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TRYING TO PURCHASE PARTS FROM VAN'S

E. D. Eliot

Well Known Member
Need a couple of parts for my not yet finished Van's RV-12. Called Van's today in order to be sure that what I had in mind would work. Dale answered the phone verified that what I had in mind would work and offered to place the order for me - I said no thanks because I knew that he was busy and told him that I would order on line this evening.

The 'LIST' failed me again and the 'Search Function' informed me that no such part existed. I'm frustrated and @$%^&&**((&^%$

So I'll call Van's tomorrow and hope that whomever answers the phone can 'find' my parts. I know that the parts that I want are part of one of the RV-12iS kits, so they must exist somewhere.

Van's really needs to upgrade the 'LIST'.

AGAIN, I offer the advice to ??? at Van's to hire a computer savvy kid and task him/her to produce a list of parts for sale that a semi-computer savvy person like me can use. Enough said - I'm @#$%^&&** and no, I don't feel better after typing this rant. Van's needs to do right.
 
Need a couple of parts for my not yet finished Van's RV-12. Called Van's today in order to be sure that what I had in mind would work. Dale answered the phone verified that what I had in mind would work and offered to place the order for me - I said no thanks because I knew that he was busy and told him that I would order on line this evening.

The 'LIST' failed me again and the 'Search Function' informed me that no such part existed. I'm frustrated and @$%^&&**((&^%$

So I'll call Van's tomorrow and hope that whomever answers the phone can 'find' my parts. I know that the parts that I want are part of one of the RV-12iS kits, so they must exist somewhere.

Van's really needs to upgrade the 'LIST'.

AGAIN, I offer the advice to ??? at Van's to hire a computer savvy kid and task him/her to produce a list of parts for sale that a semi-computer savvy person like me can use. Enough said - I'm @#$%^&&** and no, I don't feel better after typing this rant. Van's needs to do right.


Sounds like they did when Dale made the offer to put the order in for you ...
 
You HAVE to type in the part number EXACTLY as it appears on the plans, or it comes up as no such matches.

BTDT....a lot.:)
 
The whole time I was building my -8, I was never able to place an on line order with Vans. My computer is an Apple and I cannot get it to talk to Van. Someone said it only works with Windows. Same thing with some of Vans downloads.
 
The whole time I was building my -8, I was never able to place an on line order with Vans. My computer is an Apple and I cannot get it to talk to Van. Someone said it only works with Windows. Same thing with some of Vans downloads.
I used a MacAir through the whole build and did not have this issue at Vans.
 
I have to say, I have had problems with the list even when I have the number off the plans. There is a place where you can manually search the list and I have found the number in the description of the part rather than as the part number. The other problem has been that a part from a legacy design gets rolled into a newer part, the list has no way to take you to the superseding part. That is a database problem.
That said, call them up and they can find it for you. They have a different list.
 
Ordering from Vans

Never had a problem
I usually use partial numbers and sift through the hits but always call in my order. I like to talk to humans.
 
Tree killing

PITA and non-enviro sensitive but having "the list" spread sheet printed hard copy is invaluable at times. Have found items listed by the exact part number by looking where their search engine returned nothing. Saving a copy to your computer also allows searching via Windows Excel/Mac iOS Numbers/etc. Another option. Just sayin'.
 
We will be releasing a new Van's online store within the next several months, which will make it quite a bit easier to find and order accessories and parts. We are aware our current store has its issues and frustrations (we get frustrated, too), which is why we've spend countless hours and funds building a new one over the past while. These things take time to get right.

And again - Van's has already hired the right people to do the job, and they're busy doing it. And, it's not some computer-savvy "kid." :)
 
And again - Van's has already hired the right people to do the job, and they're busy doing it. And, it's not some computer-savvy "kid."

Good lord...they hired an old geezer who got a B- in FORTRAN.
R
 
Good lord...they hired an old geezer who got a B- in FORTRAN.
R

Hahah. :D One geezer who knows what FORTRAN is (I think I actually got a B+, but I digress) and a team of much younger folks who know the modern development stuff quite well!
 
FORTRAN

Hahah. :D One geezer who knows what FORTRAN is (I think I actually got a B+, but I digress) and a team of much younger folks who know the modern development stuff quite well!

Ah yes...I remember taking at least couple of semesters of FORTRAN classes...and using a mainframe system to write and run the programs...but at least I didn't have to use punch cards! I don't think I've ever used FORTRAN in the workplace though (but I have done some work in C and VB).

My drafting class was also the last semester that my school taught the class to draft on paper using a drafting table and drafting machine. Fortunately they also spent part of the time teaching CAD as well...

Skylor
 
Man, I was joking.....I would have bet the house no one at Vans is old enough to know FORTRAN, or COBOL.
Bet no one there took Slide Rule in college. Following semester they allowed Engineering Calculators....it took 2 weeks pay to by a HP brand..$130.
I think it had vacuum tubes in it, came with wheels.
I got all the girls.

R
 
Man, I was joking.....I would have bet the house no one at Vans is old enough to know FORTRAN, or COBOL.
Bet no one there took Slide Rule in college. Following semester they allowed Engineering Calculators....it took 2 weeks pay to by a HP brand..$130.
I think it had vacuum tubes in it, came with wheels.
I got all the girls.

R

There could be. I?m 71 and I used punched cards in college to run Fortran programs. I even know why you used a magic marker and drew a diagonal line down the edge of the deck! I still own a slide rule and, as a grad teaching assistant, taught the freshmen how to use it. I left for two years (drafted) and when I returned the slide rules were all gone. Students came to exams carrying extension cords and octopus outlets. Turns out those early HP calculators really ate up the batteries! And when they first came out, it?s true, they were hideously expensive. I still prefer RPN logic, too.
 
My Senior year of ME one student bought a HP 35 - it was $395 in 1971-2. The rest of us shlumps were still bambooing it with the Post Versalogs.

$395 was an impossible expense - might as well have been $3.95M

Fortran here too...on an IBM 1130 with SSP and the IBM 029 keypunch.
 
Bet no one there took Slide Rule in college. Following semester they allowed Engineering Calculators....it took 2 weeks pay to by a HP brand..$130.
I think it had vacuum tubes in it, came with wheels.
I got all the girls.

R

You'd lose that bet, ya know. :D Straight from the Desk of Van himself:

vans-sliderule-scaled-e1588811006139.jpg


Heck, they're still useful these days. Designing an RV-15 spar cap...

van-sliderule-sparcap15.jpg
 
Hate to date myself, but I had a class in college called ?Industrial Calculations?. It was a slide rule class. Mandatory in my semi-engineering track, but they ended that course shortly after I graduated (1974).
 
As for ordering parts, I've found it handy to have the thumb drives of some of the other RVs. Occasionally, not often, a part from one of them is just the thing to make building my RV-3B easier.

Guess the factory agrees with me, several of the tailcone parts in my fuselage kit came as RV-4 parts and sure didn't fit very well. For those I'd have preferred RV-3 parts, which had been discontinued by then.

As for personal computational devices, I started on slide rules, still have one, and moved up to the great HP-45. The programmable HP-41C was a useful upgrade, as was a PC that could run Pascal. Of course I had to learn Pascal to use it. Then came Mathcad, and I no longer needed a programmable calculator or a general-purpose programming language. Now, my old HP-11C is by my hand.

Dave
 
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Man, I forgot about the black line on the punch cards, students dropping their card box and cards flying down the stairwell. What a mess.
Is that really Vans himself in the picture with a 10” slide? He must have been poor like me...rich kids had the 18” model and got extra credit answering correctly to the 1 millionance (sic...??). 23.2314576...”That’s right Bob.”

Once again the geezers hijacked a thread....huh...E.D. Eliot just call Betty and she’ll get that part out to you straight away ( I speak British). The new system will be up and running when the kid finishes.

R
 
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Man, I was joking.....I would have bet the house no one at Vans is old enough to know FORTRAN, or COBOL.

Ha. Kids.

Fortran, COBOL, RPG II, IBM 360 ASM...and about 2 dozen more...here.

Now, which *Version* of Fortran are we talking here? :)
 
My class was the last class at the US Air Force Academy to get issued slide rules (class of 78). Trying to keep up with the guys who could afford calculators was impossible during exams so everyone soon went to HP or Texas Instrument.

The instructors were sneaky though and structured questions in such a way that if you just plowed through the calculations with your calculator then the rounding errors would build and give you the wrong answer. Those of us with slide rules were very aware to structure the calculations to take into account rounding errors.

Also, I never understood why the Academy used ALGOL when FORTRAN was the main programming language used. In fact, FORTRAN was used at the Flight Dynamics Lab at Wright-Pat, my first job as a 2nd Lt. they were similar enough that tracking down syntax errors was difficult 😊.

Still have some circular slide rules given to me by Test Pilots I worked with at NASA Dryden who flew with them in their flight suit pockets.

Times have changed!
 
A couple of years ago I received a catalog for math textbooks. It included slide rules, but they were selling them a novelties.
 
Thank you, Ken

I appreciate your constructive and informative answer to my question. Your link to a way to order parts is exactly what I needed. I appreciate you.
 
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