Saville
Well Known Member
As I'm actively looking for an RV-4 (or -8), and arranging Pre-Buys, I pay particular attention to the articles here that describe "interesting and exciting" discoveries people have made when looking over their newly bought, used, airplane.
Just this week we see this:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=122400
"a major malfunction on our right wing spar where it stabs into the fuse. It appears that during the original construction of the spar, someone took it upon their self to grind a piece off of two of the lower leaf sections that make up the lower portion of the spar thus compromising the critical bolt edge distance. We contacted Vans and they said plain and simply "not airworthy""
And a few weeks back, someone bought an RV-4 that had been sitting around for a a while. He decided to do a thourough breakdown and inspection of the airplane and saw this:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=120533&highlight=spar+edge+distance
I don't know about the former but the latter example could not be seen unless you removed the wings.
Scary things.
Build quality is a crucial issue of course. And we all know "caveat emptor".
But just how much can one inspect during a Pre-Buy to get a notion if the wings will stay on?
The above issues makes me think of only considering Quick Built airplanes. Even then there are no guarantees.
How do we minimize the risk?
Just this week we see this:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=122400
"a major malfunction on our right wing spar where it stabs into the fuse. It appears that during the original construction of the spar, someone took it upon their self to grind a piece off of two of the lower leaf sections that make up the lower portion of the spar thus compromising the critical bolt edge distance. We contacted Vans and they said plain and simply "not airworthy""
And a few weeks back, someone bought an RV-4 that had been sitting around for a a while. He decided to do a thourough breakdown and inspection of the airplane and saw this:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=120533&highlight=spar+edge+distance
I don't know about the former but the latter example could not be seen unless you removed the wings.
Scary things.
Build quality is a crucial issue of course. And we all know "caveat emptor".
But just how much can one inspect during a Pre-Buy to get a notion if the wings will stay on?
The above issues makes me think of only considering Quick Built airplanes. Even then there are no guarantees.
How do we minimize the risk?
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