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Incomplete Fuselage Kit - Should I wait?

bsbarnes10

Active Member
Hi,
First of all I'll acknowledge that the folks at Vans are under a lot of stress from numerous setbacks and I'm sure they're working very hard to get caught back up. I imagine these delays are costing them quite a bit of money when you consider the man-hours and overhead increases on a per-kit basis to get them out the door after delays caused by COVID, weather, etc. So I, like so many of you, am doing my best to be patient and get stuff done around the house while waiting for my next kit.

Yesterday I received this email from Vans regarding my RV-12iS fuselage kit:

"We are waiting on center sections for the Fuse kit.

I don’t have your order in front of me, but if you opted to have it ship without the center section then it should be shipping in the next few weeks. If you want to hold for the center section then we are expecting them in late June."

My question to all of you is: Should I have the fuselage kit shipped now, or wait for the center section? I.e. is there enough I can get done before I need the center section that I won't be twiddling my thumbs in a week or two after I receive the kit with nothing more I can work on?

My gut feel is YES I should get it sooner rather than later because if nothing else I can be deburring, building subassemblies, and other minor tasks while I wait on the "center section."

The argument against includes increased shipping costs (I assume) and the general increase in likelihood of errors or other problems when doing things out of sequence.

As I said, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. In particular, any idea specifically what the "center sections" are that they're referencing?

Thanks a lot,

-B
 
In particular if you plan to paint the fuselage interior parts before installing them, you’ll have plenty to do before the center section arrives.
 
Hi,
First of all I'll acknowledge that the folks at Vans are under a lot of stress from numerous setbacks and I'm sure they're working very hard to get caught back up. I imagine these delays are costing them quite a bit of money when you consider the man-hours and overhead increases on a per-kit basis to get them out the door after delays caused by COVID, weather, etc. So I, like so many of you, am doing my best to be patient and get stuff done around the house while waiting for my next kit.

Yesterday I received this email from Vans regarding my RV-12iS fuselage kit:

"We are waiting on center sections for the Fuse kit.

I don’t have your order in front of me, but if you opted to have it ship without the center section then it should be shipping in the next few weeks. If you want to hold for the center section then we are expecting them in late June."

My question to all of you is: Should I have the fuselage kit shipped now, or wait for the center section? I.e. is there enough I can get done before I need the center section that I won't be twiddling my thumbs in a week or two after I receive the kit with nothing more I can work on?

My gut feel is YES I should get it sooner rather than later because if nothing else I can be deburring, building subassemblies, and other minor tasks while I wait on the "center section."

The argument against includes increased shipping costs (I assume) and the general increase in likelihood of errors or other problems when doing things out of sequence.

As I said, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. In particular, any idea specifically what the "center sections" are that they're referencing?

Thanks a lot,

-B

The center section bulkhead is a small part of the overall kit. I would accept it and start prepping all of the other parts and get them ready to attach to the center section when it shows up..
 

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If you don’t mind doing a lot of deburring and prep work up front, I’d order the kit without the center section. There’s plenty to keep you busy, including building the fuel tank, which is part of the iS fuselage kit. You can also build the seats and most of the lower forward fuselage.

You won’t be able to assemble the main part of the fuselage because there are so many parts that attach to the center section, but if you’ve already prepped and debured all the parts, assembly should go really quickly once the center section arrives.
 
Order it and have them ship it to me ! I’ll give you my builder #.
I’m looking (hopefully?) at September right now!?!

:eek:
 
Thanks for all the responses! We decided to go ahead and have them ship what they've got so we can get started. You know what they say about a bird in hand....

-B
 
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