2theskyy
Well Known Member
Just have a think about what it means when you say I don’t trust vans engineers.
If that were remotely true, sell your kit.
If you don’t trust them how do you know your plane is safe? If you don’t trust them how do you know you can pull 6G? Or that their Vne figure is correct? Or that the drop test on the landing gear was done properly? How about any or all of the engineering analysis that was done to prove your aircraft design was safe?
What I actually think you mean is that they have come up with an answer you’re not happy with. It’s fine if you’re not happy, you have every right to be unhappy. I’m not particularly happy about it.
However, to call into question the professionalism of their engineering staff based on nothing more than opinion is disrespectful. And I imagine if someone came into your place of work and called into question your professionalism they would be told to leave.
If you actually didn’t trust Vans Aircraft engineers you wouldn’t be on here, because you wouldn’t have bought the kit in the first place.
In Vans defense. Every replacement part is punched.
I only speak for myself and I no longer have a dog in the fight. I pulled ever lcp and put it in a pile. I was fortunate out of this group to not have anything built in yet. Im a huge advocate against these LCP’s in this situation. I trust vans designs enough to have had rebuilt #15 RV3 years ago. I wish I still had it. But now have went the RV8 route. I can say that communications today is different from then. I decided to purchase my entire list of lcp(red,blue,green, etc) at full price as well as taxes and shipping. Why in the **** would I do that. I put a lot of thought into it and it helps Vans out financially( debatable if they should be helped). It allows me get back into the build. Im fortunate to be able to make such a decision now as when I had the RV3, I pinched Pennie’s and I mean I was poor but loved aviation.
Are any of these planes going to fall out of the sky. No, that’s not how it works. Except in a few cases. But cracks will propagate and be discovered in CI’s. Then extensive repairs will need to be accomplished at that time.
I still say time is $ and I still will not put a lcp in my plane. I still will build it and it won’t be perfect by any means. But I felt I’d throw Vans a little bit of my help to hopefully pass on the others affected.
I sit in the left seat of an airliner and I have sent planes back to the hanger for a variety of reasons. I have no problem being the last line of defense for safety for myself and my pax. Because I trust engineers to do their job and I also have a responsibility to do my job. I determine an airplane airworthy. Not an engineer.