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Brian Erwert and Scott McDaniels Retire from Mothership

DeltaRomeo

doug reeves: unfluencer
Staff member
VAFDR_%201289%20Nov.%2021%2016.39.jpg

(from mothership)
A huge "congrats" two long-time Van's employees who officially retired this week after many, many years of great work!

Brian Erwert retires as Director of Production. He started work at Van"s way back in 1984! He led our factory team for many years and we"ll miss him, but he"s certainly earned this transition to a more relaxed life without the cross-city commute!

Scott McDaniels, whom many know from his presence on the Van's Air Force forums, has worked at Van's since 1996. Most recently Scott was the Prototype Shop Manager, and he even stuck around a while longer than he'd originally planned to help with the RV-15 prototype aircraft project. In retirement, he"ll be working as a DAR and will remain very involved in the RV community.

Throughout their careers, both of these top-notch men were a substantial influence in making Van's Aircraft what it is today. We hope you'll join us in thanking both of them for their service to the RV community and in wishing them the very best as they begin the next chapter of each of their lives!​
 
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Congratulations guys! You each have quite the legacy in building of the RV aircraft company and (builder/pilot) experience!

Hope to still hear from you both!
 
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Congrats to both, hope Scott stays active here. I have always enjoyed his post and appreciate it the knowledge and wisdom.
 
Happy retirement!

As a person new to retirement myself, I can vouch that it is everything you imagined it to be.
 
Both of you, thanks for all your help over the years! If ever retirement was well earned, you guys did it. All the best!

Scott, I hope you've groomed your VAF successor....

Thanks again,
Dave
 
Happy retirement!

Congratulations! I read every single Scott's post and always learn something new. Thank you very much for contributing! Please stay with us here as long as you can.
 
I’ll join in for the congrats, thanks, and best wishes!

PS
Nice being able to retire in your 50s in the US ;)
 
Congratulations! I read every single Scott's post and always learn something new.
I agree! Thanks, Scott, for all the help you've given to so many of us for so many years. I hope you enjoy retirement and will still be a part of VAF!
 
Thanks to both of you for your hard work over the years for us. And thanks to Scott for his honest posts on VAF despite the occasional blowback by the argumentative types (and I do abide by Vno, except above 10,000' of course! :D).
 
From the staff at TS/AS Flightlines, we too offer our congratulations to Brian and Scott. Both me contributed greatly to Vans Aircraft, and they will be tough to replace.
Enjoy retirement guys!
Tom
 
Thanks to everyone for the kind words, and I am sure Brian would say the same if he was active on VAF forums.

I fully intend to stay active in the RV community so I will still be around the forums. I have been a DAR for about 1.5 years now, and will continue with that work for both LSA and E-AB aircraft along with pre-buy inspections and other occasional projects in support of RV builders and owners.

I hope to continue to be involved at Van's as well, but just on a less structured / occasional basis.
Greg and I have discussed working on more how to videos, so hopefully having a more freed up schedule will provide some available time for that as well.
 
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Greg and I have discussed working on more how to videos, so hopefully having a more freed up schedule will provide some available time for that as well.
That would be great. Your video on how to mount and glass in the windscreen was very helpful, and came at exactly the right time in my build process. And mine turned out perfectly, due mainly to the excellent tips in that video.
 
Both these guys look too young to retire.

And thanks for the fuel tank sealing video!!

They figured it out... that's how retirement should look! Still young and fit enough to enjoy the time off!
Me...I'm still trying to figure out how to make that work.... Count me as jealous!
 
Congrats you guys!

Scott, your words of wisdom on this forum was of immense help when I was building. I always put you in the "this dude knows his ****" category.

Enjoy retirement!
 
You will be missed!

As another representative builder in the Vans community, thank you both sooooo much for your service. Your contributions to the continuing evolving revolution in experimental aviation has been tremendous. Scott, I've read as many of your posts as I can and watched all your videos. I can not over emphasize enough just how valuable your communication in succinct and expert form is to all of us. Your collective departures our definitely our loss. I can't imagine it would be worth your (Scott's) effort to make it down to Sonoma Wine country, but it would be a huge honor if one day you are my DAR. Please, please work with Greg on making additional video's and help bring VANs forward and upward.
 
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