New To Building RV And Would Need Some Help
 

Just re-located to the US (New Jersey) and I'm considering building a VANs airplane and looking for someone near by who built his own airplane and would love to come see it and get some pointers. :)

Man, sounds like you drew the short straw on this one.. well, welcome to NJ i guess -- the Garden State, or the armpit of America, your choice. :D

I'm almost done with my rv-12iS build at Old Bridge airport (3n6), come on down and I'll show you around. Theres another -12 builder in Ocean (basement building), and completed -12's at Monmouth Exec (kblm), Sky Manor, and at Old Bridge that i know of.

Welcome, don't waist your time with the RV-12 Homebuilt Help DVD's as they are mostly out of date for the RV12iS. I know because I have them all. They are great for the RV-12 Classic about 80% is applicable. For the RV-12iS about 40% may apply. The Wings and the tail mostly but there are some differences now.

Hello Rob,

Thanks for replying man.

I will surely give you a call to agree on a convenient date and time to meet up.

Thank you for the heads up David

EAA offers a weekend course teaching the basics of RV building ?- mostly rudimentary riveting skills.i found it very useful having built only fiberglass an tube-and-rag previously.

How long did it take you to build the RV12is? Hours and time frame. Thanks

I started in July 2017 and took a break from Dec 2017-Apr 2018 and again from Jan 2018-Mar 2018. And from July-Oct 2019, I'll classify my activity as "lazy". (so 26 months so far with 8 of those off and 3-4 months of being lazy (ie. showing up to the airport for 3 hours in a week).

I'm pretty much done and just awaiting the arrival of the avionics kit. All other optional kits are finished. I also spent a lot of time sanding/etching/priming many internal surfaces which added a lot of time (maybe 25% more time).

I expect to be done by the end of this year.. So 2.5 years.. which could have been 2 or less. I worked most weekends, and a few days after work..say 6pm-9pm.

My -12iS empennage/tail cone kit will be arriving in a couple of weeks. I agree with David regarding the evolution of the kit since the Homebuilt Help DVDs were produced. Nevertheless, I would be interested in purchasing a used but working set of the DVDs for the empennage/tail cone and wing kits only. Maybe one of you that has these would want to recoup some of that investment. I believe they can still help me with some of the upfront learning curve. While building, I certainly intend to follow the provided KAI explicitly.

Thanks, My goal is 2 yrs so it seems doable and I have a friend who is A&P

I also have a 12IS build in progress. Working on it in Teterboro. I started an empennage kit at the beginning of this year but came across a deal for an empennage and fuselage already completed. So I got that and am just about to order my finishing kit.

Path to RV-12iS
 

I started to build my original RV-12 (classic) in July of 2014. I complete the Wings, Empennage, and Fuselage by July 2017. Then Van's threw me a curve ball. They came out with the RV-12iS in 2017. It was said that Vans would never offer the RV-12 with the Rotax 912iS. So why would I think that this would ever be an option. So after a very hard sole search and a trip to OSH. I decided to sell my Fuselage which I did to a nice pilot in Canada. The Wings and the Empennage from the Classic where able to be modified to conform to the iS standard. So I got the New RV-12iS Fuselage and built it. Fast forward to today over 5 years later and my RV-12iS is almost 100% complete and ready to run, installing the aft window right now then ready for FAA Airworthiness inspection.

David,
Looks like a beautiful finish. Look forward to hearing about first flight and seeing more pictures.

That looks great, David! Nice job!

Very good. Now you can help spearhead the Ohio RV-12 gang and we can get a few airplanes together.

If you remember Dave, I almost bought your legacy fuselage. Still kicking myself for passing that up...

Yes Jim I sure do, I remember that time very well. But as they say "no use crying over spilled milk" I am very much looking forward to doing the O-H, I-O fly in circuit next year. Should have the FAA Airwothness inspection completed by this January.