[Jimzim]

I am working on the fuse with limited space in the garage and would like to go as far as possible before moving the project to the airport. Is there any reason not to install gear, engine mount, canopy, run wires and systems as far as posible before putting wings on the first time? Plans call for wing install first but that makes no sense to me unless I'm missing something. It would be difficult to temporarily mount the wings before the gear!? Any advice appreciated.

 

[DanH]

You are building a......?

 

[Rick6a]

.....would like to go as far as possible before moving the project to the airport........

"Go as far as possible".....my sentiments exactly. It makes good sense to do as much work as possible before moving the project to the airport. I made the mistake of moving my -6A to the airport well before it really needed to be moved and as a consequence, final assembly took several months.

You don't say which RV you are building. My most recent experience is building a standard kit RV-8 and here's what I did the second time around:

Before making the move, I completed virtually everything possible in my home garage. That work included everything firewall forward, all fiberglass components fitted and the instrument panel completed, all circuits tested. Virtually all electrical circuits in the wings were prewired and tested so when the wings were finally installed, it was just a question of plugging it all in at the wing root. Final assembly at the airport was greatly simplified and took less than 3 weeks of a 24 month build time.

 

[Rosie]

From my mentor and repeat offender John Kalisz: "It is time to move to the airport when there is absolutely nothing more that can be done at home." John told me that if this were truly the case when I moved my RV-6A, it would take me;

**Two weeks to assemble
**One week to rig and take care of little stuff
**One week to get the FAA/DAR to the hangar (can fix stuff while waiting!)

We moved to the airport on May 8th and were signed off for flight on June 8th Rosie