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07-30-2006, 09:12 PM
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VAF Moderator / Line Boy
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Dayton, NV
Posts: 12,256
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I certianly trust Mel's opinion on this (he licensed my plane)! The missing info, however, is the serial numbers of the kits that show poorer workmanship - I know that my -8 (SN 82133) was beautifully done. I'm sure that there was a learning curve, and some of the lower qaulity might be the earlier ones - or, there may be problems with the newer ones indicating that they have fluctuating quality issues. Don't know unless we know when the reported ones were built.
Paul
Paul
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Paul F. Dye
Editor at Large - KITPLANES Magazine
RV-8 - N188PD - "Valkyrie"
RV-6 (By Marriage) - N164MS - "Mikey"
RV-3B - N13PL - "Tsamsiyu"
A&P, EAA Tech Counselor/Flight Advisor
Dayton Valley Airpark (A34)
http://Ironflight.com
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07-30-2006, 09:34 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Torquay, Victoria, Australia
Posts: 826
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Which Factory
Steve Nelson, the owner of the Philippines QB factory bought the business from someone else a few years ago and moved the factory 100 miles from the original. And I having met Steve (who is a licenced aircraft engineer and looks after the US Ambassor's King Air) can vouch for his excellent standards.
We might be talking about products from different factories.
Pete.
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Peter James.
Australia Down Under.
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07-31-2006, 06:37 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Dallas area
Posts: 10,769
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I guess I should have mentioned that the majority of the QB that I look at are very nicely done. I was just trying to point out that they are inconsisent.
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Mel Asberry, DAR since the last century.
EAA Flight Advisor/Tech Counselor, Friend of the RV-1
Recipient of Tony Bingelis Award and Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award
USAF Vet, High School E-LSA Project Mentor.
RV-6 Flying since 1993 (sold)
<rvmel(at)icloud.com>
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07-31-2006, 11:09 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Naperville, IL
Posts: 59
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Regardless of the factory of origin, all the quickbuild kits for the US market funnel back through Van's before shipping to domestic customers. So if there is a QC problem at the factory of origin, that problem should be spotted during inspection at Vans and rejected. How is this stuff (i.e., Mel's comments about Martin Sutter's QB kit) getting through Vans own inspection?
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08-08-2006, 02:07 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Birmingham, AL
Posts: 14
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Seriously, how come most of the workers (even the final inspector) are wearing masks? Do they know something we should?

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08-08-2006, 05:35 PM
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Super Moderator
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 266
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Quickbuild Factory
As Mel stated, my RV7A quickbuild is less than pretty. It was delivered in April of 2005 (kit# 72116) after a long delay.
The main issues are: 1) Very poor dimpling, the dimples look like the skin was stuck with an awl, probably caused by not hitting hard enough. 2) Obvious failure to adjust the flanges of the ribs to 90 degrees before installing them. This causes the wing skins to undulate spanwise. 3) Very pronounced "ski jump at the trailing edge of the rear spar. The skin sticks up about 1/4" above the air foil. 4) Poor fit of the fuel tanks resulting in puckering of the tank skin where it meets the outboard leading edge skin. 5) A very obvious tank leak that should have been caught when they tested them (they do that, we hope). 6) Heavy handed use of the edge rolling tool left sharp creases wherever they used it. It looks like different people worked on the various subcomponents. The ailerons for instance are dimpled perfectly while nothing else is. The wings are by far worse than the fuselage wich shows acceptable workmanship. The riveting is fine and there are no structural issues
Before deciding on a quick build I had looked at dozens of them over the years and found the quality quite nice. I had previously never seen one as rough as mine or I would not have ordered one. After mine we got two more in our Airpark in the same time frame (RV10's) that had similar workmanship problems. Since then I have not seen this kind of poor workmanship again on the latest kits. I can only guess that this lapse of quality was related to big backlog of quickbuilts during that time frame. May be new employees were added to catch up or the ones there were working way too many hours. Still, I wonder why nobody took up issue when the first underdimpled skin came along. I do not know how much screening happens when the kits pass thru Van's but these somehow managed to get thru.
Fortunately the completed airplane flies great and the flaws are only cosmetic. I will borrow Van's adjusting tool in an attempt to fix the trailing edge of the wing before the plane gets painted. Too bad I did not know it existed or I might have been able to prevent the ugly hump that occured in the outboard wing top skin when I riveted the prepunched aileron gap seal to the wing skin trailing edge.
Martin Sutter
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08-08-2006, 06:07 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Torquay, Victoria, Australia
Posts: 826
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What's happened
Martin,
Really feel for you. I would not be a happy boy.
I recieved kit 71522 April 2004.
One flange left reat bulkhead skin is all I can see that is not excellent.
So what has happened in one year? Or are some still made in Eastern Europe?
Pete.
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Peter James.
Australia Down Under.
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08-08-2006, 07:27 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Naperville, IL
Posts: 59
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Martin Sutter
As Mel stated, my RV7A quickbuild is less than pretty. It was delivered in April of 2005 (kit# 72116) after a long delay.
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Martin, thanks for the response. I'm sorry to hear of your QB troubles.
Well, I've been thinking a lot about the SB/QB choice, and your first-hand experience has helped me make up my mind. I'm building an RV-10, and I can't fathom the possibility of waiting four months (quoted lead time for the RV-10 QB kit) and then receiving that kind of product!
Looks like it's going to be a slow build for me.
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08-08-2006, 11:06 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Port Orange, Fl
Posts: 476
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I just received my QB 9A and am quite impressed. There is no way I could have done this kind of work, makes me want to redo my empennage. The only thing I could find is like was said before, was maybe a little heavy handed on the edge rolling on the ailerons. After building my empennage, and seeing how much work it could be, I can't fathom the idea of doing all the required smoothing, fluting, straightening on a slow build. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy building(can be stressful, but satisfying) but I want to reduce the chances of screwing something up and the QB does that for me. I can't imagine spending 14 hours on the wing ribs alone as I've seen done. My two cents.
Last edited by jlfernan : 08-08-2006 at 11:08 PM.
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08-09-2006, 06:44 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: ATL
Posts: 734
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like it
My 7A #71947 (QB #1369 if I recall) has very good quality throughout. Everyone who's seen it inside and out couldn't really find anything out of kilter. The rear spar at the flap could be adjusted a tad downwards on the left wing but that's about it.
If I were to do it over (and over and over?), QB is the way to go for me.
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