Advantages of Waiting to Order Kit

I am reluctant to buy "a" model of most things. I realise there will not be a "b" model RV-12 but kit and instructionManual will change as problems of early builders come to the surface (the test pilot builders we all revere).
With RV-12 so new and obviously a settling in period for kit and Instructions/manual, I am tempted to wait a bit before order Tail/Empenage and then rest of kit.
Is this sensible or not? Any pros of waiting, or am I just wasting time?
In other words will revisions to Instructions/manual be in the from of original manual with corrections, or is Van's likely to completely revise a page with errors? Or does it depend on the magnitude of error (ie small error addendum to plan, big error new page issued)?

John

I think the odds and ends that the first few builders found have been corrected on the emp. and other kits.

If I was you i'd call up vans with the intention of asking them this question, but ready to pay for the first kit if you like what you hear.

edit- Jim Cone and some of the other first builders had their wings done more than a year ago. I'm sure there are 30-40 other people that have done the tail and wing kits to 90% completion.

remember, Vans aircraft built two rv 12's before they started manufacturing.

there are over 210 rv 12 projects started. I think the gotchas are well documented either in corrected plans or here on this web page.

also, have you read all the info here? http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/rv-12int1.htm

Yearly cost increases

By waiting the kit is going to become more expensive to purchase over time due to the yearly price increases on parts and kits. If you have the funds I get it now. The changes in the manuals will be small compared to the dollar increases over time.

My philosophy - for what its worth...

I built my first two subkits - empennage and wings - over the winter. Very few changes came along. The early builders had done their jobs well, and most changes had already been made. While that was going on, the early guys were into the fuselage kit. They came up with quite a few things, some that resulted in changes, some that just ended up in advice on the forum. I waited to order my fuselage kit and when it came all the manual pages had already been updated. There have only been one or two changes since then. Now as I build the fuselage, I am watching the forum where all the "pioneers" are working out the glitches in the finish kit. I won't order that one until I see light at the end of the tunnel on the fuselage, and by then the updates to the finish kit should be pretty well done. I'm letting those brave pioneers work out the kinks before I get there. That's the advantage to ordering the kits in sequence. I consider that the advantages of this approach outweigh the cost savings of beating future price increases. Just my humble opinion!

Fearless said:

By waiting the kit is going to become more expensive to purchase over time due to the yearly price increases on parts and kits. If you have the funds I get it now. The changes in the manuals will be small compared to the dollar increases over time.

Click to expand...

I am one of those through the finish kit and waiting for more. The glitches have been annoying but will be gone by the time you order. The cost is the big issue. The dollar is shrinking. Aluminum is going up as is the price of the foreign made Rotax engine. Waiting will cost you...how many thousand I can't tell you....is that worth working through gotchas? After all "discovery" is part of the fun of home building. And I doubt if any of us so far have built ours in the order or exact method directed...while still achieving the end result. The key (as Vans tells you/and Steve Wyman).....read through the entire section first, then read it again....etc.

go for it....its really a neat plane

I too was one of the later builders, and have had very few problems with the kits. My Fuselage and tail kits arrived December 1. There were no revisions of any substance that came out. I held off ordering the finish kit since I was not ready to start it anyway. I am glad I did since there were a number of issues with the early kits. It arrived yesterday and I am just starting it. A number of the plans have been updated. I am not concerned that there will be any more big problems. I wouldn't worry about ordering now.

While I think the basic construction of the kit is well vetted by now, I think there are still a couple of things to make waiting worthwhile:

1. There is only one example flying, and none with the current build procedures. I think it's unlikely they will find anything major, but it would be good piece of mind to have a dozen flying.
2. None of the option kits are out. Will they find some "gotchas" that change the kit?

I think it is low risk to order now, but there could be some advantages to waiting.

--Bill

Waiting is part of the fun?

I am builder #80 and have always been waiting for the 'next kit' to be delivered. I think that the RV-12 is an amazing 'piece of work' and I'm sure that it will also undergo a number of changes over the next few years as it becomes Van's very best selling kit. To have over 210 people building an airplane that they have very little to say about including how much it will cost is an amazing opportunity. I 'live' on an airport (Albany, OR...S12) that has a dozen or so RV's in its stable and owners come by my hangar often just to watch the progress and shake their heads while muttering 'geeper's, you don't even have to be able to read a print"! General aviation is in a real slump around here...but RV'ers are definitely keeping the airport activity alive! My advice to anyone that enjoys flying is 'start a 12 as soon as you can...light sport and especially the RV-12 are going to keep you smiling!

Jay Sluiter
Wrapping up the finish kit
Trying to be patient for FWF and Avionics!
N124CS

Kit number one

When Van's first talked about the possibility of building a light sport plane, I got on the phone to Tom Green and told him that I wanted the first kit. He said "I don't know why anybody would want the first kit". I knew that there would be some glitches with the kit, but I knew that with my building experience, that I could work through them. Tom promised that I could have the first kit and even drew me a picture of what it would look like. It had a #1 on the side of the fuselage. I still have that sketch on my hangar wall.

There have been some glitches, just as I thought. However, none of them have been so bad or frustrating that I would have changed my mind if I had known about them in advance. The 12 is a great design and the plane is a joy to fly. Performance is at the limit of what is allowed for light sport planes. What more could you ask for? The kit is getting better every time a glitch is found and corrected. Those of you who come later benefit from the improvements. Just watch the sales take off when some of these planes are completed and show up at local airports around the country. For those who want a light sport aircraft, for whatever reason, you will not find a better one at any price. The fact that it will be about half of the cost of most of the ready to fly sport planes makes it well worth the few hundred hours that it will take to build. There may be more glitches as time goes on, but they will be overcome, just as the ones that have already occurred. My advice is don't wait for perfection. Accept that there will be some problems along the way and just go for it.