Vans is so funny, ha ha ha ha

[bret]

Page 10-6, (this may take longer than most people realize ..bla bla, and ALSO CURE YOU OF ANY LINGERING DESIRE TO BUILD A WHOLE AIRPLANE FROM FIBERGLASS) 40+ hrs in just prep, set up, drill, remove, add glass, set up, re drill new holes, fill, drill, sand, repeat. This is just the pants, onto the intersection fairings, and no way near ready to paint. They seam to save the best for last. Cue me in, what else, baffles? Does anyone here see the comedy in the directions. This is fun but sheesh.

[Jesse]

Baffles are a piece if cake after building a whole plane from metal. Have you already done the cowl? Usually the canopy is the worst part.

[RidiculousM]

Bret,

That's some funny! So when you're done with all your fiberglass work you can come over and get busy on mine. And no crying when you're here .

[wjb]

Yea, just dealing with the empennage tips, as simple as they are, reaffirmed my preference for aluminum. (When you're ready to go to work, you say "let's go cut some metal"; no one says that about fiberglass)

[6 Gun]

Know what you feel on the glass I bet a company that could build wheel pants and cowlings like Jans cuffs would corner the market!
Bob

[deek]

It's really what you're used to. After building 3 and co-building a couple other glass airplanes I can't wait to get to that part on the RV-14 Riveting, on the other hand, scares the beejezus out of me!

[bruceh]

Worst is definitely the canopy. Cowling took forever, but at least it is fairly stable compared to the ever moving canopy. Baffles were easy. Just lots of trimming over a couple of sessions. The wheel pants are time consuming. The hard part is getting them in the right location so you can drill them to the brackets.

My favorite Van's instruction is in the fuselage section where they say "now would be a good time to do all of the wiring". That took months to plan out and months to run all of the wires everywhere.

[Rupester]

.... I thought wheelpants and fairings were the biggest PITA. I was amazed at how much time I spent dealing with that phase of the build. Like others said, getting them aligned perfectly (with Vans warning about the effect of 1/4" of misalignment ringing in your ears) to drill them to the mounts was very "fussy" work. Then came MANY hours of sanding and epoxy work trying to get rid of pin holes. Sheesh.

[TS Flightlines]

I feel your pain. FORTUNATELY----I have a A&P friend that LOVES glass work, and will help with mine when the time comes.

[bret]

For me, one of the problems was kneeling down on the concrete for so many hrs, my back dose not like that any more.