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Fuselage or wings

Lititzflyer

I'm New Here
Anyone have recommendations on which kit to build after the empennage. Wings or fuselage or does it matter?
Thanks.

Kevin
 
Anyone have recommendations on which kit to build after the empennage. Wings or fuselage or does it matter?
Thanks.

Kevin

I did the fuse first, then the wings. Should have done it the other way. Do the wings. Van's has reasons for the order they recommend.

Jerre
 
I'm finishing off the tail kit. I agree wings and then fuselage. But wing kits are 20 weeks out and the new fuselage kits 12 weeks. So plan ahead unlike I did ;-)
 
I haven't started building yet, but it depends on what you want to go with. If you want to go with RV12iS I spoke with vans today and they said the new Fuselage should be around October. That could give you plenty of time to work on the wings. Just my .02 :)
 
Fuselage first

I recommend savings the wings until the end. I did it all out of order...and it worked out fine.

I recommend getting the entire fuselage finished and then do the wings for the simple reason that you'll just be storing the wings until your done anyway, unless you just want to do them first.

There's no compelling process or design reason that you need to do the wings before the fuselage. The only section that is affected is #30, which is fitting the wings. And there's no reason you can't do that once the entire airplane is done anyway.
 
Generally, it's easier to store tail surfaces and wings than a fuselage. If you have plenty of room, great; pick your poison.

I built my -7 'in order'; tail, then wings, then fuselage. Everything in a ~20' x 22' space, with a 5x7 corner notched out for a bathroom. Also in the room are multiple shelving racks, two rolling tool boxes, a tool table with a benchtop drill press, and a 4x6 work table. Tail is on shelving, and wings are strapped to the ceiling, making room for the fuselage. If I'd built the fuselage 1st, it would have to go somewhere else to live while I built the rest.

Charlie
 
Lots of great guidance here, but something to consider is that the wings are completed in a week or so, the fuselage takes LOTS longer.
 
I did the same thing as Ron: start with the fuse first.
Reason was the complexity of this part of building. To be honest: mostly because we put in an entirely MGL-panel, including home-made wiring.
However: having done the fuselage (almost now) there ain't much the wings can learn us, anymore. That should be a no-brainier, specially because there are two fairly the same of'm.
Nice spin-off of starting with the fuse is that we can take all our time to get the cockpit and surroundings as complete and beautiful as we want.
Just my .02, though.
 
Lots of great guidance here, but something to consider is that the wings are completed in a week or so, the fuselage takes LOTS longer.

Don,

You make me realize just how much faster you and most everyone else seem to be at building. I probably spent a couple of weeks on the landing light alone and am still not happy with it cosmetically. Same with the flaperons.

Also, there are things in the wing kit which are needed when building the fuselage. These must be ordered separately then deleted when ordering the fuse.

Jerre
 
I ordered ALL the kits except avionics and engine at the same time, to save on shipping costs. I was retired and anxious on the wings, and had a grand daughter and wife willing to help, I was surprised at how quickly they were done and in storage!
 
Assuming equal lead times, sufficient workspace, storage space, etc...either way is fine.
The wings store on edge up against a wall or hung flat from a ceiling.
Regardless of build sequence, I'd recommend that you delay mating the fuse to the tailcone until you can fit the wings and drill the flaperon torque tubes (can't remember the actual term in the manual). It's a lot easier to drill them and clean up the shavings while standing behind the fuse section than to be standing on your head. I just ran the wiring thru the fuse and coiled them up for later. After fitting the wings, I moved the fuse and tailcone close together and stood in the gap while finishing the wires and tubing, then pulled the sections together and riveted. Hope this makes sense.
 
Don,

You make me realize just how much faster you and most everyone else seem to be at building. I probably spent a couple of weeks on the landing light alone and am still not happy with it cosmetically. Same with the flaperons.

Also, there are things in the wing kit which are needed when building the fuselage. These must be ordered separately then deleted when ordering the fuse.

Jerre

Don't feel alone Jerre. My wings definitely took me more than a week or two.

Jim
 
As Vans have developed the line of products, the build instructions have also developed. Still a way to go, but much more comprehensive than say a 7 or 8, which reflects what the 12 is about. Shake the box, assemble the contents, fly.

There are a lot of reasons to build in order, to stay on plan and do things their way, mainly because the LSA design has been optimised to keep weight down. For example, there are a lot of through structure fasteners in the fuselage which require other sub items further down the line to be completed before finish riveting.

For that reason alone, I would stay on track with their sequence.

Make sure you know what options you have - cross reference how electrical options interface with basic wiring and flag pages to ensure you don't move too far forward and have to undo stuff. That is important for avionics as we found out. Once you decide which option, download the relevant pages and mark up as you go into fuselage wiring - lots of gotchas.

The wings are easy but have electric options and yes, the lighting takes some thought, especially as they have asymmetric plugging on the wing wiring - get a good magnifying glass and a 10x lupe :rolleyes: Top tip - pay attention and make the bending jibbler accurately to do the tips - they are a breeze then and don't worry about the degrees, it is a bit.. a bit.. a bit more.. a bit more.. a bit less.. etc.

Once the emp and wings/flaperons are done, they can go away which gives you loads more room in the shop. We are building 2 kits simultaneously, so our woes are doubled. Mistakes are only on airframe #1 though :D

As others have said, there is a lot more work in the fuse and once you are close to finishing it, you don't want to look at the wings and say - I wish they were ready, I can sit in my aeroplane now, but I can't fly yet :)

I hope that the introduction of the 12iS will bring about a complete refresh of the build instructions - they need it badly because the 12 has been around for a bit now, but as they are, they are still good provided you read, read and read again.
 
haha I like your sig 90% done and 90% to go. How frustrating is the build process?

It's not really frustrating at all, there's just a lot of things that need to be done at the end, so it seems like there's more to do. Essentially, I used to just work off the drawings, but I've essentially completed the drawing sets and just have a long to-do list of things to get done.

I don't think any of it is hard, I just want to be sure it's right before I take that first flight, so it can be time consuming and, at times, tedious. Especially for those smaller items that require me to use not only reading glasses, but work under a large magnifying light, such as soldering or detail items.

All in all, it's been a lot of fun and very satisfying. Compared to other airplanes I've built, the RV-12 is by far the simplest and the only complexity for me is self-induced.
 
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