B

Bob Ross

Member
I received my wing kit this past week and when checking the inventory I found something very alarming. About 10 of the W1208R and W1208L wing ribs were cracked! It appears that the stamping machine was set incorrectly and damaged the ribs. I am very suprised that this would pass the Van's QC.

Has anyone else seen this problem? I will contact Van's tomorrow to see what corrective action they suggest.

Bob
 
stabilator rib

I had one cracked on a forward stabilator rib. It was cracked where the lightening hole bends out. Contacted Vans and I recieved a new one in two days. Did not find until I removed the blue plastic.
 
skydiverlv said:
I had one cracked on a forward stabilator rib. It was cracked where the lightening hole bends out. Contacted Vans and I recieved a new one in two days. Did not find until I removed the blue plastic.
Click to expand...

We had this same exact problem. All 6 of our originals were cracked, 3 of the next 6 were cracked, and 1 of the next 3 came stop drilled from the factory.

Fortunately we are a quick drive away from Vans, so we exchanged them quickly.
 
Cracked Ribs

I be glad to post a few pictures but I can figure out how to attach them to the post.........any help here would be appreciated. If I click on the Insert Image icon it asks for a URL.

:confused:

Bob
 
here are a few pics of what we had on our stabilator ribs:

Top hole, about 7 oclock.
rv12056.jpg



Fuzzy image, but the crack is just about dead center of the screen:
rv12055.jpg
 
ErichKeane said:
1 of the next 3 came stop drilled from the factory.
Click to expand...
That's the most shocking thing i've heard this week. It indicates that they saw the problem, but tried to find a way to convince themselves to ship it anyway. I would have expected better.
 
Cracked Ribs Update

I called Van's today about the cracked wing rib problem. They are investigating it and said they would get back to me shortly
 
Snowflake said:
That's the most shocking thing i've heard this week. It indicates that they saw the problem, but tried to find a way to convince themselves to ship it anyway. I would have expected better.
Click to expand...

They told us to stop-drill the ones we had (overall, it took 9 bad ones to get 6 good ones!) but we rejected it. Apparently when we went to pick them up, they had a handful of them that they stop drilled. I guess it is SOP now.
 
Horizontal Stab Cracks

We were starting to assemble the horizontal stab last night and 5 of the nose ribs on the HS had cracks in the largest lightening hole.
Just FYI
 
Looks to me that the die needs to have a radius on that forming edge. It is too sharp and is probably coining or pinching that area causing a natual breaking point. Not good at all!! I wonder about the material grain direction also. Is the grain running the same direction on all these ribs?
 
Why Now? - Rhetorical questions

Rhetorical questions:
1. Why is this happening now?
2. Is this unique to the RV-12?
3. Is this a unique aluminum supplier metallurgy problem?
4. Is it possible ribs that are skinned, we cannot see, have cracked since they were skinned?
5. If I think I am buying a new rib, but the one I get has a defect and is stop drilled do I get a discount for accepting a repaired or defective part?
6. Is this the reason kit shipments that were scheduled for shipment in the last few weeks have not been shipped, and we have heard nothing from Van's?

I have the utmost confidence in Van's products and am in no way trying to bwe critical, otherwise we would not place our lives in their hands; and, I realize Van's is trying to solve the problem as expediently as possible; however, these are just some questions going through my mind.

Gary -
 
Cracked Ribs Update

There would be no way to stop drill the cracked wing ribs I received. They were cracked almost all the way in half.....see the photo below
do7.jpg
:mad:
 
Bob Ross said:
There would be no way to stop drill the cracked wing ribs I received. They were cracked almost all the way in half.....see the photo below
Click to expand...

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

There's no way I'd be able to sleep at night knowing that parts even remotely related to this batch were in my plane.

I hope vans gets EVERY single one of these ribs back.
 
Whats amazing is how many sets of eyes should have been laid on that part before it got to the customer. Off the top of my head:

The guy that pulled it out of the press
The guy boxed it to ship to the heat treater (if not done in house)
The guy that put it in the heat treat oven
The guy that pulled it out of the heat treat oven
The guy that that boxed it up to ship back to Vans
The guy the guy at vans that unboxed it and put in inventory
The guy that picked the part off the shelf to sell
The guy that boxed/crated it up
And you assume at some point a QC inspection...
 
I'm sure that there was some sort of design change or machine configuration on that date that caused the issue.

We checked today and found that exactly 1/2 of our ribs have this problem :/ We're driving them back to Vans tomorrow, hopefully getting enough new ones. All of ours are broken exactly like the OPs. April 15th was our kit date, I have no idea of the mfg date.
 
Cracked Ribs

Thankkfully I am not involved in this problem, but I can't help but wonder what's to be done if badly cracked ribs are found well inside finished and skinned wings....removing skins and replacing ribs seems the only answer but it also involves a whole new set of problems like enlarged holes, etc, etc,
What is the outlook for those who face this?
 
Why enlarged holes? In fact, removing pop rivets are easier that solid ones. I find it hard to believe anyone installed a rib with a gash in the middle. I mean you have to flute em, pull the plastic off etc...how could you miss it? I think Van's is obligated for liability purposes to make sure that they have done their part...inspect and directions on how to fix. Free replacement would have no impact on the liablity issue but ignoring it would. Remember, their name is on the data plate as builder. And of course you signed a statement saying that you built it exactly as told and signed another document saying that you flew the plane to the edges of the envelope with satisfactory results.
 
ErichKeane said:
I'm sure that there was some sort of design change or machine configuration on that date that caused the issue.

We checked today and found that exactly 1/2 of our ribs have this problem :/ We're driving them back to Vans tomorrow, hopefully getting enough new ones. All of ours are broken exactly like the OPs. April 15th was our kit date, I have no idea of the mfg date.
Click to expand...

Besides the fact that the die edges are too sharp, I think the question of the material grain direction needs to be asked if you are going to Van's.
 
Peterk said:
Why enlarged holes? In fact, removing pop rivets are easier that solid ones. I find it hard to believe anyone installed a rib with a gash in the middle. I mean you have to flute em, pull the plastic off etc...how could you miss it? I think Van's is obligated for liability purposes to make sure that they have done their part...inspect and directions on how to fix. Free replacement would have no impact on the liablity issue but ignoring it would. Remember, their name is on the data plate as builder. And of course you signed a statement saying that you built it exactly as told and signed another document saying that you flew the plane to the edges of the envelope with satisfactory results.
Click to expand...

Ours came without the blue plastic on them actually, they came just plain aluminum.

After seeing them, I would hope that anyone would have noticed the problem, it is pretty obvious.
 
I just received a letter from Van's saying that my wing kit delivery is being postponed for one month due to a delay. This will give me a chance to finish the empennage, put an A/C in the garage, and build the wing rack.
 
mnmisage said:
I just received a letter from Van's saying that my wing kit delivery is being postponed for one month due to a delay. This will give me a chance to finish the empennage, put an A/C in the garage, and build the wing rack.
Click to expand...

We just talked to Vans and are getting our replacement ribs, but were told that they have very few left. Apparently people are finding the issues pretty consistently and getting them replaced.
 
Gloomy Gus said:
I just got fuselage shipping delay letter today. Two weeks later than before.
Sounds like everything is backed up.
Click to expand...

Hm, seems to not affect the tail kit. I ordered the tail kit on 4/26 and received it on 5/7. I'd think this was pretty fast but then, maybe I was just lucky.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.