

Here is the final scheme. I do feel like the blue here is a little lighter compared to what it’ll be in real life.

The Evoke team puts so much effort into the body work and making the fiberglass perfect. As a result, it’s a really long process. I was told 4-5 months, but I’m, of course, counting on 5. So I should be getting the plane back sometime in March.