[speyers]

Was curious what the experience of other builders has been with building and shipping RV parts and pieces over seas. I am interested in finding out information as work will be taking me to Peru, South America for a number of years. Have two main questions.
1) How does the sheetmetal hold up during the shipping process. I would imagine that even in a container the salty sea air would induce some corrosion? Have others had experience with this while shipping by sea?
2) Second question is what am I going to call the thing when it comes through customs? It is not an airplane... it is pieces of an airplane. Would imagine that "airplane" parts have a higher duty than just "sraps of aluminum". Any thoughts?

 

[zkvii]

Logisitcs....

Hi,

If building overseas (non-USA) and particually if in the 'middle of nowhere' in our experience logistics are one of THE biggest challenges of the project. Shipping damage is probably 30-40%, not all serious but can be problamatic - keep a digital camera ready with any orders being recieved. Shipping costs are also significant % cost wise, I'm estimating shipping is probably running about 15% of total cost of the project.

Question 1) - We have the main QB shipped by sea (twice for the fuselage....) no problems with corrosion - the 5m long fuse box is a challenge for the handling - resulting in the need for the second one .
Question 2) - It will depend on the country, but for us and I think it is reasonably common, Aircraft parts are ZERO customs duty, but still have "value added sales tax" added on the total order price (ie. including parts, shipping, insurance etc).

If you are planning on taking it back to another country on completion taxes and 'sign-offs' would need investigation.

Other problems for "remote" building:

Tools and specifically imperial tools, taps, dyes, drills, spanners, rules are special order / have to be researched. Try and find a good hardware dealer locally, one that is happy to work with you to get in things as you need them.

Access to local knowledge / experience tends to be limited, VAF, AeroElectric and Yahoo groups for the areas that you are interested in are a key resource, you find a few other builders that you end up working through at the same sort of pace / IM is a great tool too. Research and monitoring become more important - a simple mistake can result in 3 months shipping and $$$ costs. Also after about 12months of monitoring you get a feel for the standard questions / solutions and the people that you want to listen to .

When you order the fuse / wings - get extras for AL angle, piano hinge, tube, sheet stock - anything that is bigger than a 'plan size' piece of paper, consider getting stock. When ordering a nut / bolt / adel clamp / wire - get another X for stock. The cost of X is going to be less than shipping a single item X that you might need in the future.

Try and make contact with South American (Peru?) builders - they will have the systems worked out and reduce the vertical cliff for you.....

Hope that helps a bit,

Carl