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What videos would you like to see Van's publish?

Show not just how to do things, but what results are acceptable and what are not.

For example, riveting. The construction manuals show illustrations from Tony Bingelis of various rivet problems. It would be great to see close-up video of such problems, including criteria of when to replace, when to re-strike, and when to "build on".

This one is a great idea. I'm up to the fuselage and I'm still not super-confident I can judge what's acceptable and what needs to be re-done, and I'm still sending lots of basic acceptability questions to Van's. I'm not building a perfect show plane, so most of my work ends up somewhere between "totally fine" and "this really should be re-done", and making the judgment call is not easy.

Another one that would be great for beginners:

Take a single rib and fake skin piece, and walk through the entire process in excruciating detail. Flange straightening, fluting, centerline, clamp to a skin, drilling, reaming, disassembly, debur, debur, debur, rounding corners (and when to do so and how much) dimpling, priming, and riveting.
 
I think what may help a bunch is publishing your tools, empenage build, and metal working videos that you currently sell in your catalog. As a new builder seeing the steps from the in house experts may be very helpful. Also, the number of people who own and operate DVD players is dropping dramatically. If you post them, the information may get out faster and to a wider audience. Just a thought.
 
I think maybe a short chapter by chapter video of things people usually screw up would be helpful. As an example for chapter 28 of the 12iS build:

Visual reminder that the 45 degree fittings have integral ferrule that doesn't come apart.

Reminder that the longest brake lines need to be routed through the fuselage before the front fittings are attached.

Suggestions for how to use a C-clamp on a round tube (I could never get this to work).

Suggestion for how to hold the head of the bolts while tightening down the nuts for that hold the black plastic rudder pedal covers on (there's an indent in the plastic that kept me from getting a socket/wrench on this easily).


If you had short videos like this we could watch them just prior to completing that chapter.
 
Another one that would be great for beginners:

Take a single rib and fake skin piece, and walk through the entire process in excruciating detail. Flange straightening, fluting, centerline, clamp to a skin, drilling, reaming, disassembly, debur, debur, debur, rounding corners (and when to do so and how much) dimpling, priming, and riveting.

This is what I would like to see, even if it were with the sample kit. Trying to figure out what is correct has been painful. Between sheet 5, the EAA videos, AC 43.13-1B and looking at various builder logs and talking to builders it's hard to tell what is acceptable vs not vs over the top.
 
Just some random thoughts today on this topic.

In an effort to continue to improve safety which in turn helps FAA allow more freedom I think it would be great to have videos to help address these.

Landings, annual inspections, etc. I am sure a lot of pilots could benefit from seeing how others of known background do it and tips they could share with all of us. Same thing for inspection, common flight issues, etc.
 
Van's videos suggestions

+1 on just about everything else mentioned thus far.

However, I do not entirely agree on the whole shorter is better discussion. For many things, yes that should be the guiding principal, however for some other things, sufficient detail and time are required to ensure that all critical points are covered.

To Dan's earlier point about the different desires between experienced vs. inexperienced builders, perhaps some consideration needs to be applied to that aspect well, so that you have the "just enough info" stuff for the experienced crowd, vs. the "in depth" info for those less experienced. I never get bored watching how to do any of this stuff - so I guess that puts me in the inexperienced category... That said, there should definitely be a goal to try to explain everything in single session of somewhere between 5-15 minutes or less, with well rehearsed presenters. For complex things, you can break them up into video #1, #2, #3, etc. until the entire topic is completed.

Here are some things that I would like to see that have not been mentioned yet (best I can tell):

- Drilling out and removing AN470AD4 rivets from difficult places. EAA has plenty of stuff on AN426 rivet removal, but there is NOTHING out there that I have found that covers AN470 removal from difficult areas. By that I mean areas where you cannot get a handy drill or removal tool in place that will properly center the hole you need to drill on the manufactured head of the rivet.

- Bending the trim tab inboard and outboard flanges properly so you only have to build one trim tab!

- Gear leg fairing placement/symmetry/adjustment

- Empennage fiberglass tip fitting techniques (mine arrived with flanges way smaller than the perimeter of the metal on the tip, so how do you go about making those fit better?

- recommendations for fuel return line placement in the fuel tanks - recommendations to avoid potential interference or insufficient area for added fittings, etc.

- Tube bending techniques for areas like the fuel pump, vent lines in the fuel tanks, etc.

And lastly, how about something that covers the quick build factory and /or process from the folks in the Philippines? Tips and tricks from those folks that might help us build our slow builds more efficiently would a huge plus in my book.
 
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