Factory Visit by FOD
My wife Edita, who I met in Hong Kong whilst driving B777s for Cathay, is from the Philippines and we visited the QB factory whilst holidaying in Manila last October.
The factory used to be near Angeles City, north of Manila, but a few years ago was bought by Steve Nelson and moved to Laguna, one hour south of Manila.
Steve, a delightful American, is a LAME (Licensed Aircraft Mechanical Engineer) and maintains the US Ambassador?s King Air. With time on his hands he runs the factory with his Filipino partner Albert Rano.
At the time of our visit they were in the process of building a mezzanine floor and things were a bit chaotic.
What was impressive was the standards and skills of the workers. Steve trains all the workers and as an insight into the standards the ?riveters? polish their rivet sets three or four rimes a day. I also noticed a pile of scrap and Steve explained that, if the last rivet in a skin is below standard the whole skin is replaced.
The factory Wing Jigs are adaptable to suit all RV wings.
Each year half a dozen of the most experienced workers are sort by airlines like Singapore as maintenance staff and Steve encourages them to take the offer so that they and their families may escape from the subsistence life in the Philippines. Consequently, all us QB blokes can enjoy the warm fuzzing feeling that we are doing a bit for those less fortunate than ourselves.
Steve also showed me a ?Super QB? RV10 which only requires instruments and paint- from memory. He was still working on how to market it.
All in all it was a very pleasant experience and worth the effort of finding the factory in a country with roads overcrowded with Jeepnies and Honda 50cc tricycles and no street signs.
Anyone who wants detailed directions to the factory might email me:
[email protected].
Pete.
Nelson SteveQB Factory
work +63 49 837 2837
mobile +63 0916 721 0303
work
[email protected]
Factory KM38, National Hwy
Brgy, Macabling Sta Rosa Laguna
Philippines