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Advice on Ordering New Kit

Zehutiman

I'm New Here
So, I've been doing my research before ordering an RV-14 kit. But, I see the delivery delays at Van's are growing...4 months for SB and 10 months for QB. Initially, I had planned on doing a QB Wing and SB for everything else. With these delays, what do you suggest might be a good strategy for ordering?
 
Welcome and good luck with your order. The long wait times are making the logistics of planning much more difficult. I am in a similar situation and actually ordered two kits yesterday (finishing and QB wings) due to the increasing lead times. My plan is the same as yours which is to QB the wings and SB everything else. One thing I learned yesterday that may help. I was told that when your QB wings are ready for final delivery from Oregon, if you are not ready they can go down the list and see if the next person would like to swap places with you. There is of course no guarantee this will work but with the popularity of the 14 I bet you could find someone to swap with.

The difficult task is trying to plan how long it's going to take to complete something you've never done before.

Eric
 
Having built a SB RV6A my preference would be a QB fuselage and SB wings. For sure I would not want to SB another fuselage that isn’t PPed.. I’m wondering why your planning the opposite, is it the tanks ?
 
Yes, I think most guys have recommended doing the QB wings if I'm only going to do one QB. A few folks have cited the fuel tanks.
 
Given that the -14 is all matched punched the fuselage might not be to bad a project. But a big one. Scott Reisen put up a great YouTube on tank building and takes the mystery out of building a tank.
 
I am doing a QB wing and SB fuselage. I have been told that the fuselage is a lot of fun to build with lots of different types of tasks. Whereas the wing is very repetitive. I'm only about 6 weeks into to fuselage, but so far I am really enjoying it.

Eric
 
I can't advise on QB since I built the entire kit one rivet at a time, a process that I really enjoyed. I know Van's is having some CCP virus related delays, and with many new builders. My experience has been that there shipping estimates have been accurate enough for planning purposes and I never waited around with nothing to do waiting on a kit to arrived. I would advise getting the engine on order about a year out from when you plan to mount it. Good luck and have fun with your RV-14 project!
 
I just put in my first order last week, and decided to go ahead and order the empennage and QB Wings/Fuse all at the same time. Maybe optimistic, but think I'm at least in the ballpark of completing the Emp during the 10 month lead time. From what I read, the lead times were actually longer if you only did one or the other QB (Wing/Fuse).
 
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