Paul Eastham
Well Known Member
The Problem
There are so many places where it seems like a few extra words in the construction manual would make things so much easier. And places where if you build something a little bit different, things will be much easier down the road.
Problem is, I often don't find out about these gotchas until it's too late. If I'm lucky, maybe I saw a clue on one of the 200 great build logs out there, or I thought to do a search on VAF ahead of time, but it's still not foolproof enough for my taste.
In an ideal world, Van's would update the docs with all the questions, complaints and flame-mails they get, giving newer builders the benefit of experience from those who built before them. However, they have clearly shown that they are not interested in doing so. Even simple advice like "build the (rv-9) VS before the HS" is apparently too much trouble for them to include. But I'm primarily thinking about critical dimensions, incorrect dimensions or callouts, and areas where many people make mistakes. For example, the HS attach (rv-9 at least) could be made much less difficult if you make the cross-angle slightly longer than specified, reducing the likelihood of edge-distance problems.
The Solution?
I'm wondering if it's time to solve this problem for ourselves and for future builders. But it's too big a task for any one person. The solution could be a wiki. If you haven't seen one before, it is simply a web document that anyone can edit. It would be organized just like the current builder's manual, with all the section and subsection headers copied over.
The idea is that once any builder realizes a big gotcha or improvement, they could deposit a note in the wiki in the appropriate spot. Hopefully this will be less work, and more productive, than sending off an angry email to the black hole at [email protected] Then future builders can follow along in the wiki just like they do in the build manual, hopefully avoiding all the annoying gotchas. (I'd like to keep it factual and based on improving the provided documentation, so no long rants about priming or canopy types -- the community message boards are better for that.)
I'm willing to set it up, if others think it would be useful and would be willing to contribute to the content. It'll only be as good as we make it. What do you all think?
There are so many places where it seems like a few extra words in the construction manual would make things so much easier. And places where if you build something a little bit different, things will be much easier down the road.
Problem is, I often don't find out about these gotchas until it's too late. If I'm lucky, maybe I saw a clue on one of the 200 great build logs out there, or I thought to do a search on VAF ahead of time, but it's still not foolproof enough for my taste.
In an ideal world, Van's would update the docs with all the questions, complaints and flame-mails they get, giving newer builders the benefit of experience from those who built before them. However, they have clearly shown that they are not interested in doing so. Even simple advice like "build the (rv-9) VS before the HS" is apparently too much trouble for them to include. But I'm primarily thinking about critical dimensions, incorrect dimensions or callouts, and areas where many people make mistakes. For example, the HS attach (rv-9 at least) could be made much less difficult if you make the cross-angle slightly longer than specified, reducing the likelihood of edge-distance problems.
The Solution?
I'm wondering if it's time to solve this problem for ourselves and for future builders. But it's too big a task for any one person. The solution could be a wiki. If you haven't seen one before, it is simply a web document that anyone can edit. It would be organized just like the current builder's manual, with all the section and subsection headers copied over.
The idea is that once any builder realizes a big gotcha or improvement, they could deposit a note in the wiki in the appropriate spot. Hopefully this will be less work, and more productive, than sending off an angry email to the black hole at [email protected] Then future builders can follow along in the wiki just like they do in the build manual, hopefully avoiding all the annoying gotchas. (I'd like to keep it factual and based on improving the provided documentation, so no long rants about priming or canopy types -- the community message boards are better for that.)
I'm willing to set it up, if others think it would be useful and would be willing to contribute to the content. It'll only be as good as we make it. What do you all think?