Questions to ask and things to look for when purchasing a used, partially built kit?

[kevinsky18]

I'm thinking of buying an emp that has had hardly any work done to it. I?m also looking at other more complete second hand kits.

What are the key questions to ask? Obviously the primary concern is build quality but how would one judge that if they don?t have much / any build experience themselves?

[rv9aviator]

One problem I had was I bought a wing kit from an individual and didn't get the center section because he had ordered a quick built fuselage and Van's kept the center section to mate it to the fuselage. He then cancelled the order and the center section got used somewhere else. It is matched drilled to your wing spars. I had to pay $600.00 for another center section and of course it won't be perfectly matched to my spars. Van's told me it probably won't be much of a problem since all the parts are nearly identical. I still would have rather have had the one that came with my wings. Be sure to inventory every parts sack and piece of material against the packing slip.

Good Luck

[lorne green]

Originally Posted by kevinsky18

snip I'm thinking of buying an emp. What are the key questions to ask?

Kevin, the emp is the least expensive part of the build. Unless this partially built emp is just about free concider passing on the deal. If you are serious about finishing this plane buy your kits from Van's...you will know exactly what's under the skin. The emp is the place you want to learn the basics witout the hassles with Canadian MDRA and TC.
(Just my .02 cents Canadian).

[gvgoff99]

Having purchased a partially built kit I can not encourage you enough to find someone that is an RV guru to go with you to look at the partially built kit. I mean a Jay Pratt or Canadian equivalent. There are a few around but not many. Having just built an RV does not make one a guru. As one of my bosses once said about his work force when I mentioned how many years of experience they had he said, "You have people with twenty years of experience and you have people with one year of experience repeated twenty times." You need to look hard for someone knowledgeable before you buy. It will cost a few $$ but the reality of building is that it costs a lot of $. Spending is something you have to get use to doing.

For the neophyte questions won't cut the mustard because the seller is "selling" the plane and will probably not volunteer a lot of negative info. They may not even know there is something negative to tell you.