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08-07-2015, 03:15 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Carlsbad, ca
Posts: 49
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Quickbuild premium
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike H
Yes, it is easier. No, I do not find that having better designed and fabricated parts takes any fun out of the build.
Several RV-14 builders must be building aluminum canoes in their garages if there are no RV-14 fuselages being built outside of the Vans factory.
The remark concearning the manuals and the fact that the -7 is well documented is comical if you have seen any of the newer plans such as the -10, -12 and -14. There is no need to research the pool of accumulated knowledge when building a -14, just follow the clear and concise instructions step by step.
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If the 14 is easier to build than the 7, wouldn't one expect the Quickbuild premium for the 14 to be less than the 7? However, that is not the case, the 14 Quickbuild premium is $1400 more than the 7. Just an observation.
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08-07-2015, 06:33 PM
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Pocahontas MS
Posts: 3,884
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My -7 airframe structure is basically finished. While building, I spent almost as much time searching for parts and correlating the instructions to the plans sheets as I did building. And while I won't claim to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, I'm not dull, and I had prior experience with other homebuilts and actual projects (including a Bushby Mustang II).
By far the worst thing for me was the parts list & random 'organization' of the parts themselves. The -7 kit I received had a paper parts list, with parts in an order that could have made sense only to the guy pulling parts off the shelf at the warehouse. Completely random list, with raw material stock mixed with pre-formed parts, hardware, etc, with no order at all by section of the kit, number, or alpha characters. Same exact hardware numbers come in who knows how many different bags. Some bags have as many as 6 or 8 different hardware types in the same bag, often of nearly identical sizes. I, along with *many* others, begged the factory to make available a 'soft' copy of the parts list, so I could at least sort it myself. The answer was that they didn't know how to get the file out of the computer; it wasn't compatible with computers out in the real world. Note that even the .pdf files they now sell on disc are .pdf's in name only; they're basically photocopies of the paper documents. They are not searchable.
The -7 really is a good kit, but could have had documentation that was several orders of magnitude better than it was (is?).
I haven't seen the -14 plans, but I hear that they are set up like the -10, with instructions printed on the same sheet as the drawings they refer to. That would have been a great improvement for me. I hope they made the same kind of improvements in the parts list, and include a searchable 'soft' copy.
The -14 wasn't available when I started my kit. I'm not a very big guy, especially in this supersized age (5'9, 155 soaking wet), but I'd still have picked the -14 if I could have afforded it. Most of the guys (and a lot of the women) that I know *are* supersized these days, and just don't fit well in a -4/-6/-7/-9. And on a long cross-country, the extra room would be welcome, even to smaller people like me and my spouse.
Charlie
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08-07-2015, 09:47 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1,565
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rv7charlie
The -7 really is a good kit, but could have had documentation that was several orders of magnitude better than it was (is?).
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The documentation for the -6/6A was really good:
Step one: Build the wings.
Step two: Now that the wings are built, build the fuselage.
__________________
Brad Benson, Maplewood MN.
RV-6A N164BL, Flying since Nov 2012!
If you're not making mistakes, you're probably not making anything
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08-08-2015, 06:12 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Central IL
Posts: 5,516
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rv7charlie
<snip>
The -7 really is a good kit, but could have had documentation that was several orders of magnitude better than it was (is?).
<snip>
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The 14 instructions are light years ahead of the 7. Yes - LIGHTYEARS!
Or you could think 8 and buy Smokey!
__________________
Bill
RV-7
Lord Kelvin:
“I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about,
and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you
cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge
is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind.”
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