RV-15 Wings: Progress at Last

Be prepared to take a leap of faith when necessary.

So read my fortune cookie wisdom the day after I had taken such a leap. A sign of reassurance? Coincidence? My path to fortune? Whatever it was, I had already made the leap.

For more than two months, I have been at numerous hard stops on my RV-15 wing project. Both ailerons are completely built except adding counterweights, which will likely take less than an hour. Both flaps are completed except for the addition of one previously back-ordered part. The port wing filled a very large table for nearly three months with skins Clecoed closed but awaiting final riveting until a couple of key parts arrived. The starboard wing structure was complete, but skins sit ready to install when table space opens to do so. One upside to this long wait was that it allowed us to go on a month-long vacation overseas with absolutely no guilt or concern that I shouldn’t be away from the project so long. I had hoped that the back-ordered parts would be in the pile of mail when we returned, but no luck.

Only in early April did I start to become antsy. Van’s had announced that they would start taking orders for the tail kit from current wing builders on April 10 at 10 a.m. PDT. Like many of my colleagues, I felt I had to give serious consideration on whether I should order the tail when I had been more than six weeks stuck on the wing. I exchanged notes with Van’s to try to find out when my back order would be fulfilled and to express my concern. It seemed to work and I was notified later that day that the critical back-ordered parts were on their way by USPS and would arrive on April 13. I watched the USPS tracking site and moved ahead with the tail purchase.

Perhaps surprisingly, I made my order for the tail at 10:03 but was apparently about the 14th person to order the wing in the first three minutes. (Van’s said they would be shipping two tail kits per day starting June 1 and my projected “shipping” date was June 9.) Based on one person’s social media post reporting that he ordered 44 minutes after the site opened and his kit won’t be ready until July 8, apparently more than 50 current RV-15 builders ordered the wing (and put down about $9,000) in the first hour. Despite the problems with back-ordered parts, loyal Van’s fans sent them nearly a half-million dollars in the first hour to secure our places in line to move forward. Many kit companies would be delighted with that level of income in a month … or even a year! We also know that orders from current RV-15 wing builders kept coming in. Then, Van’s opened ordering to folks who are not current builders on April 27. With the much lower entry-level cost (and much, much lower demand for storage space), there was undoubtedly another rush of new folks ordering the tail kit last week. There have apparently been lots of “leaps of faith” over the last two weeks.

April 13 came and went. Frustration set in as I found the USPS tracking site that had shown the package reaching Portland the Friday before suddenly didn’t show any progress after leaving Van’s home in Aurora. It remained that way for a week when the site suddenly showed the package in Chicago, about 1,500 miles off a path from Portland to Reno. The package of backordered parts finally arrived on April 21. I immediately started working to complete the port wing. As of this writing, it is nearly done and I expect that I’ll have both wings completed with less than one more week of work.

So, how did I fill the “down” time since mid-February (besides travel)? Well, a major decision to be made was whether to use some sort of flush rivets (pulled or solid) on the leading edges. There has been lots of discussion on the topic. The factory calls for and provides pulled, round-head rivets, but many builders want flush rivets. The argument is:

Flush rivets on the leading edge will:

1. Make the plane faster (although no one is sure it will be measurably faster).
2. Flush, solid rivets will make the leading edge easier to clean bugs off.
3. Flush, solid rivets look much cooler and, hence, the builder looks much cooler.

I agree with all these arguments and thought hard about options, but the factory hasn’t come up with an engineering solution for flush rivets and I was ready to move on. Pulled, round-head rivets now close my leading edges as I’m not interested in making a structural change without engineering approval. My plane is being built to factory specs, for good or bad.

However, the second concern on easier clean-up was the most compelling to me, so I have also committed to filling in the rivet holes with specks of Bondo. It is a tedious process best done while watching a shop TV, but it will fill the “down” times while waiting for the next kit or parts delivery. Sling Aircraft does this process on their aircraft at their factory in Johannesburg, and it looks great.

I also have had several folks interested in the RV-15 come by to check out the plane and progress. Just a couple days after receiving a backordered wing skin, Chris O’Neil in nearby Reno asked to visit with his two teenage kids who are interested in building an RV-15. Emmett and Izzy demonstrated mature interest in the project and were soon helping to deburr, rivet the skins on, and, particularly helpful, flip the wing over to prepare for riveting skins on the other side. Van’s calls for all skins to be Clecoed onto the skeleton before riveting. Safely flipping the wing required five people, in my opinion, and they came by at the right time.

I must consider myself fortunate that I now have all the critical parts to finish the wings. A couple of pieces are missing but can easily be added later without blocking progress. Van’s announced that the wingtips will be sent with the final kit, contrary to the original shipping list. But, I’m happy to not have to store them unused for at least another year. One strut attachment is still not delivered, but it will be easy to add and will not be important until the fuselage is nearly finished. Again, at least a year from now. But there are others who purchased their kits soon after the original release at AirVenture last year that are missing one or both main spars. Van’s announced that they recently had to return a complete shipment of main wing spars to the anodizing subcontractor because the results were both cosmetically and structurally compromised. Van’s builds the spars but sends them out for anodizing. Obviously, there are many disappointed clients who again must wait.

Yet, despite a series of setbacks and missed target dates, the company continues to enjoy strong support within its traditional customer base, and the RV-15 is bringing in new customers. Everyone currently building seems to agree that the kit comprises the best quality and is easy to build. Now that the tail kit is available, which has been the traditional starting point for Van’s kits, I expect there will be many more customers lining up to start their projects. So, while the RV-15 birthing process has been rocky, it seems likely that it has a brilliant future ahead.