Quick Build Wings

[Mikeyb]

Got my QB wings. 8 months from the day I ordered them. Stewart Transportation delivered them 15 days after they arrived at Vans. Same price as the shipping company and crating would have cost.

I’ve been looking at them for a few days. I see nothing but quality work. Every edge is deburred perfectly. There is little evidence of marring or rework. The top skins must be back riveted. They are stunning. The primer is ugly compared to AKZO Nobel but it appears everything was prepped properly. The tank sealer work is very neat. They used a Alodine pen on holes they countersunk in the spar. The control surfaces are perfect. They even built the tank pickups.

I am at least average at sheet metal and there is no way I could have done this well. 5 stars. The best part is that’s my last Vans crate!

[Flying8]

That is great news. I am going to order quickbuild wings after I get the standard build fuselage started. Still waiting on it to ship. I have idle hands and its killing me...

[MIKE JG]

Excellent news.

[mndless]

Is 8 months the current delivery time... ouch...

[N82VM]

Originally Posted by mndless

Is 8 months the current delivery time... ouch...

I was told second hand that Van himself addressed the lead times as follows; it could be done faster but would increase the cost significantly, If you like the current prices then those are the lead times.

My understanding is that they try to keep cost down as much as possible and still be a profitable company. It’s a pretty good system that’s been working for decades. Proper prior planning prevents poor performance. Order in advance.

[JDA_BTR]

you left out one of the 7 P's. Just as well the system would change it to p*** anyway!

[WayneJ]

Private message sent

[Mikeyb]

I was very excited when my wings showed up a couple of months ago and I gave them a 5 star rating. Then I started working on them. First I took the tanks off to add the fuel senders, pickups and leak check them. They used green permanent thread locker on every screw. It took hours.

Then I noticed the fuel pickup they built was pretty short and going to leave a lot of unusable fuel so I built one of those.

Then I leak tested the tank and found a big leak. Fortunately it was in the pickup bay and easy to fix.

Went to install the aileron hinge. One of the bolts was marked with red thread locker. It was stripped. They had somehow gotten the left/right up/down markings on the brackets they made reversed and the forced to fit, painted to match approach. They had also run a step drill in the tie down hole for some reason making them both unusable. Nothing was damaged on the wing and Vans sent me replacement parts. After a month and a half, two emails and a phone call.

The wings are all done now. I got an email from vans saying that the primer on some QB wings may have been incorrectly applied. Some of what they said to look for was present.

I don’t like posting stuff unless it’s positive but since I made such a big deal about how good they were I thought I had to pipe up.
Mike

[MIKE JG]

Well that's not encouraging. Interested to see how Vans addresses this

[Mikeyb]

They offered to replace them with a new set of QB wings or a wing kit and refund the QB charge