I am looking for any information regarding buying and building one kit at a time from Vans. I do not have much space right now, but I think I can manage the wing or tail kit. Are there pitfalls to buying the rest of the kits as I go? Thanks in advance for the feedback.
...It turn out for me that I had to order these $60 longerons from Van's, and because they are oversize, shipping cost was $350....
Martin
Hello !
Just want to share my experience with you, and a small pitfall I ran into...
I started my RV-8 project in a small space, the 12 ft X 12 ft garden shed in the backyard. Because of limited space, after empennage, I chose to build the fuselage first. In the fuselage, there is a lot of smaller sub-assemblies you can work on and complete before needing a lot of space. You can deburr all your parts prior to starting any assembly. If you start with the wings, you will need much more space right away.
My pitfall starting with the fuselage before the wing was the fact that the 15 ft long fuselage longerons are delivered by Van's with the wing kit. Since most people will start with the wings before the fuselage, it is typically not an issue. It turn out for me that I had to order these $60 longerons from Van's, and because they are oversize, shipping cost was $350....
That's my two cents !
Martin
You should be able to buy longeron material from almost any metal supplier. No reason to have them shipped all the way from Oregon. It's just 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/8 6061-T6 angle. There are no factory operations performed by Vans other than maybe cutting them to length.
..There is a version available that has a sharp inside corner. This one should not be used.
Just keep in mind that there are different cross sections of 6061-T6 angle available, and if someone is new to RV building they may not recognize they are buying the wrong one.
The one supplied in the kit has a generous radius at the inside corner. There is a version available that has a sharp inside corner. This one should not be used.
Well...You inherently avoid this issue, but if you live outside of the US you have the currency conversion issue to contend with.
I bought my empennage kit when the Canadian and US dollar were on par. Now our dollar has tanked so the Kit prices cost me 40% more $$
Now I wished I bought all the kit at once. (Hindsight = 20/20)