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Slow Build Wing Kit Time

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Daniel S.

Well Known Member
Hey all-
I'm trying to get an idea of average (aproximate) shop hours required to build the -7 wing kit. Do any of you have rough estimates? I know I'm a slower builder being a bit of a perfectionist & epoxy priming the inners. My empannage took me a tad under 150 hrs. I think average there is about 120 hrs but not sure. Thanks guys.
 
Different way to look at it..

Here is how my timeline maps out. Not specific to hours, but more to timeline and I have been pretty consistent at about 15 hours week actual work, and an unlimited amount of hours each week thinking about it..

Emp: 3 Months
Wings: 9 Months
Fuse: 1.5 years
Finish: 6 months
Firewall forward and electrical: 6 months and ongoing

Total time to date: Almost at 3.5 years..
 
i did my wings in about 2.5 months, working a full time job, etc

get a helper, gf, etc to do the deburring, batch prime all of the parts, get advice/help on the fuel tanks so you aren't tackling the learning curve all by yourself and that will save you lots of time
 
Wings

Mike, Holy **** - 8 hours to do the inventory! Ugg! My wings are being delivered Monday. I better get organized and get rid of a bunch of stuff I should have thrown away years ago.

Vans went out of their way to get my wing kit together and shipped much quicker than advertised because my son is coming to stay with us for a couple weeks to help me build. He is an Army AH-64D pilot and doing some additional training on the new avionics and weapons systems. I can't tell you how much being able to work on the plane with my son means to me. Vans really appears to be like a family to its customers.

Daniel - good luck with your wings. I will race you and we see who finishes first! We need to stay in touch since we will probably get stumped at the same time.
 
Emp. 3 Months

Wings 10 Months.. and I never want to see another RIB!! 465 hours

Fuse 2 Months and half done. (AKA..The Fun Kit)
 
rockwoodrv9 said:
Mike, Holy **** - 8 hours to do the inventory! Ugg! My wings are being delivered Monday. I better get organized and get rid of a bunch of stuff I should have thrown away years ago.
Click to expand...

Rockwood, I've probably got a good 6 hours into my wing inventory, but I'm about done with it. That includes not only counting the hardware, but printing labels for the bins. Figure time organizing now will save me time later. All in all, with everything put away, it's surprising how little space it takes to store the wing kit unassembled. So far only missing a handful of nuts and bolts -- everything else it right on the count. Plus, everything arrived with no damage.
 
Time

Empennage - 71.5 Hours

Wings - 1 Week (After a call to Vans to order the QB fuse and wings which they had in stock!) Ahhh, I love QB's!!!
 
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