RV-15 Seven+ Weeks and Lessons Learned: Building With Flexibility

More than seven weeks into my RV-15 wing build, assembly has come to a stop due to a lack of backordered parts. So, there is time to reflect on the project while “piddling” in the shop looking for ways to extend progress. Here are impressions and lessons learned.

1. Prepping pieces takes less time, but seems like it takes more time than for previous kits. Huh? Well, most holes need little or no deburring, the blue plastic covering is new and peels off easily, and nearly all pieces are Alclad making scuffing and priming optional. Thus, time spent stripping cover, deburring, and priming non-Alclad surfaces is minimized. But, the time-saving amenities for assembly are much greater than time saving in preparation. Perfect match holes, prepunched holes, pieces precisely cut to correct dimensions, inspection and landing light holes also precisely precut, and wiring harnesses preassembled make assembling time fly. In the end, I feel like I have spent much more time doing the tedious preparation tasks than the more fun and satisfying “building” tasks. There is no question that overall completion time is much faster, but the ratio of fun to necessary tedium has declined.
2. Based on reading social media posts, a lot of first-time builders are interested in building the RV-15 and hope the new kit will require fewer expensive tools than older kits. However, more tools are required than first impressions suggest. Yes, there are many blind (pulled) rivets but one also must shoot some solid rivets and squeezing is much more appropriate for other solid rivets. Puller, bucking bar, rivet gun, and probably a squeezer will all be needed. Most holes that require dimples are prepunched, but not all. Dimple dies with a squeezer or another way to set the dimples are needed. Edge deburring is a major time sink, and the builder will want a variety of deburring tools and materials to handle all the corners, nooks, and crannies.
3. My wing kits came with a list of many backordered parts, including a few major pieces like the right front spar. Challenges brought by backordered parts certainly aren’t limited to early adopters or RV-15 builders, but I suspect both factors exacerbate the challenge. Once again, the speed that this newly designed kit comes together also speeds up the customer’s need for the missing parts. The terrific success of the RV-15 kit has also meant more customers competing for limited parts.
4. I have received a little pushback from factory folks for referring to my project as a “beta build” and, perhaps, I should clarify that the aircraft itself does not feel like it is in the “beta” stage of development. But, release of the RV-15 has stressed the company’s operations, and that is where we early adopters are truly beta builders. We are testing the operations side of Van’s, not the aircraft. Communication with buyers has been unsatisfactory to many builders. Numerous promised shipping dates of kits and backlogged parts have come and passed, often without notice from the company. Tracking on backordered and reported missing pieces has been spotty. The drawings for assembly seem to be consistently good and they are beautiful, but the accompanying texts are often incorrect. While the company announced that they will release updated Kit Assembly Instructions each Friday, only one set of updates has been posted in the seven weeks since the kits were released. While I have no doubt that every individual and every department within Van’s is working their tails off to do their jobs, integration of operations is obviously lacking. Integration in a new endeavor always takes time, and here is where the beta testing is taking place.
5. While there have been many issues with Van’s “operations” side of the experience, the parts received by me have been 100% well-made and beautiful. The design of the wings and the kit parts are without comparison in the kitbuilding world. Hopefully, the operation challenges will eventually be sorted out, and we will remember and enjoy this beautiful airplane in future years.

Productively Killing Time

But, as noted in my previous article, the Kit Assembly Instructions (KAIs) are compartmentalized so one can start almost anywhere if it doesn’t require a previously assembled piece. I started by following the sequence in the KAIs. First, I assembled the left-wing skeleton, added the premade fuel tank and the premade wiring harness, and had to stop before adding skins due to several missing pieces. I somewhat concurrently built the right-wing skeleton. Again, stopped by missing pieces, I built the two ailerons until I ran out of parts. Then, I built both flaps, again running into hard stops due to missing pieces. So, I finished the preparation of all available skins, including nut plates. I am fortunate to have use of a large shop and now have subassemblies stashed in many spaces while I await the backordered pieces. In the last couple of days, I went back to the prebuilt/quickbuild fuel tanks to do a thorough inspection and cleaning and temporarily install the fuel level sensor units. I finished that task yesterday; it is the last thing I have found to do until the backordered parts come in.

The challenge in working this way is ensuring that one doesn’t paint oneself into a corner. So far, I have had to drill out eight rivets because I became impatient and mounted a couple of leading-edge ribs that interfered with mounting a bracket after missing nut plates were obtained and installed. I’m hoping that I have avoided doing this sort of thing in other places. We will soon see.

I have mostly waited for the backordered parts, but we have made orders to Aircraft Spruce for two missing nut plates and a batch of missing rivets. It was a trivial amount of money spent to keep the project moving forward. But, as of this morning, work has stopped again.

In a display of “just-in-time” manufacturing, some of my backordered parts are scheduled to arrive today. Their appearance will allow me to progress on most of the assemblies (two wings, two flaps, and two ailerons), perhaps even finish the flaps. Significant pieces critical to progress will still be missing, including one front (main) wing spar, aileron weights, and brackets. But, who knows? Maybe “just-in-time” delivery will happen again? Hope springs eternal.