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QB regrets...

T

TShort

Well Known Member
I'm getting ready to order the wings for my -8; since I'm planning on getting the QB fuse I have to order it at the same time.
I was wondering if those of you that have gone with the QB fuse have any significant regrets after doing so? Anything that you would like to have added / done that was not possible with the QB?

Thanks in advance

Thomas
-8 empennage, riveting
 
Well I have not started my QB fuse yet but I am about to, and after finishing my slow build wings, I can say with out a doubt I am glad I got the QB fuse. There is a lot of work done for you, I ordered the slow wings because I wanted to have single piece top skins and wanted to save the money for a CS prop. But I can say from what I have seen of the QB fuse I am not sure there is much you would really be able(want to) change.
Anyway best of luck, with the prepunching the wings went together quickly so I imagine the fuse would too(BUT man the QB is nice)
Kirk RV-8 Getting ready to start fuse
 
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QB Fuselage

I am a fan of the QB kits. No Jig to build.
I recomend you delete the gear and buy the Grove gear.
 
QB fuse

I have both the QB fuse and wings. I am very much impressed with the quality of the work. For me the two biggest decision factors were time and the fact that the RV-8 fuse requires a jig to assemble (unlike the RV-7 & 9).

The only pain I have run into is making the mods required for removable floors. A royal pain in the )(*&)&*(!

Knowing what I know today I would definately go with the quickbuild options.

Good luck and have fun.
 
QB experience

Thomas: I got both wing and fuselage QB's - lucky me. I have nothing but praise for the workmanship and feel this has saved me a good deal of time. That's a good thing since our progress has been slow. We'll get there, though. If you can do the QB I can't see any negatives except the cost and possibly fewer bragging rights later on. Bill
 
I agree with Bill. I got both QB wings & Fuse. I don't regret it at all. If you figure the extra Cost/Time saved ( I'm Slow too), your labor is very cheap. I think Van's web site has it figured out somewhere.

Derrell
7A QB
 
Bill Dicus said:
Thomas:If you can do the QB I can't see any negatives except the cost and possibly fewer bragging rights later on. Bill
Click to expand...

On the other hand, there "might" be a psychological advantage when the time comes to sell a flying aircraft that was built from a QB kit because a potential buyer might feel better about a "factory built" kit (for the major components).

I'm not saying QB's are going to end up necessarily "better" built, only that there could be some psychology involved. Enough, I would hope, to allow a person to recover some of the extra money spent originally on the QB kit.

Just a thought, because some of us older builders may very possibly be losing our medicals way before we've flown out our RV's, and the darn things are much too big to use as weathervanes.
 
QB is high quality

There is no way I could have put the fuselage together as well as the QB fuselage. The long skins are riveted perfectly, and they overlap very tightly. Also, the bevel they did on the overlapping skins is a thing of beauty.

I've spoken to several RV8 builders who did it from the slow build, and all have said they would do QB next time.

My only complaint about the QB is the primer they use. It's a "wash primer", and needs a topcoat to seal it. I would have been happy to pay more to have it primed with a good epoxy primer.
 
Maybe not

Vern,
I think you'll get good money out of your RV when you sell it regardless of whether it is slow- or quick-build. Maybe the best way to think of the money spent on QB kit is as an investment in speeding up the project in order to get flying.

It would be a shame to make a weathervane out of a flyable RV, but it certainly isn't too large: check out the photo of this weathervane in Whitehorse, Canada. :D

Mark Andrews N598X


Highflight said:
On the other hand, there "might" be a psychological advantage when the time comes to sell a flying aircraft that was built from a QB kit because a potential buyer might feel better about a "factory built" kit (for the major components).

I'm not saying QB's are going to end up necessarily "better" built, only that there could be some psychology involved. Enough, I would hope, to allow a person to recover some of the extra money spent originally on the QB kit.

Just a thought, because some of us older builders may very possibly be losing our medicals way before we've flown out our RV's, and the darn things are much too big to use as weathervanes.
Click to expand...
 
I have built a slow build RV6 and am finishing a QB RV8. If you want perfection and believe you can achieve it, then the slow build is the way to go. My QB kit is built very well; however, it is not perfect. Most of the defects you will find are a few over bucked rivets and maybe a slight scratch or ding. Remember, the factory guys do this for a living, they are good but they don't plan on living with it as their baby. For my money, I'd do the QB every time. Figure out how many hours it would take to build it and do the math on the extra cost for the QB...I think it's pretty cheap labor for a really good product!
 
Another thing you have to consider is that the lead time for QB is 5 months as opposed to 8/10 weeks for slow build wing/fuse. You could complete the wings during the extra 3 month wait time and save $4000. I am going slow build all the way. I guess I am like others here in that $8000 will go a long way towards a prop or instrumentation.
 
Thanks for all the replies - makes me feel better about going the QB route. I'm going to build the wings myself while I wait for the QB fuse to arrive.

I am leaning toward the grove gear, but don't know anything about how they affect handling on the ground - taxi / takeoff / landing / etc. Are they stiffer, springier ... ?

Right now I am a zero time taildragger pilot so I'm not looking to complicate things.

Thomas
-8 empennage, riveting
 
Lighter is Better

You will not notice any difference in ground handeling with the Grove gear.
The difference is in the weight savings. So a small difference in the flying qualities.
Buy a tailwheel Cessna,Citabria, Taylorcraft, to fly while you are building and you will transition to your RV 8 with confidence.
 
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