If our brother-in-law absolutely, positively insisted on an experimental, we would steer him toward anything made by Van’s, such as this RV-10.

Go on, admit it. After the umpteenth time you’ve called the company that now owns the company that built your airplane three decades ago for some obscure part and were greeted with maniacal laughter from the other end of the line, you got to wondering: Isn’t there something better? And that got you pondering those elaborate and reportedly fast Experimental aircraft you’ve seen dotting the airport.

The hype is compelling. You’ve heard the guy with the Lancair say he goes 200 knots on a fuel flow that barely gets your Baron to run-up speed. Plus, because Experimentals operate on a different set of airworthiness rules, he owns a Repairman Certificate…