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Do you fabricate simple B/O parts instead of waiting

ymc9

ymc9

Well Known Member
Patron
Hello guys,

I’ve been waiting for this fuselage part that attach the seat belt lug for over 2 months and it’ll block me very soon.

store.vansaircraft.com

Seat Belt Attach Lug

store.vansaircraft.com store.vansaircraft.com

For such apparently simple aluminum parts, would you consider fabricating them yourself? If so, has anybody tried to get a detailed spec from Vans?
 

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When I replaced the canopy gas struts on my RV-12, I got the struts from Van’s but then realized I needed some new bushings to go with the new metal-end strut design (C-1204-1 and C-00002-2). I asked Van’s for drawings; they were happy to send me dimensioned drawings and my dad turned me a set out of some scrap aluminum.

That said, those were fairly non-precision and non-structural parts… I’ve never tried doing so for something with pre-matched holes and I’m not sure if they’d go for it. For a seatbelt attach point I’d probably rather wait for the backorder unless I had a CNC machine and a lot of sheet metal experience (I have neither).
 
Also, if you’re building ELSA, it’s highly unlikely that Van’s would approve a homemade part.
 
Not on a -12, so I can't speak to the E-LSA legality of it, but I fabricated several parts that were on indefinite backorder on my -9A, ranging from simple brackets to weldments. The most significant was probably the weldment that holds the elastomeric donuts in the nose landing gear. Van's tech support gave me a drawing when I asked, but it left some details to the imagination. The real weldment finally arrived about three months after first flight.

Obviously, don't do things that you aren't confident in your ability to safely fabricate.
 
noahhl said:
Not on a -12, so I can't speak to the E-LSA legality of it, but I fabricated several parts that were on indefinite backorder on my -9A, ranging from simple brackets to weldments. The most significant was probably the weldment that holds the elastomeric donuts in the nose landing gear. Van's tech support gave me a drawing when I asked, but it left some details to the imagination. The real weldment finally arrived about three months after first flight.

Obviously, don't do things that you aren't confident in your ability to safely fabricate.
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Fabricating parts is A OK on any experimental that is not S-LSA. Was that a self inflicted wound? Or were you VANdalized?
 
chaskuss said:
Fabricating parts is A OK on any experimental that is not S-LSA. Was that a self inflicted wound? Or were you VANdalized?
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Clarification: Builder fabricated parts for Experimental Light-Sport aircraft are not acceptable for original certification. For original certification, E-LSA must use ALL parts supplied by the kit manufacturer.
 
jsalley said:
No - SLSA is factory built, ELSA is amateur built to factory-built specs.
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Jsalley,
Maybe I read it wrong, It sounded like jsalley was saying that you could not make your own parts if the plane was ELSA. ESLA is NOT factory built so not held to as high a standard. If Vans was to allow one over the other it would be to allow non-factory parts on ELSA. BUT he would not be home building a SLSA so probably a moot point.
 
seagull said:
Jsalley,
Maybe I read it wrong, It sounded like jsalley was saying that you could not make your own parts if the plane was ELSA. ESLA is NOT factory built so not held to as high a standard. If Vans was to allow one over the other it would be to allow non-factory parts on ELSA. BUT he would not be home building a SLSA so probably a moot point.
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In order to be certified ELSA, every part must come from Van’s and construction must conform to the factory built SLSA and the KAI - until the airworthiness certificate is issued. After that, any changes can be made and it remains ELSA. If a change is made before the AC is issued, the aircraft becomes EAB, and cannot be certified ELSA unless Van’s approves the change. Will a DAR notice a homemade part buried in the structure? Who knows, but I wouldn’t take that risk.

And thanks, Mel, for the clarification - though I’ll always consider myself to be an amateur 🤪!
 
Thank you for all the insight. I completely forgot about the certification aspect. I guess it's best to be patient and wait for parts from Vans.
 
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