W

WenEng

Well Known Member
Patron
I was going through parts boxes of an acquired RV-6A kit and there are what looks like prepared wing parts (angles, wing parts, tank parts, aileron, flap parts etc). All anodized with nice inked names to them like stiffeners, rib brace, etc. In thepaperwork was an old copy of a flyer from Barnard Aircraft Components with a picture of a kit for wing assembly. As I am building the right wing, I was wondering if anyone had any feedback on his parts. I can't seem to find him anymore so I'm trying to decide if these parts are a go or not. They look fine ( probably better than I can make). But when I was measuring the rib stiffener angles, they measured 7 9/16 , not 7 5/8 per plans. Maybe I worry too much.
 
Old Kit

'Way back',,,,,,,, builders could get a lot of the parts premade from Benard. All or most of the Benard parts you have had to be made out of stock. The early kits had a lot of fabrication to be done by the builder.
Hope you are getting a QB fuse in this last offering fron Vans

Now we buy QB kits cheeper than the parts can be built here in the states.
 
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The RV-6 we have now was built with Bernard wing and firewall parts, finished in 1998. They seem to be of high quality, so far as I can tell, and they are working fine. The builder was happy to use them, said they saved him a lot of time, no fitting problems mentioned.

--Paul
 
Wendell, Steve is a buddy of mine, I will talk to him about this---------

No guarantees, but I am fairly sure he will be willing to answer your questions.

Will get back to you later.

P.M. me your contact info, if you dont mind.
 
Steve and Terresa Bernard built top quality parts. His RV6 won a couple of awards at Oshgosh. After Vans saw some of his stuff at a Bakersfield flyin Vans decided to get into the quickbuild business. True story.
Tom
RV3 x 2
2000 + hours
 
Thanks for the feedback.

I only need to order the finish kit very soon. It took me awhile to sort through parts and plans to see what all the stuff was for. They look like quality parts and I am sure he(?) did a great job making them. I am interested in filling in the blanks here. I guess the company stopped doing business at some point. And, like mentioned earlier, I suppose overseas fabricators were the ultimate low cost solution. More jobs gone.... overseas...
 
Quick rundown--

WenEng said:
I guess the company stopped doing business at some point.
Click to expand...

Correct. 7 or 8 years ago, IIRC.

Nowadays, Vans does the pre punching, and a lot of the fabrication work that BAC did.

BAC used to take your raw parts, punch the holes, de burr, and a lot of fabrication. You still had to do the assembly.

The stuff currently being done overseas is assembly of pre made parts from Vans.
 
As Mike described I had my wing kit shipped to Steve and I received the kit with many components fabricated. I was very pleased with the way the wings went together.

Ken
 
Nostalgia and a priming question...

What I find fascinating is that the Vans RV line has been around long enough to have almost a generational following change, with an air of nostalgia to it while being progressive still with new designs. I found this BAC flyer in my paperwork, probably from the middle to late 90s. These are the parts that, while a little dusty, still look really good to finish my wing.

Here's one question. On the gold parts, can, should I etch prime them along with the other parts that are not treated?

BarnardAircraftComponentsCompanyFly.jpg
 
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