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Finish Kit

Ron B. said:
Very disappointing, fall deliveries.
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Here in our part of the world we consider the beginning of fall to be at the end of September :eek:

I guess it is good that I wasn't asked when first deliveries will be, because I would have guessed orders at Sun & Fun, and first shipments by the end of May/first of June.
The guys up in the office likely have a much better sense of when all of the little details involving getting part production ramped up, and all of the parts onto shelves for shipping can be accomplished so go by that until you hear differently.
 
Fuselage is Done

I finished the fuselage today. I think I will work on interior and paint until the finish kit is available.
 
Really.

What Ron B. means is that RV14 builders typically discover that July/August shipping estimates really end up being October/December or later.:eek:
 
drillr1 said:
What Ron B. means is that RV14 builders typically discover that July/August shipping estimates really end up being October/December or later.:eek:
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Fair enough.

I can't guarantee anything, but I can tell you that a huge emphases has been put on releasing the finish kit as close behind the fuselage as possible. So I am inclined to think that Joes estimate is being conservative so as not to repeat the past and quote a schedule that gets missed by three months ( or more).
 
I personally hope VERY VERY much that the avionics kit doesn't slow up the FWF kit. I am not interested in ANY future wiring or avionics kits at this point. I currently have all of my avionics purchased (and delivered), and have my panel cut, and am going to begin wiring very shortly. I simply need the finishing and FWF kits to be available and I will be excluding anything related to wiring from the kit. I want to get this plane done and flying and by my measure I'm already probably going to be slowed up by a year over what it took me to finish an RV-10. So I just want to get the necessities and get this thing done.
I never asked for an "extra deluxe include everything and we'll make this a plane made just our way" airplane. I just wanted an airframe, as in all the airplanes delivered before the RV-12 came along. If I'd have known it was going to be delayed this much, I would have never ordered the kit in the first place, so now I have many piles of paperweights until the necessities are delivered. I could have been flying an RV-7 for the last year...and would have been, if I'd have known.

Yes, the timeline disappoints me.

Tim
 
TimO said:
I never asked for an "extra deluxe include everything and we'll make this a plane made just our way" airplane.
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From the very first introduction of the RV-14, all info presented about the airplane was that it would be developed and sold as a fully integrated kit. 100% complete, though customers could of course choose to purchase what ever portions they wanted since it has to be built as an E-AB.

Having said that, there has been no development work up to this point that has had an impact on when the finish or power plant kits would be available (other than development of kits that came before them of course. Work on the firewall fwd kit is already underway (it is highly integrated with the finish kit).
To a large extent, other principals are handling most of the development efforts on the avionics kits that will be offered.
 
huh?

I have to disagree with how this kit was represented. When the RV-14 was unveiled at Airventure 2012 I was told all slow build kits would be available by the end of 2013. But then Ken Krueger was still working there and might have something to do with this situation. Who knows?
 
drillr1 said:
Who knows?
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I am one of many that know.
Ken still working at Van's would have had little if anything to do with the kit release time line. That was an estimate made by him at the time (wayyyyy optimistic in hind sight), but that is different from what is currently being discussed.

The kit was from the very start represented as being developed as a total package kit. That, and the time line that was estimated are two totally different subjects.
 
Although I can see that standard avionics packages may be attractive to Vans, I don't think that it's wise to allow it at ALL to delay the kit. There are so many personal preferences when it comes to panels, it's undoubtedly going to be the most customized and modified part of the plane. So I sure hope they're focusing on getting the finishing and FWF kits done, and if they want to continue working on a specific avionics package then, that's fine. But even if they offer a package, avionics change so rapidly I highly doubt Van's will want to keep up on the rapid changes as new products come to market. They should focus on their strengths, which is airframes, and if they want to build out their offerings, NOT do it at the expense of getting their primary product out the door. Having the delays like we're having with this kit is just shooting themselves in the foot.
 
Finishing kit

I would like say thank you to Vans for the quality of the 14 kit. As a first time builder, it has been a joyful stress free process. My entire family has joined in and that is my real goal for building this airplane. The kit delays have forced me to breath between kits and I even decided to take on the painting because I had free time. I am excited that there will be factory designed avionics kits. Following a professionally designed wiring kit will be a great learning experience. I most likely would not have taken on the avionics without the kit. I'm certain that when future avionics are available my confidence will have been enhanced by this kit and that will free me up to make the necessary changes. I bought a kit for the educational experience, I will have plenty of time to fly when it is completed and the confidence to make the future changes I desire without the cost of a certified mechanic. To me the value of E-AB is education and enjoyment.

Again, thanks for the well developed kit.
Marvin McGraw
 
TimO said:
But even if they offer a package, avionics change so rapidly I highly doubt Van's will want to keep up on the rapid changes as new products come to market. They should focus on their strengths, which is airframes, and if they want to build out their offerings, NOT do it at the expense of getting their primary product out the door.
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Good idea! Which is why I previously wrote.......


rvbuilder2002 said:
To a large extent, other principals are handling most of the development efforts on the avionics kits that will be offered.
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Other principles meaning.... avionics related company's.
 
When I was building my RV-10 I got bogged down when I reached the wiring stage. The choices for power distribution and avionics just overwhelmed me. I am the first to admit that I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I spent at least six months on wiring, and much of that was scratching my head. I often thought to myself that it would be a good idea if a real engineer would have designed the electrical system, as opposed to my improvised efforts, and had serious RV-12 envy. In the end it turned out OK, with a few things that could have been done better, and I learned a lot, but if I build another airplane, I would welcome a professionally designed system. Again, I plead guilty to not being very smart, but an integrated approach to electrical systems offers great value to folks like me.
 
Optimistic vs. Realistic

Most manufacturing businesses have at least Administration/Marketing and Operations wings. If you believe Admin/Marketing projections you are likely a very optimistic person. Operations (Engineering/Design, Manufacturing, Shipping) projections are probably more realistic. I have been fortunate enough to still be poking around for more than 67 years and tend to apply this observation to things I hear about anything that is going to happen in the future, especially if stated by business development representatives that have been blessed with magic kyrstal balls [no puns here]. Maintaining a thriving business operation is a delicate balance between maintaining growth (revenues) and satisfying demands (costs), Vans seems to be doing things right so far.

My dad used to always remind me that you can't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see, and to proceed accordingly.
 
jeffw@sc47 said:
Most manufacturing businesses have at least Administration/Marketing and Operations wings. If you believe Admin/Marketing projections you are likely a very optimistic person. Operations (Engineering/Design, Manufacturing, Shipping) projections are probably more realistic. I have been fortunate enough to still be poking around for more than 67 years and tend to apply this observation to things I hear about anything that is going to happen in the future, especially if stated by business development representatives that have been blessed with magic kyrstal balls [no puns here]. Maintaining a thriving business operation is a delicate balance between maintaining growth (revenues) and satisfying demands (costs), Vans seems to be doing things right so far.

My dad used to always remind me that you can't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see, and to proceed accordingly.
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My all knowing crystal ball shows No Customer built RV14 will fly until 2016. :rolleyes: Jeff makes a lot of since! The normal rules of what one would expect in the retail world do not apply to the experimental world. It has its own time line. I went through this process being on the leading edge of the development of the RV12. It turned out well in the end. It maybe one of the most successful kits released thus far with 3.5 out of 5 kits completed. Released in April of 2008 over 350 are flying with more than 800 serial number issued, pretty good stats.:) The all inclusive kit design has and will be a great success for Vans Aircraft.:D Best thing I can say is everybody take a deep breath and go with the flow. :rolleyes: We will get there, what Vans is doing is very complicated and takes time.
 
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Waiting on the Finishing Kit

Jetguy said:
My all knowing crystal ball shows No Customer built RV14 will fly until 2016. :rolleyes: Jeff makes a lot of since! The normal rules of what one would expect in the retail world do not apply to the experimental world.
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First of all, I am glad I chose this kit, I've had a ton of fun building it. However, opinions are like...., everyone has one and I am entitled to mine. When I decided to purchase this kit in Oct 2013, there was no mention of expecting delays, etc. The only information I had, was they were expecting about 1100-1200 hours to build it (on their website). There is no *** that says, only if we can get it out on schedule. So I took to my excel spreadsheet and figured it would take me about 2500 hours and came up with 2 years working at a steady pace. That would be this coming October for the mathematically challenged in the group. For others to say, I should not believe marketing and just believe production is not the point. When I put down my hard earned money to start this process, none of that was mentioned. Should I have known they had issues with the 12? I don't think so.

I have a wife that has been patient, so far. I'm now 57 and no spring chicken and I don't have another plane to fly in the meantime, so I am anxious to stick to my schedule which I thought was reasonable when I started this process and get this baby flying. I work a couple of hours every evening and usually 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday. I have paid an expert to come help me with some of the more difficult tasks and to keep me on my schedule. Had I known I was going to have all that extra time after the tail, I could have saved myself a couple grand.

So to all of you that think this is normal and I should not be disappointed, I'm sorry, but I am disappointed. Van's is a great company with lots of nice and helpful people, but I do believe this has given them their first black eye. I still love the product and am having fun, but I am finished the fuselage, just like I was the tail section. I waited 4 months to receive the fuselage after finishing the tail (I know others waited longer), I hope I don't have to wait that long. That would be 8 months in my build that was lost time. I didn't start this to have a 5 year project, I started this to build an airplane that I could reasonably fly in 2 years. At least I thought that was the case.
 
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All I can say is that when I built the RV-10, I was at the front of the pack for getting it built, yet the kits generally flowed in with enough time to keep me busy. I had a short delay because I ordered a QB fuse, which did have me sitting idle for a little bit, but I went from start to finish in 25 months, and I had at least 2 months where I didn't do any work. I finished the plane being maybe the 20-something'th flying in the RV-10 group. That kit has a lot more actual work involved in the process than the RV-14 does. I don't know what they did differently back when they had the RV-10 kits built, but be it supplier issues, or in house issues, the RV-14 isn't keeping pace with the 10. If it were, I'd be flying shortly. I didn't work on the kit from April to October in 2013, and yet the kit is the hold up. Even the amount of time I kicked the cars out of the garage for is much longer.

I think the kit's great. The company has great people. But something strange is happening with the process this time, because this isn't like them. Especially when we've heard that "much of the XYZ123 (next future kit) work was done when the previous kit was engineered"....it seems that this should mean that things come faster.

I should hope that I can order the FWF kit within 1-2 months tops of getting the finishing kit ordered (not delivered, ordered), so that we can finally wrap this thing up. I'm not buying any more wiring related items, and my avionics are all here, so I just need to mount the engine/gear and fit the cowl and canopy, and wrap up the FWF and then it's time to fly.

Tim
 
Tim,
I hope that you can agree, that there are some significant differences when comparing an RV-10 kit to the RV-14 kit?

The level of difference is at least some of the time line issue.

A major challenge at Van's over the years as kit have been refined to a higher level of build simplicity is very much a catch-22.

The development time it takes to make the kit more complete and easier to build has gotten longer with each level of improvement, but it takes much less time for customers to build them.

When I built my first RV-6A years ago, the time frame from when the emp. kit was first offered for sale to when the tail dragger finish kit was available was I believe almost 3 years. That was for a very basic kit when compared to what is offered now (parts supplied and construction manual). At the time, it wasn't a big deal because the majority of people took at least that long to complete each section (the build wasn't nearly as quick).

Compare that to the RV-12 kit (the most recent "complete" kit that has been offered) which took about the same time frame to get 6 kit sections out, and to a very high refinement level compared to the RV-6.
 
Differences?

The differences between the Rv-10 and RV-14 are not what's causing the delays. The RV-14 prototype was designed and built in the shop and then engineering had to develop a production model from that which customers could actually build. Thus when I was told at Airventure 2012 that all kits would be available by the end of 2013 or soon thereafter, I was depending on Vans Aircraft prior record of dependability when I placed the order for the wing kit the day it was offered. My bad. It is what it is, but it's past time for someone at the mothership to step up and push this to completion. Build it and they will come. And they did.
 
drillr1 said:
The RV-14 prototype was designed and built in the shop and then engineering had to develop a production model from that which customers could actually build.
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This is totally not correct.
The very first built prototype (N214VA) was built using all computer designed and modeled parts, made on production tooling.
Any parts shipped in customer kits that had not been revised after that prototype had been built, are exactly the same as the parts in that airplane.
 
Uh oh.

If you're correct it shouldn't have taken as long as it did to get the kits into production. There are plenty of us that have been in manufacturing to know. I am just perplexed why all the defensiveness.
 
Hmmmmm

And I am perplexed as to why you would consider correcting you, when you have posted totally incorrect information, being defensive.

If you are actually referring some of my other posts, I think all I have done is provide some factual info.

But how about if we spin this around a bit. You imply you have a background in manufacturing. If that included developing the concept, doing the complete design, tool up for production and coordinate lots of different vendors, and produce many of the parts, then you probably already know that things don't always go as planned.
Whether you agree or disagree, I leave you with some questions.

Do you really think the people involved with the development and production of the RV-14 kit are dragging this out longer than you think it should be, on purpose?
Do you think that they don't have an interest in getting the kits to you as soon as possible?
Do you know any reason that the company benefits from not getting them out quickly?

I will answer for you.
The answer to all questions is No!

I spend countless hours of my own personal time on this forum in an attempt to stop false information from spreading, and to try and help people out. Then someone like you steps up. You have 6 total posts in the forum, with none of them contributing anything other than negativity and complaints. That is of course you right... Freedom of speech and all that.

Certainly makes me reevaluate why I bother......
 
That certainly is a long list of tasks required to get a kit into production. By the way, I do read many of your replies to members requests for help and advice. Keep up the good work. We used to get occasional updates by press releases from the mothership. Now we get information through the rumor mill on this site. Apparently I've struck a sore nerve and no more uselful information on release dates for these kits will be forthcoming from the factory. So, do I complain? Yer darn right I do. Stems from the sympathy comments I get from vendors and builders of other RV models when they find out I'm building a RV-14.
 
rvbuilder2002, in my opinion you are one of the people who really make this forum what it is, and your input has tremendous value, so let me thank you for your time and posts. I'm certain that I'm not the only one to feel that way either.

For those of us 14 builders who are going to be building the kit as it was designed and marketed, I'm glad that the work is being done to make sure everything is well integrated, tell the engineers thanks. It's better to be correct but late rather than early and screwed up. My understanding is that originally there was not going to be a tail dragger version, and that much of the delay has been the design and testing of it. Is that accurate?
 
Rick K said:
rvbuilder2002, in my opinion you are one of the people who really make this forum what it is, and your input has tremendous value, so let me thank you for your time and posts. I'm certain that I'm not the only one to feel that way either.

For those of us 14 builders who are going to be building the kit as it was designed and marketed, I'm glad that the work is being done to make sure everything is well integrated, tell the engineers thanks. It's better to be correct but late rather than early and screwed up. My understanding is that originally there was not going to be a tail dragger version, and that much of the delay has been the design and testing of it. Is that accurate?
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That is just one of many factors that all added together have cause a longer delay than anyone would have imagined.
 
::shrug:: It could be worse, you know. At least there's not a dependency on a 6-cylinder Pmag.

I kid, and it's frustrating to be in the position some of you are in, but delays happen. Anyone who's gone all the way from bright (or at least well meaning) idea to delivered product knows that schedules usually don't survive a brush with reality unscathed.

Put another way, if companies with the kind of project planning and financial resources that Boeing and Airbus have can't accurately predict delivery schedules, why would we be surprised when Van's misses a target date?
 
Certainly makes me reevaluate why I bother......[/QUOTE]

I was just thinking it was time for someone to lock out this post before it got to this.
Scott, we (the builders)will get over this, stick in there. We do really appreciate your help.
Ron
 
Get over it...

This all sounds very familiar. We've been through all this sort of stuff with the RV-12, and not too long ago either. It too had its fair share of delays, with vocal complaints from some on the forum - but fortunately not very many. Most people realise that Van's do a great job and that they are lucky to have someone with Van's experience and expertise in this business. Sure, unexpected delays can be frustrating, but the fact is that Vans produces a very high quality product across a wide range of aircraft. The RV-14 is new, it's very sophisticated, and its development is going to take time. Maybe more time than some of you would like, but if the RV-12 is anything to go by, you fortunate RV-14 builders will get a very well developed product. Scott also does a great job in an often thankless environment. I also sometimes wonder why he bothers, but I'm glad he does.
 
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Just need official communication from Vans

Scott is invaluable here in my opinion (Thanks, I search and read every one of your posts regardless of what forum they are in).

I am early enough in the build process in the grand scheme of things that I will not be waiting much for anything with the 14.

The main issue is really for Vans itself: MUCH more frequent updates are needed from the company on the progress or lack thereof and reasoning. Even a monthly or bi-monthly update would keep most of this at bay.
 
Another word of support

rvbuilder2002 said:
Certainly makes me reevaluate why I bother......
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I usually avoid threads of complaints, but when a valuable member of a forum begins to wonder why he bothers, a word of encouragement is in order. I'm sure the thought was just in passing but I want you to know that I and many others value your unofficial input.

Someone upthread mentioned his opinions about the matter and I agree that we are each entitled to our own opinions. But like the saying goes, we are not each entitled to our own facts.

I can't speak to the earliest purchasers of the wing kit but as of Airventure 2013 there are simply no facts that an early or imminent delivery of all kits was being promised.

I put my money down at Airventure 2013 which was a few days after the announcement of Vans taking orders for the empennage kit. I spoke with everyone at the Vans both and took a demo flight in the 14.

No one made any promises of any kind about future deliveries and none would speculate about a schedule of deliveries when pressed. The most I got - and I believe the official Vans company line at the time - was that the plan was for the fuselage kit to quickly follow the deliveries of the empennage kit. Verbal comments were similar but hedged, referring to un-forseen empennage kit delays as an example.

From that point on, while there has not been a tremendous amount of communications from Vans about delivery schedules, the statements on the website have spoken for themselves. They contain no promises of any kind.

When I put my money down, I spoke to my wife about two risks we had in buying the 14. The first was that the kits would be released much later than planned and I would catch up and be waiting for kits.

I told her about how long I saw it took for the 12 to finish up and told her the risk of delay was very high to near certain. However, the risk of me catching up based on my previous build was low. She laughed that risk off.

The second risk I considered extremely low to vanishingly small. That was that some financial issue could befall Vans as it has many other kit manufacturers and that some of the remaining kits would not get delivered at all. Even with the reputation Vans had that was the only thing we considered of any threat, albeit a minuscule one.

I also told her that once the finishing kit came out, no mater what happened I would be able to finish the airplane. I predicted then a summer 2016 completion date with many caveats.

The kit delays are not outrageous or something that could not be foreseen as happening. The quality of the kit however has been absolutely up to the standards that Vans has told us it would be.

As far as I'm concerned the Vans staff merely need keep up as they are doing and all will be well.
 
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JDBoston said:
Scott is invaluable here in my opinion (Thanks, I search and read every one of your posts regardless of what forum they are in).

I am early enough in the build process in the grand scheme of things that I will not be waiting much for anything with the 14.

The main issue is really for Vans itself: MUCH more frequent updates are needed from the company on the progress or lack thereof and reasoning. Even a monthly or bi-monthly update would keep most of this at bay.
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This^^^^^^

Scott has provided an invaluable amount of support and information via this site. Sometimes even more than calling the mother ship due to the level of thoroughness he provides when addressing technical issues. It is obvious he cares and is trying to educate builders and help them build safe and quality aircraft.

Regarding the RV-14 delays....I never considered the -14 when it was introduced due to my incorrect perception that it was just a more expensive version of a -7. When I did get serious about starting a build last summer I had it narrowed down to the -7 and a two place high wing. After taking another look at the -7 and the -14, I decided that the -14 what what I really wanted for the many reasons I have posted here in the past. When I ordered the empennage and wing kits last June there was not very much information regarding kit release times or performance numbers. The kit availability information available at the time was very vauge and the verbal communication regarding release dates was hopes and promises that often got pushed to the right. I work for an aircraft OEM and even though I work in the Repair Station, I have been involved in development, prototyping and certification projects and I know how time consuming and difficult these evolutions can be. Having said that, the prototype/demo plane has been flying quite a while, and if the prototype was in fact built on production tooling I still have a hard time imagining what could possibly cause the kit release time delay that we have experianced. I know that all the complaining in the world will not speed up the process, but I too would like to see better communication regarding delivery times. Good news or bad, it would be nice to know for planning purposes.

Even given the delays, there is no other airplane that I would rather be building. The -14 is an amazing kit and an amazing airplane even before it ever leaves the ground.:D
 
I would vote YES for more communication

i agree that more communication from directly from Vans regarding the RV14 kit release date status, build issues, what ever - especially after a bit of touting about how advanced and forward thinking the plane kit is, good, bad, or ugly would be helpful and welcome for lots of reasons.

? JDBoston > who is "invaluable Scott" ?
 
What would be a big help at this juncture would be this:

If Van's would just at least complete and offer 2 things to the current builders:
A landing gear kit, with wheels, and an engine mount kit. I'd be happy to pay shipping on that to get them here. If I had those components, it would allow me to do more work going ahead. I could mount the engine that I've had for a few months, and I could start outfitting the engine monitor and get my electronic ignition set up, and get all the accessories together. It's not that we need the whole kit, just some of the things that allow us to progress again.

I do think the RV-14 is a great kit. If anything, I think it's *too* great. It didn't take very long to create some of the parts on the RV-10. I didn't mind that. I know some really like that it's easy, and that's fine, but after building the RV-10 I can tell you that when it comes to the wings, empennage, and fuselage, while it's more refined, it isn't "leagues ahead" of what the RV-10 kit was. The -10 was actually pretty simple to build. The fiberglass took plenty of time, but the aluminum really wasn't bad at all.

Tim
 
rvbuilder2002 said:
This is totally not correct.
The very first built prototype (N214VA) was built using all computer designed and modeled parts, made on production tooling.
Any parts shipped in customer kits that had not been revised after that prototype had been built, are exactly the same as the parts in that airplane.
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Mike H said:
Having said that, the prototype/demo plane has been flying quite a while, and if the prototype was in fact built on production tooling I still have a hard time imagining what could possibly cause the kit release time delay that we have experianced.

Even given the delays, there is no other airplane that I would rather be building. The -14 is an amazing kit and an amazing airplane even before it ever leaves the ground.:D
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Note what I said in the highlighted quote above.
Actually, a lot of the design has been revised. And experienced builders know all to well the X10 rule... change one thing, it seems to influence required changes on 10 others.

Glad to hear you like the kit though Mike.

Regarding communication....
I can't speak for others (it is way out side of my level of responsibility), but I think there has developed a state of gun shyness.
With any update, anxious customers expect to also hear an estimate of when the next kit will be ready.
When previous estimates have missed the mark (sometimes by a lot), and it doesn't do much more than make people upset, I think there becomes a tendency to just not do it at all. Don't know for certain, but just a guess.

Having said that, I think there is effort underway to publish an update soon. Possibly with some progress photos of the tail dragger prototype which has been the test mule for a good part of the finish kit, and is getting very near completion.
 
Chillax

I feel bad that my original post has generated so much negativity.

I am glad (and so is my wife) that I will be able to get out of the hangar this summer.

Scott, keep up the good work!!

Looking forward to seeing the -14 at Sun-n-Fun.
 
Scott, will the -14A be at Zepyr hills before SNF to provide demos? I have never flown any of the Vans factory demos and I would love to get a ride in the -14A.

Also wondering if the tail wheel -14 will make it to the show?

I do very much understand how small changes often times cause lots of other changes to be required, which has a tendency to snowball. I really shouldn't complian, I have been working on the wings for 8 months and only have a few long days to go to finish up the details. Out of this 8 month period I have really only worked on it steady for a few short stints, or maybe 3 months time, and this includes the time to prep and epoxy paint the inside and outside of all the structure like the ou would expect to see in a production aircraft. I could have literally built the wings in half the time (6 weeks working steady on week nights) if it were not for the primer. So really at this point I doubt the factory will be holding me up since I still have the empennage and fuselage kit to build
 
I'm at the same stage as TimO and in complete agreement with him. My hope is that Vans Aircraft INC. continues to be a successful company so that I can build another Vans kit after my RV-14 is complete. But change won't happen if someone doesn't stand up to challenge the staus quo and hopefully Vans leadership will learn from this experience. From what I've heard here they have definately gotten the message.
 
Mike H said:
Scott, will the -14A be at Zepyr hills before SNF to provide demos? I have never flown any of the Vans factory demos and I would love to get a ride in the -14A.

Also wondering if the tail wheel -14 will make it to the show?
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Some demos are typically done at S & F, but anything beyond that I don't know.
You can talk with one of the tech guys in the office to see if there are plans for stops on the way or return.

The tail dragger 14 has not made it's first flight yet so that is an obvious negative.
 
As most of you know, part of my job at Van?s is beta tester for new designs. I built the first RV-12 outside of the factory and so it goes with the RV-14. Part of latter stages of kit release is my installation of that kit where I look for errors, make procedure recommendations and parts/hardware confirmations. I have been working on my finish kit for about three weeks. I was shipped the first half of the kit because the whole kit was not yet ready. This is a departure from SOP as they normally wait until the entire kit is ready to send as it would be to a customer. This was done in an effort to speed up the process a bit. The last half of the kit is in transit to me as I write this. I am relaying my findings back to engineering as I note them, and thankfully, there have been few to this point. This finish kit is every bit as amazing as its predecessors and I can?t imagine builders not blazing thru it. Still, we will be relying on all of you to help us massage and weed out the kit as you have done so well so far.
 
MLock said:
As most of you know, part of my job at Van?s is beta tester for new designs. I built the first RV-12 outside of the factory and so it goes with the RV-14. Part of latter stages of kit release is my installation of that kit where I look for errors, make procedure recommendations and parts/hardware confirmations. I have been working on my finish kit for about three weeks. I was shipped the first half of the kit because the whole kit was not yet ready. This is a departure from SOP as they normally wait until the entire kit is ready to send as it would be to a customer. This was done in an effort to speed up the process a bit. The last half of the kit is in transit to me as I write this. I am relaying my findings back to engineering as I note them, and thankfully, there have been few to this point. This finish kit is every bit as amazing as its predecessors and I can?t imagine builders not blazing thru it. Still, we will be relying on all of you to help us massage and weed out the kit as you have done so well so far.
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This is the sort of update information we need from time to time. Thanks Mitch!
 
I really appreciate Mitch's update, to me that type of update really helps out with the waiting. It does not have to be in great detail just a little some thing other than the statement "we are progressing". This has been mentioned in a few previous post.
We all feel that we belong to the Van's family and being in the loop a little in knowing what going on , like Mitch's post goes a long way when things get stretched out. Maybe it's just the child in me but I head to this site everyday looking for an update as that is what we get. If we were to get a little post saying for example, the engine mounts have been sent out for welding, then we could surmise that the kit will be a ways out and not look here tonight for it's release. We get to be a small part of the process.
 
I just have to say thanks too Mitch. It's really nice to hear something that confirms progress and it sounds like you can.
Tim
 
You guys check out the emp fairing and its fit? In the past, the final fitting and glassing of this part has always taken a goodly amount of time to get to the "poured in place" look. Not anymore. What you see in that picture is basically what comes out of the box. All you have to do is sand the edges down to the scribe line molded in. The fit on mine could very easily be characterized as darn near perfect.

YRMV, but I doubt it. Bold statement to be sure. Just another example of the attention to detail by engineering and the proto guys.
 
" And it will be ready when it's ready" , not the terminology used when they were promoting the RV-14 when it was unveiled a couple years ago.
 
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