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Time in Garage vs Hangar?

rockitdoc

Well Known Member
Sponsor
Hi,
I'm planning to build most of my -14A in my 5 car garage. Should be roomy enough and has heat, cool, lights. But, presumably, the time will come when wings need to be attached. I have no hangar, yet. When I do, it will probably not be as comfy as my garage shop. So.... how much time, estimated, is needed to assemble this ship, assuming everything that can be assembled in the garage is already assembled? I know it depends on lots of stuff, and not plug and play, but just a ballpark would help me plan for when this happens, cuz spring-summer would be better than freezing my nads off in an unheated hanger in a CO winter.
S
 
It was probably a couple hundred hours for us to do final assembly on the 9A plus the hundreds of other things you end up discovering you need to finish up.

Do absolutely everything you can do at home. Make the wing assembly the last possible thing and only then move to the hangar.
 
Hi,
I'm planning to build most of my -14A in my 5 car garage. Should be roomy enough and has heat, cool, lights. But, presumably, the time will come when wings need to be attached. I have no hangar, yet. When I do, it will probably not be as comfy as my garage shop. So.... how much time, estimated, is needed to assemble this ship, assuming everything that can be assembled in the garage is already assembled? I know it depends on lots of stuff, and not plug and play, but just a ballpark would help me plan for when this happens, cuz spring-summer would be better than freezing my nads off in an unheated hanger in a CO winter.
S

I built my -14A to a point where I could do no more in the garage. I was flying less than one month after move to hangar. Mostly I was doing assembly in the hangar - attaching all the tailfeathers, installing the canopy (final install), putting wings on and fitting the wing root fairings, connecting wiring, testing all the wiring, calibrating avionics, test engine runs, setting prop max RPM, etc. Pretty hectic schedule during that time - not working and pretty much at the hangar every day.
 
You should be able to assemble the airplane for test flight in 2-3 months, tops. Probably less, if you have friends to help with wing installation, avionics debugging, fuel tank calibration, fuel flow testing, weight and balance, etc. YMMV. ;)
 
Builder group

Scott
I manage a Google Group, Colorado RVs. If you would like to join, shoot me an e-mail (signature below) from a G-mail account. Sorry, Google rules. Please include full name a phone number. We have several members with 14s.
I am building a 7a (Firewall Forward) in Estes Park with a hangar at NorCo. I plan to do everything possible at home
 
If your car garage is open, I don't see any reason that you cannot do a complete setup including wings and then reassemble in the airport/hanger.

I did a complete assembly and setup in my house. My garage was not big enough to attached them so it was done in my drive way. The tasks that requires wings to be attached are far less with the 14/14A then 6/7/8/9

Once I took it to the hanger, It was ready for W&B in two days and two days later it was inspected. If I am not mistaking it was two weeks from move to the hanger to the first flight for me.

P.S. A friend and active member here also finished his 14 which was completely assembled in his house. I believe his first flight took even less from the time of move to the airport to the first flight.
 
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Basically, do as much as possible in your garage and resist the excitement of moving to the hangar too soon. Being in close proximity, you'll get more done. An hour after work or dinner every night makes a huge difference overall. Once it moves to the hangar, progress will likely slow way down.

We did everything except mount the wings. Time to hanger was 14 months then just a few weeks in the hanger for condition inspection, finishing things up, squawks, etc.
 
Lots of good replies so far. My opinion is, about a month if you do most everything you can at home.

My advice on hangars is, if you are going to buy one, buy one a.s.a.p., at least in most regions. Around here, hangars rarely come available, and you don't want to own an unhangared RV. I bought one before I started my kit, and was able to find a renter within a week. And each time that person left, another one wanted it within a week. When I got close to completion I just told the renter that his time would be up soon.

Hangars are so important that I don't think I'd even try to move to the airport until I had one.
 
All good info. Thanks much. Sounds like getting a hangar in early spring will get me in the air by fall, at least. Cool. That's what I hoped.
 
I built my -14A to a point where I could do no more in the garage. I was flying less than one month after move to hangar. Mostly I was doing assembly in the hangar - attaching all the tailfeathers, installing the canopy (final install), putting wings on and fitting the wing root fairings, connecting wiring, testing all the wiring, calibrating avionics, test engine runs, setting prop max RPM, etc. Pretty hectic schedule during that time - not working and pretty much at the hangar every day.

same here with my 10. about 3 weeks at the airport full time.
 
Scott, I believe the 14 uses the same wing attachment as the 10.

If so, you can use hardware store bolts to temporarily attach the wings at your home, and do all the wing wiring, pitot AOA etc stuff at home. Then remove the wings until you get to the airport for final assembly. Obviously this means you use some kind of quick attach fitting for the wiring, and pitot.

You can do the engine test run, weight and balance etc at home too. Pretty much everything but final wing attachment.

Only thing I can think of that is related to final wing fitting is adjusting flap and aileron travel/centering and final fitment of the wing root fairing.

Your time at the hangar could end up being only a few days-----and then there is getting the inspection scheduled, that could take longer than doing the final assembly.

BTDT with my 10.
 
Scott, I believe the 14 uses the same wing attachment as the 10.

If so, you can use hardware store bolts to temporarily attach the wings at your home, and do all the wing wiring, pitot AOA etc stuff at home. Then remove the wings until you get to the airport for final assembly. Obviously this means you use some kind of quick attach fitting for the wiring, and pitot.

You can do the engine test run, weight and balance etc at home too. Pretty much everything but final wing attachment.

Only thing I can think of that is related to final wing fitting is adjusting flap and aileron travel/centering and final fitment of the wing root fairing.

Your time at the hangar could end up being only a few days-----and then there is getting the inspection scheduled, that could take longer than doing the final assembly.

BTDT with my 10.

If you use the standard molex plugs on the RV-14 the wiring part is even easier - just plug and play. I had a couple of direct grounds I added that required splicing, and I had to connect pitot/AOA but not much else at the wing root. Many of us live in neighborhoods where running an aircraft engine would probably be looked at as worse than dealing drugs on the street corner.....
 
Five weeks from garage to first flight for my 14A. That was only because I left about two weeks worth of work that could have been done in the garage until I got to the hangar.

It was just because of timing with getting the new hangar and guessing on best date to move in. I picked an aggressive move in date and hadn't quite accomplished all I thought I would have by move time.

Don't bother trying to fit the wings before moving to the hangar. Attaching the wings is almost trivial with some help.
 
Stay in the Garage as long as you can!

We did everything in the garage with the 7A and attached and tested everything. Then disassembled, painted and went from paint to airport. Assembly was full time and done in a 8 Days. This can be done. The owner wanted to do it this way. If I where to do it again I would take 3 weeks and go a bit slower. I felt like this is not the time to rush anything and we had a few arguments about this very subject. We had the airplane together in about 2 days and the rest was just going around and checking and rechecking everything.

Ironically then we waited 4 weeks for weather... go figure. Take your time and do it right!
 
The time to go fast is after first flight.

. . . . Take your time and do it right!

If all your tools go to the hangar and it is well organized for work, it will go nicely. Fuel tests, fuel level calibration, panel configuration checkouts, software currency, friendly inspections and refinements. Checking final installed control ranges, checking every single electrical function, all takes time and keeps you safe. Mine took 3 months.

I did not consider it was a race. It takes what it takes for your satisfaction.
 
Once it's in the hangar, it's probably not coming home in the near term, certainly not until after it's been flying for a while.

Finding a hangar can take a while. There's often a waiting list for one. so it's best to line that up at some point before you need to use it.

Dave
 
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