I picked up most of the the finish kit pieces today at Vans Aircraft with some other goodies. I wonder how many more folks are going to be buying RV-3, RV-4 and RV-6 kit pieces since they discontinued them in Sept. Something I noticed when I got home was the cowling was inspected on 3/2018! It has sat in inventory at Vans for that long? I've been trying to order this kit for quite some time now and have gone through leaps and bounds to get it together and ordered. When I was there, I never heard the phone ring which is weird for me as I remember being there in the mid 2000's and it was off the hook all the time. Age of the internet. Hope everyone else can get their kit pieces and put some slow build birds in the air.
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Solem Day at Vans Aircraft for the RV-3
- Thread starter Aden Rich
- Start date
Even though your a relatively young guy Aden, your an old sole in the RV world. Let’s face it, they/we don’t build them like we used to 
, literally.
I don’t think Vans old business model was sustainable.
It’s too bad the market couldn’t support the 3 and 4. The 6 just wasn’t designed for modern manufacturing.
So, here we sit with our darlings and loves being passed bye. Kind of the natural order of things it would seem.
, literally.I don’t think Vans old business model was sustainable.
It’s too bad the market couldn’t support the 3 and 4. The 6 just wasn’t designed for modern manufacturing.
So, here we sit with our darlings and loves being passed bye. Kind of the natural order of things it would seem.
The problem, of course, is that while folks love to TALK (and write) about building a -3 or a -4, Van’s kits sales clearly show that most of those people are all talk. I have written before that when Louise and I built our -3, we posted it about it every week, gave detailed looks into the construction process, and everyone got really excited about building one. I asked Van’s later about the “bump” in RV-3 sales. The response was that they sold maybe four tail kits in that two-year period…..
It costs money to make parts, keep them in stock, and have folks on staff who are knowledgeable about the marque - and unfortunately that doesn’t make business sense for two kit sales a year. I have seen way too many little kit companies come and go because of the hard economics of the problem - no matter how good the airplanes are! It always comes back to the customer base (or lack there-of….).
It costs money to make parts, keep them in stock, and have folks on staff who are knowledgeable about the marque - and unfortunately that doesn’t make business sense for two kit sales a year. I have seen way too many little kit companies come and go because of the hard economics of the problem - no matter how good the airplanes are! It always comes back to the customer base (or lack there-of….).
Even though your a relatively young guy Aden, your an old sole in the RV world. Let’s face it, they/we don’t build them like we used to
I don’t think Vans old business model was sustainable.
It’s too bad the market couldn’t support the 3 and 4. The 6 just wasn’t designed for modern manufacturing.
So, here we sit with our darlings and loves being passed bye. Kind of the natural order of things it would seem.
All very true. Like I said, the cowling was sitting there since 2018 in inventory. So that covers the -3 and -4! But yes, at 52, I am getting old and sentimental. I just want a little "Pocket Rocket" that I can take out and bore holes in the sky and bomb around in. I will be using a O-320 and CS Prop.
Paul, IF you could do me a favor and take a picture of the cowling inlet and baffling on the front left inlet, I would appreciate it. I have a front mount prop governor case and need to see how the cowl cheek may interfere with the governor. It's going to be tight. I may have to go with the rear mounted set up if its going to be a mess to fit.
Aden - I’d take a picture for you, but Louise has the airplane on a trip this week. We’e got an aft governor, so pictures probably wont tell you much, but if I recall correctly, it would be very tight…..
Aden. Here’s a few pictures of my RV3 build that shows the area you were asking about. It’s an O-320 with cs prop but rear mounted governor
Hope this helps
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Ricksrv4
Member
For sure things have changed for todays builder, I took 18 years to build my RV4 and probably have less money invested in the entire build than most have invested in the panel. Simple day VFR 0320 wood Sterba prop and I have a blast flying it.
Aden, I have the D2J 0320 in my 3, hopefully this pic will give you an idea of the baffle height etc. My engine came from an RV 9 with a fixed pitch prop and I just copied the baffle placement from that installation (for better or worse) which has it midway on the governor casting. Obviously I have a fixed pitch prop too. Since you are the OP I will add add to the drift. I lament the passing of these legacy models as well.
Russell
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Sad to see the legacy kits go away, but the "modern day" builders have it quick and easy, so that's what sells. As others mentioned, us pre-internet folks that built 3's,4's,and 6's were enamored with the VANs kits and plans in comparison to any other experimental that even came close to the RV look and performance. You had the Thorp T-18, Mustang II, or a BD-4 as the other similar (metal) choices. To me, building my RV-4 was an experience that I thoroughly enjoyed, and the 40 some plans sheets and builders book were ample to get the job done. I sometimes find in today's world, the internet search and options slow the build technically and the "buy it now" button is great for the deep pockets, but not the simple DIY craftsman. I started my -4 in 1993, and ALL the kits including finish were around 10K. I built my own engine up from a give it away run-out O-320H2AD and have 6.5K in FWF. A $200 Sterba prop off Ebay I re-finished still drags me around. In total I sit at 25K ish total investment including my DIY paint job. I want to build another plane someday, but I can't see affording it. There are few unbuilt/unfinished kits popping up, but you gotta be quick to snag one. For you guys battling the Governor bumps, I had a bump on each side of the H2AD, one for governor, and one for fuel pump. I machined off both of them slightly and made an angled cover plate for the pump, and the governor boss was never internally finish machined from Lycoming, so I shaved it too, no cover needed. Didn't take much to avoid a "bump". You can see the fuel pump cover in the pic.
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I would suggest the build threads by Paul Dye and David Paule. As Paul Dye mentioned above he and his wife built an extraordinary 3B. David Paule has his 3B build underway and I really enjoy his build updates. He is obviously enjoying the process and seems to savor the process of not cutting any corners and coming up with his own customized details. I am sure there are more builders out there quietly making progress. I knew a guy in the 1980's who built a 3A and a 4 from plans only. He was in his 80s and had worked at aircraft factories during WW II. He would make crazy custom bucking bars to reach conceivably un-reachable areas. He refused to use any blind fasteners in his structure. He built up the spars bucking the rivets with a sledge hammer backed up by a flat plate anchored to concrete slab. After he finished his 4 he told me that everybody should buy all the quick build options humanly possible. The legacy Vans kits brought out the true builders and created new ones too.
Thanks everyone for the pics. It looks doable with the D2J case. My Dads 2nd RV-3 (he's built 4 of them!) had that engine. I will have to get the smallest prop governor out there for sure. And the arm will have to be pointed downwards and then pull to the rear for coarse pitch.
I called vans a couple weeks ago freaking out because I still dont have a cowl for my -3. They told me not to sweat it. They were still going to support the -3. Just not sell whole kits.
That is good. I have an old style cowling for a -3 or -4 that also has the 12” spinner kit. I’ll need to off load that to someone who may need it for their bird. I wanted to go with a CS prop and the 12” spinner was going to be tight.
Correct me if I am wrong...inst the -3 and -4 cowl different? The firewall on the -4 is an inch or two wider. I talked to James about buying one of their -4 cowls for my -3 and they said they would sell it to me at my own risk.Said I would have to split it and rebond it to make the width work.
Curious if that is the actual case. Let me know if you guys can shed some light on that.
JOSH
Curious if that is the actual case. Let me know if you guys can shed some light on that.
JOSH
I’m digging way, way back into my memory from fifteen years ago when we built our -3….but I seem to remember that the -3 and -4 cowl “blanks” were the same, and we had to trim many many inches off the back of our cowl to fit the -3. Since it is getting wider as it goes aft, that coudl make up the difference in firewall width?
Old memory…could well be wrong…..
They use a -4 cowl on the -3 now. We did a SJ cowl on a -3 and it was a royal PITA to make it work. That is why I strayed away from that this go around.
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That helps a lot. Thanks guys! I kinda figured that was the case. Just freaked out because I was worried about not getting a cowl. Sounds like it should be an issue.
On a side note: do you remember what it took to fit the SJ cowl?
On a side note: do you remember what it took to fit the SJ cowl?
Good point. It looks awesome though.
Kinda thinking more of where did it fit where did it not? Did you have to do major surgery to get it to fit?
For mine, I had to make bump-outs for the exhaust, and tighten the curve of the top cowl as it approached the firewall. I think these tweaks are in my VAF blog at post 634 or close to that.
Dave
Dave
thank you Sir
A lot of the work was around the inlets and then the cheek cowls.
Yep, 2 Facet cubes , one boost, one full on. 15 years of working great.
What Facet model numbers did you use. Were they in series?
They are in series, both are the same pump Vans sold in the 90's as a boost pump. I don't have the part number handy, but I have the boost pump in the tunnel as per plans and the full time pump on the firewall as seen in the picture. Vans still sells the same pump, but it doesn't have the AN fitting installed from what I understand.
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