The RV-15 Build: Pickup and Inventory

Over the mountains and through the woods, to Grandpa Van’s we go. My RV-15 journey began on New Year’s Day as we dragged a rental trailer through rain and (a bit of) snow to Aurora, Oregon, to pick up my RV-15 wing kit. Early in the 10-plus-hour drive, we were notified that Van’s had decided on a stand-down because they knew they were pushing too hard to get kits out by the expected ship dates. Their note rang true to the experienced homebuilders who received it … when you push too hard and too long, mistakes get made and you end up burning more time while drilling out misplaced rivets and repairing mistakes. Van’s needed a reset. Since we were already on the road to pick up, they promised to have my subkit ready. Five others had already been picked up before the stand-down.

At AirVenture last summer, Van’s committed to shipping wing kits by Dec. 31 to anyone making a deposit at the show. About 112 folks laid down a nearly $6,900 deposit. That’s a huge response but also a huge challenge to meet their self-imposed deadline. As the end of the year neared, it was becoming obvious to observers that all kits weren’t going out the door by the 31st. First, early in December, phone calls went out to all 112 buyers explaining that holiday shipping rates would be significantly higher and perhaps they would like to postpone until the latter half of January. Many agreed and gave the company some breathing room.

Van’s had also learned that some builders are considering putting a diesel motor into the plane, which would require fuel tank alterations. “Would you like to skip the quickbuild tanks, build your own tanks, and save about $500?” they asked. A few buyers appreciated this option, and a little more wiggle room was generated. Van’s had learned that making the tanks was a huge bottleneck in the production flow of wing kits. I chose to avoid as much Pro-Seal as possible and stayed with the quickbuild option.

In addition to the fuel tank challenges, Van’s also experienced supply chain issues. They plan to ship the kits in corrugated cardboard, but the crates have been delayed. A custom-built, wooden crate must be built for any kits going out now—another big, unanticipated time drain. Anodizing of the wing spars is behind schedule. Other bits and pieces are backordered by the factory. Dec. 31 came and went. No shipping went out. They had missed their deadline.

As I live within a day’s drive and a purchase within the state of Oregon carries no sales tax, I decided to save the shipping costs and make a will-call pickup. The costs of fuel and trailer rental from the local trailer-rental place didn’t come close to the shipping and tax expenses. Besides, we had friends to visit in the area. We left home on New Year’s Day, headed to Aurora. A few hours later we received a note from Van’s letting us personally know that they were about to announce a stand-down in shipping kits but our will-call kit would be ready, albeit missing some backordered parts. I am grateful that they prioritized will-call orders since we were well committed to the trip.

We arrived early the next day and were given a factory tour by our friend Marc Cook, Van’s e-commerce and media manager. The place was busy and much larger than my last visit about a decade ago. The stand-down announced the day before probably released a lot of stress and folks were busy catching up on the non-RV-15 parts of their jobs. In the weeks leading up to our visit, nearly every employee was recruited to “pick” parts to put in the kits or make fuel tank assemblies. On this day, they were back at their usual stations and appeared engaged and content with their work.

In the early afternoon, the four crates were loaded onto our rented trailer, tied down, and requisite photos were taken. Our friend and company founder, Richard VanGrunsven, joined us. My building adventure was truly beginning. The drive home was uneventful with the same mix of very light snow and moderate rain most of the way back. Several neighbors arrived soon after we got home, one with a forklift, and unloading completed in less than a half-hour.

The first step after opening the crates is to inventory EVERYTHING. Aware of the rush to pack the crates and the recruitment of inexperienced “pickers,” I wanted this job done ASAP. It is always good to have help with the inventory and two neighbors volunteered. As a piece was removed from the crate, I called out the part number. Bob found it on the inventory sheet provided by Van’s and checked it off. When a third person was available, I would direct where to put the piece. Once everything was accounted for, we looked for missing (or, in one case, extra) pieces. Van’s had already indicated 11 missing parts (some had multiple individual pieces) but we found seven more part numbers missing. This came as no surprise to me given the rushed conditions that the crates were packed in. I made an Excel spreadsheet listing the backordered parts that they already acknowledged and the others that we discovered also missing. I sent the list off to the company.

There were a couple of interesting features to this kit. First, the hardware was put into three compartmentalized bins. There were no plastic bags holding four washers. This made inventory of hardware relatively quick. Another revelation was that only the exact number of rivets, bearings, washers, etc. were provided. Drop a washer into the crack in the floor or poorly set a rivet and have to drill it out, and the builder will be either buying or scrounging more. A convenient barcode makes that process easy, but the cost of shipping three CherryMAX rivets will be painful. I am blessed to work in a shop where several planes have been built with less sophisticated kits and, hence, we have most hardware in stock.

A big plus is that most of the parts were packaged in “subkits” related to the progressive sections in the kit assembly instructions (KAIs). This system made inventory a bit awkward but will be a huge benefit while building. To inventory, we unwrapped the subkit, checked each piece off on the inventory list, which was also divided by subkits, and then rewrapped the bunch with the subkit label prominent. In previous builds, we have put all identical pieces together on a shelf and then had to hunt for the correct pieces at each step. The subkit approach saves the builder a lot of time, frustration, and walking around the shop in search of the needed parts.

With neighborly help, the inventory of the wing kit only took less than four hours. The factory had warned all of us in the first wave of buyers that there would be about 11 backordered parts. Not surprising to me given the push to fulfill the orders with inexperienced pickers working over the holidays, we found several other missing parts, which emphasized the need to complete a thorough inventory immediately after receiving a kit. Van’s gives 30 days to declare shortfalls, and I sent my list less than 48 hours after pickup.

Being an early adopter, effectively a beta tester, will bring extra challenges, but the future of the RV-15 looks bright, and I am excited to start the build!