Hi All,
Yesterday, I suspect I have botched yet another set of parts because I followed the instructions, rather than spending hours trawling through other builders websites, making up a decision which one is right, then executing on it. Either way, both methods appear to be a waste of time, and it would be so much better if the instructions were just correct. I am a little staggered by the lack of updating of the instructions. I have the ones that came with my original emp kit 11 years ago, and they are virtually unchanged to the current ones. There has been little to no attempt to take into account the learnings from the past decade or so of builder discoveries. Coming from an engineering optimization background, I find this bewildering, and living 8140 miles from Vans Aircraft, it is painful having to wait for replacement of your botched part. I see the best way for improving the completion rate, and ensuring that QUALITY aircraft are constructed, is issue a genuine attempt at updating the assembly manual. I am currently working on the fuel tank Z brackets, and frankly Van's method sucks, as it doesn't allow accurate match drilling of the tank to spar/skin geometry. If only I didn't drill that 1/8" hole in the other side of the flange as the instructions told me to and I had found the method formally know as The Checkoway Method earlier... now I have to order 14 new Z brackets and spend $100 airfreighting them here. This is unfortunately not an isolated incident. Just a few that come to mind are the bending of the elevator tab trim tab ears, the overhang of the wing walk doubler (if you use the 1" recommended by Van's, then they will interfere with the flaps) and the list goes ON and ON. Sometimes Van's will send me an excerpt from the RV-14 instructions where they have obviously been updated, but frankly, thanks, but I don't need an RV-14 (I'm only 150lbs), I just want to successfully build my RV-7.
Now that I've got the blood pressure up of you second, third or 30th repeat offenders (I know there will probably be a tirade of "this is all part of the education" launched in my direction) I am proposing a solution. I have been keeping notes in my manual that could possibly be used as upgrades, and I would be prepared to provide a track changed document back to Van's. I figure this is something that we as a collective community could accomplish, looking toward those of you who are further on in the build or have completed and would be willing to assist. I just feel that we as a group spend so much time keeping our own journals and web logs of what we have learnt, but nowhere is this pulled together into one document so that future builders can benefit to the fullest extent. Should there be disagreement on the process amongst the builders, then that is the beauty of this forum, we can launch a poll and take the most preferred solution, and if things are near equal, then we can provide multiple choices (but state which one is preferred). Frankly, I don't think this list or the modifications will be massive, but they will go a long way to improving things in the future.
I know this will still require acceptance by Van's and they may even have to take things past the FAA again, but frankly I think this would do great things for reducing builder frustration and subsequently improve the completion rate and the general construction quality.
If you are interested in assisting, let me know, along with the stage of completion of your project. I figure this may also be applicable to the RV-8, RV-9, RV-4 and RV-3, so if others are interested in putting up their hand to assist on those older platforms (still available from Van's), it would be greatly appreciated, at least by future builders or those midway through their current build. Imagine the good karma you could earn by assisting!
Conversely, if I am way off the mark and this has previously been tried unsuccessfully for currently valid reasons (and I just need to get better at using the search function), let me know. Time for me to get off my soapbox and back to ordering those replacement Z brackets.
Regards,
Thomas.
Yesterday, I suspect I have botched yet another set of parts because I followed the instructions, rather than spending hours trawling through other builders websites, making up a decision which one is right, then executing on it. Either way, both methods appear to be a waste of time, and it would be so much better if the instructions were just correct. I am a little staggered by the lack of updating of the instructions. I have the ones that came with my original emp kit 11 years ago, and they are virtually unchanged to the current ones. There has been little to no attempt to take into account the learnings from the past decade or so of builder discoveries. Coming from an engineering optimization background, I find this bewildering, and living 8140 miles from Vans Aircraft, it is painful having to wait for replacement of your botched part. I see the best way for improving the completion rate, and ensuring that QUALITY aircraft are constructed, is issue a genuine attempt at updating the assembly manual. I am currently working on the fuel tank Z brackets, and frankly Van's method sucks, as it doesn't allow accurate match drilling of the tank to spar/skin geometry. If only I didn't drill that 1/8" hole in the other side of the flange as the instructions told me to and I had found the method formally know as The Checkoway Method earlier... now I have to order 14 new Z brackets and spend $100 airfreighting them here. This is unfortunately not an isolated incident. Just a few that come to mind are the bending of the elevator tab trim tab ears, the overhang of the wing walk doubler (if you use the 1" recommended by Van's, then they will interfere with the flaps) and the list goes ON and ON. Sometimes Van's will send me an excerpt from the RV-14 instructions where they have obviously been updated, but frankly, thanks, but I don't need an RV-14 (I'm only 150lbs), I just want to successfully build my RV-7.
Now that I've got the blood pressure up of you second, third or 30th repeat offenders (I know there will probably be a tirade of "this is all part of the education" launched in my direction) I am proposing a solution. I have been keeping notes in my manual that could possibly be used as upgrades, and I would be prepared to provide a track changed document back to Van's. I figure this is something that we as a collective community could accomplish, looking toward those of you who are further on in the build or have completed and would be willing to assist. I just feel that we as a group spend so much time keeping our own journals and web logs of what we have learnt, but nowhere is this pulled together into one document so that future builders can benefit to the fullest extent. Should there be disagreement on the process amongst the builders, then that is the beauty of this forum, we can launch a poll and take the most preferred solution, and if things are near equal, then we can provide multiple choices (but state which one is preferred). Frankly, I don't think this list or the modifications will be massive, but they will go a long way to improving things in the future.
I know this will still require acceptance by Van's and they may even have to take things past the FAA again, but frankly I think this would do great things for reducing builder frustration and subsequently improve the completion rate and the general construction quality.
If you are interested in assisting, let me know, along with the stage of completion of your project. I figure this may also be applicable to the RV-8, RV-9, RV-4 and RV-3, so if others are interested in putting up their hand to assist on those older platforms (still available from Van's), it would be greatly appreciated, at least by future builders or those midway through their current build. Imagine the good karma you could earn by assisting!
Conversely, if I am way off the mark and this has previously been tried unsuccessfully for currently valid reasons (and I just need to get better at using the search function), let me know. Time for me to get off my soapbox and back to ordering those replacement Z brackets.
Regards,
Thomas.