Nutplate Confusion and Early Builders
Harry, thanks for renewing this old thread. Hopefully it will help someone else.
As you can see I started this thread in 2009 when I was in the midst of my RV-12 build. I had just discovered that I had installed a bunch of wrong nutplates (I was really good at drilling rivets by then) and after I recovered I developed a color coding scheme and went through all the plans with different colored highlighters to match color-coded bins for the various types of nutplates. I think I wrote that up on a forum thread but I can no longer find it.
You are not the first or the last to be afflicted with "Nutplate Confusion". We even had an outbreak of the disease in the midst of the One Week Wonder build at OSH in 2018. Scott McDaniels (rvbuilder2002) and I had actually discussed the idea of color coding, but we had pushed the idea aside as unnecessary in that controlled environment. Sure enough, some of our eager volunteers installed a few of the wrong type before we caught them. Fortunately, it was only a minor setback and the OWW taxied before the crowd at the end of the week as planned.
I happily flew my airplane from 2012 through 2020 and sold it last August when I completed my Cessna 120 eight-year restoration. I discovered you can only fly one at a time! Its all OK, she went to a good home just a few miles away where she will be gently treated.
I treasure the experiences of being an early builder in the period of 2009 – 2011, and my association with Van’s staff and other builders over the years. Guys like Tony T. and Marty Santic and I were building the empennage and wing kits before the other kits were even available! We exchanged information and tips on this forum on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis and worked closely with the folks at Van’s to correct errors and refine the plans. It was an exciting time!