[Ironflight]

So how can you tell that you are in the ?finishing kit? stage of an RV project (particularly one for which there is no FWF kit and most of the finishing is custom)? Just take a look at the pile of boxes in the corner of the workshop! (This is AFTER a recent cleaning in which I recycled about half the pile?.and this doesn't include the big boxes from avionics, etc.)

Now some folks might judge by the size of their scrap parts bin, this is true, but I find that every couple of days I am going to the net or picking up the phone to order some small package of doo-dads or supplies from Stein, ACS, Vans ? or one of the other fine vendors you?ll find in the RV world. The RV-3 in particular requires a lot of fittings and fasteners that just don?t appear in the kit inventory ? and when you decide to equip it for IFR usage, you?re always running out of a particular size of wire, crimp, connector, etc, etc?.in the past couple of months I have ordered everything from D-Sub pins and sockets to antennas?.Relay decks to servo motors. UPS, FedEx and the United States Postal Service are here at all hours of the day and night.

Keeping the supply chain flowing and staying ahead of the game to prevent work stoppage is one of the fine arts you learn when you have to make most of it up yourself. If you?re building one of the newer kits, and it?s your first airplane, you can do a lot worse than buying the FWF from Van?s?.

Paul

 

[N941WR]

We are still going through my stash of boxes. They are really handy around Chirstmas time and birthdays!

 

[scsmith]

Keeping the supply chain flowing and staying ahead of the game to prevent work stoppage is one of the fine arts you learn when you have to make most of it up yourself.
Paul

I'm repeatedly amazed at the cottage industry that Van's home-builders support. And an impressive number of vendors have sprung up within a stone's throw of Aurora, too. From upholstery to weldments, avionics to fiberglass parts, canopies, flex hoses, seat belts, special bolts and rivets, wiring harnasses, painters, propeller makers.

But yeah, they all ship their stuff in boxes. But don't worry, if there WAS an RV-3B fwf kit, instead of boxes, you would be drowning in Van's off-white wrapping paper.

 

[aerhed]

Not to worry Paul, you will eventually fill them with bits of aluminum & fiberglass trimmings, empty paint cans, masking tape balls & beer cans.