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View Poll Results: RV14 Customer Support.
I feel Vans customer support is fine as is for the RV14. 39 81.25%
Vans needs to step up their Customer Support for the RV14 on the Engine and Avionics. 9 18.75%
Voters: 48. You may not vote on this poll

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  #11  
Old 12-13-2012, 04:13 PM
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RDOG RDOG is offline
 
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Location: Propwash Airport (16X), Texas
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemmingman View Post
Keep your eye on this link for that data when it gets recorded.

http://www.vansaircraft.com/pdf/weights.pdf
This is exactly the problem. They are shipping now. It won't help to know after its delivered.
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  #12  
Old 12-13-2012, 04:31 PM
pvalovich pvalovich is offline
 
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Location: Ridgecrest, CA
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Default Too Many Options

I built an -8A with a new Aerosport IO360, an AFS 4500, a TruTrak ADI2, a Garmin 396, B&C Alternator and used Stark to wire the panel. Vans supplied superb customer service regarding the airframe, but I did not expect them to answer questions about the engine or avionics. Aerosprt, AFS, TruTrak, B&C and Stein were always there for specialized questions.

You don't need a one-stop shop - there are too many options.
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  #13  
Old 12-13-2012, 05:35 PM
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plehrke plehrke is offline
 
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by pvalovich View Post
I built an -8A with a new Aerosport IO360, an AFS 4500, a TruTrak ADI2, a Garmin 396, B&C Alternator and used Stark to wire the panel. Vans supplied superb customer service regarding the airframe, but I did not expect them to answer questions about the engine or avionics. Aerosprt, AFS, TruTrak, B&C and Stein were always there for specialized questions.

You don't need a one-stop shop - there are too many options.
Totally agree that Van can not possible keep up with the options and variations to be an expert. Nor do I expect them to.

There is a one-top place to get the answer and it is this Forum.
Pay your $25 and ask all the questions you want. There is someone that will know the answer.
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  #14  
Old 12-13-2012, 08:52 PM
gasman gasman is offline
 
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Location: Sonoma County
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemmingman View Post
Keep your eye on this link for that data when it gets recorded.

http://www.vansaircraft.com/pdf/weights.pdf



Quote:
Originally Posted by RDOG View Post
This is exactly the problem. They are shipping now. It won't help to know after its delivered.

???????????????????????????????............
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Last edited by gasman : 12-13-2012 at 08:56 PM.
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  #15  
Old 12-14-2012, 08:52 AM
Erik.37m Erik.37m is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Rancho Palos Verdes,CA
Posts: 27
Default Revisions to drawings

"4 A revision bar on each new revised page to show what has changed on that page."
Or a web page that has all the pages in the assembly manual dedicated to that particular plane that shows all the revisions on a revision bar for each page. In other words, look up the page in question and see if the same as what you have. That way you know is is the latest drawing.
Erik
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  #16  
Old 12-14-2012, 12:49 PM
tjo tjo is offline
 
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Location: La Center,wa
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Default

This ain't IKEA.

Yes, they are expanding to a new market, but not the market you describe.

Tim
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  #17  
Old 12-14-2012, 08:28 PM
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Buchanan View Post
You got that right!!

The time spent (wasted?) on polling about customer service could be better spent on researching the decisions and options needed to build the plane. The current kits and customer service are already far beyond what a builder needs to complete a safe aircraft.
The RV-14 is to be a all inclusive kit. So what research and decisions do I need to make? I'll just be adding options. The RV-14 is a new approach by Van's in the aircraft kit market and i'm happy they are doing it. The success of the RV-12 proves their concept. I would like a better customer experience. I want Van's to give me the information and not make me pull it from them.
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  #18  
Old 12-14-2012, 09:21 PM
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Sam Buchanan Sam Buchanan is offline
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by RDOG View Post
The RV-14 is to be a all inclusive kit. So what research and decisions do I need to make? I'll just be adding options. The RV-14 is a new approach by Van's in the aircraft kit market and i'm happy they are doing it. The success of the RV-12 proves their concept. I would like a better customer experience. I want Van's to give me the information and not make me pull it from them.
What problems with customer experience have you had with Vans so far in the course of building your RV-14? What info are you having to pull from Vans?

And.......check back with us as you are finishing your project and tell us how you didn't need to do any research or make decisions in the course of building your plane. I don't think there are many RV-12 builders who could make that claim...and the -14 ain't no E-LSA.

You will have a great aircraft in the RV-14, we look forward to updates on your project as it takes shape.
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Last edited by Sam Buchanan : 12-14-2012 at 09:27 PM.
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  #19  
Old 12-14-2012, 09:50 PM
scsmith scsmith is offline
 
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Location: Ashland, OR
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Default Some of you seem to be missing the point here.

A bunch of "old school" kit builders are nay-saying a legitimate point here, I think some of you are missing it.

Assuming the kit is going to be all plug-and-play if you choose to build it "their way", then there aren't options to research. There aren't too many choices for them to maintain expertise on. There is the standard "plug-and-play" set up, and it is all supposed to work. This is part of the appeal, at least to some, that might otherwise have been leary of jumping into the kit building world.

So, I actually agree with the OP - in this case, they really should have on-call experts to support their kits with all kinds of expertise.

When I started, I wasn't concerned about building the airframe. I can build anything. But I had never done any firewall forward work, and I was very concerned about how to get info on what good custom and practice, good features and approaches. I did the research, and I enjoyed it. But I can understand how many folks might never decide to build, just because they don't know how to do stuff like wiring and FWF installation.

To an extent, those folks are the target market for the new kits. Us old-school guys are happy and comfortable rolling our own (and I count myself among those now that I've done it once and will do it again).
So it seems to me that us old-school folks shouldn't really be responding with "the customer service is fine the way it is, you are asking too much", because it is fine for us, but may not be for the new builders.

And as I said at the beginning, if you are going to market a bunch of plug-and-play assemblies, they better fit together and work. It's like, we want a Mac, not a DOS machine

As far as revision blocks on drawings, my RV-8 drawings have those. So I expect that all Van's drawings do. But the problem with paper drawings is that just because you can see the revision level of your drawing, you don't know that it is the current revision level. In the past, it has been trusted that it is the appropriate revision level for YOUR kit. But that may no longer be the case. It does seem like a good addition to their website, in the same section as the service bulletins, to have a drawing index with the "current" revision level of each drawing.
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Last edited by scsmith : 12-14-2012 at 09:53 PM.
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  #20  
Old 12-14-2012, 10:40 PM
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Buchanan View Post
What problems with customer experience have you had with Vans so far in the course of building your RV-14? What info are you having to pull from Vans?

And.......check back with us as you are finishing your project and tell us how you didn't need to do any research or make decisions in the course of building your plane. I don't think there are many RV-12 builders who could make that claim...and the -14 ain't no E-LSA.

You will have a great aircraft in the RV-14, we look forward to updates on your project as it takes shape.
The problems are:
No notice of ship date.
No estimated cost of shipping.
No notice of shipment arrival date.
No notice of crate sizes or weights.
No notice of electronic plans or paper plans. (RV-14 appears to have only electronic plans, this is not a bad thing but it would be nice to know) I did query them earlier if plans would be available digitally and yes they are.
No notice Van's billed my credit card for the balance of payment.

I just started my build.

Because I helped build a 12 and the only decisions that needed to be made were what options to add and the color. I'm saying Vans needs to step up their customer service. If Vans sells the part they need to service the part or make arrangements for the vender to service it. On the 12 Vans played things off on the vender and the vender then put it back on Vans while we waited for them to decide who was responsible for the problem. I believe the 14 will be a great plane that is why I bought one. I just don't want to have the problems we had on the 12 to reappear on the 14.
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Last edited by RDOG : 12-15-2012 at 05:39 AM.
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