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Are all RV-14 QB Fuse kits taildraggers?

bobhope2505

Active Member
Just need a reality check. Working on my 14A QB fuse, and nearly everything is done for conventional gear. Gear braces for tri gear were included, but even nut plate rivet holes are dimpled where only called out for a taildragger, and the openings for the steps are covered by riveted plates. I understand leaving steps incomplete and letting the builder decide on the gear, but I don't get having to undo steps that need not have been done in the first place. Is this typical?
 
My -14A QB fuse seemed to have been built for either type of gear. Some steps were left undone when the choice was one or the other. I don't recall having to undo any work... only go back and do things where there were differences between the models. If you want to let me know which steps you are having to undo, I'll go check to see what I did.
 
All RV-14 QB fuselages are both tail dragger and tri gear.
Any work (for either version) that would have been more difficult to do after fuselage assembly, is done at the expense of builders having to do work to configure to the model they are building.
 
Thanks for the replies. The QB fuse is a work of art. A couple of builders and my adviser gawked at it for 30 minutes when it arrived. One called it "glorious." That said, it would have been nice to have the gear openings cut out when it was a flat piece of aluminum on the CNC laser cutter instead of me using a cutoff wheel on the bottom of my air frame. It doesn't look difficult...as long as my hands don't shake. :cool:
 
Don't worry about the cuts on the bottom. It was surprisingly easy. I made sure to cut a bit short (or long, depending on your viewpoint) and filed down to match the cutout in the mated skin. Easy to make perfect match that way. Hardest part was balancing the fuse.
 
I used a nibbler to make almost perfect cuts. Only needed a few minutes with a file to clean them up.
 
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My 14 is also a QB, and I wasn't impressed with countless omitted steps and errors that caused endless frustration. I definitely ended up undoing and/or redoing work that should have been done correctly the first time.

YMMV, but I will probably do a slow build if I build another.
 
My 14 is also a QB, and I wasn't impressed with countless omitted steps and errors that caused endless frustration. I definitely ended up undoing and/or redoing work that should have been done correctly the first time.

@Rteem would love some details on your experience, mine is inbound and it would be great not to have to repeat what you went through. Specifically, errors you had to redo. Also maybe when you received your QB Thanks in advance for any help!
 
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My 14 is also a QB, and I wasn't impressed with countless omitted steps and errors that caused endless frustration. I definitely ended up undoing and/or redoing work that should have been done correctly the first time.

I have heard this sentiment before, unfortunately. Would you care to elaborate? I'm still undecided regarding slow/quick build fuselage.
 
My buddy and I are each doing RV-14As using QB fuselages and wings. Can't say much about the wings, yet, but we have been very impressed with the fuselages. A tremendous amount of work has been done for us and the quality has been excellent. Sure, you have to make some minor changes, like removing the step covers (drill out a couple pop rivets), but compared to the year-plus of work required to get to the same point with the fuselage, they are very, very minor. I highly recommend the QB fuselage if you want to accelerate getting in the air.
 
While what @MED says is true in terms of saving time and getting you in the air faster, I don't think the fuselage would take a year of work to finish, and this is backed by other builders that post their hours.

The issues I had were not immediately obvious, probably because I didn't have enough experience to notice them when going through and checking.

Perhaps the reason I wouldn't do quick build again is because after doing all the metalwork for this plane I feel like my ouput quality on the next plane would be higher than what I personally received in September of 2016.

Would I recommend you do it on your first plane? Depends on your personal build quality and how quickly you want to get in the air.

I'm happy to further elaborate on specifics if any aren't clear- this list is for the QB Fuselage only:

1. Firewall not properly sealed. Resealed properly.
2. Top skin of front fuselage not properly sealed. Resealed properly.
3. Hinge on front of fuselage not cut to proper length (29-08).
4. F-01470-L was nested improperly with side skins (29-13). This required removing rivets.
5. Wing mounting holes not drilled or reamed to size per instructions.
6. Side skin not properly feathered or 'broken' (29-09). Didn't notice this until too late, make sure to check this if you're not already there, it causes a slight bulge on the side skins during rear fuselage attach if you don't.
7. Basically no holes properly reamed on the F-01404 BULKHEAD (25-06), there's no way to properly ream once assembled, so hand-filing many holes was the only option. NONE of the bolts for the gear braces would fit.
8. Small cosmetic issues like overdriven rivets, small cracks, improperly located dimples that they removed by using a squeezer with a flat set, very poor job on sealant beads.
 
1. Firewall not properly sealed. Resealed properly.
2. Top skin of front fuselage not properly sealed. Resealed properly.
3. Hinge on front of fuselage not cut to proper length (29-08).
4. F-01470-L was nested improperly with side skins (29-13). This required removing rivets.
5. Wing mounting holes not drilled or reamed to size per instructions.
6. Side skin not properly feathered or 'broken' (29-09). Didn't notice this until too late, make sure to check this if you're not already there, it causes a slight bulge on the side skins during rear fuselage attach if you don't.
7. Basically no holes properly reamed on the F-01404 BULKHEAD (25-06), there's no way to properly ream once assembled, so hand-filing many holes was the only option. NONE of the bolts for the gear braces would fit.
8. Small cosmetic issues like overdriven rivets, small cracks, improperly located dimples that they removed by using a squeezer with a flat set, very poor job on sealant beads.

This is sure disappointing to hear. It would be interesting to hear details regarding Vans internal QA/QC policy. If work such as this makes it to the consumer, how bad does workmanship have to be before it gets rejected? Does anything get rejected??

However, if we all put a dollar amount on the labor, into the care, that we put into our kits - imagine the price! And with all that care the majority of us will still end up with the odd smiley rivet, misplaced dimple, oops rivet, in the finished product.

That said, having to redo shoddy workmanship on something you payed money to be completed professionally, regardless of the price, is unacceptable.
 
QB Taildragger

I got my QB fuselage in late April, along with QB wings. The fuselage is very well made; however, it is very important to go thru the entire set of build instructions section by section to find out the little things that weren't done that need tending to. Nuts not torqued is a big one, and they aren't all that easy to get to, sometimes. I'm building the tail dragger but I don't see there being any big issue with work needing to be undone or redone whether tri-gear or TD. Overall, I'm hugely happy with the QB; just a bit surprised at things not done here and there. Same on the wings; although there were a LOT of shop heads in my wings, so a lot of rivets had been re-done, apparently. Again, go thru all the sections in the manual and make sure every step has been completed or that you complete it.

The one thing I'd change if I could is, I'd have them leave the forward top skin off; it is so blooming hard to work up under there against the firewall, locating holes for the brakelines (TD) and even mounting the rudder and brake pedals. Access is difficult. Most of mine I've done by tipping it up on its left side so I can get my right arm in there; but it is difficult.
 
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14 QB Fuselage < Rteem 170630

I received my QB Fuse in October '16, took me around 100 hours to finish it.

I did not find all of the squawks listed by Rteem and found everything apparently prepared per the plans.

Did a re-check of mine per the plans against Rteem's list to see if I had any of the same problems >>

The cowling hinges at the side edges of the fuselage firewall were proper length.

Could not find now and did not have any issues during fuselage completion with the F-01470 (-L or -R) side skins nesting to other skins or ribs.

Did not find that any reamed holes were not reamed properly. The gear braces went in ok. The bolts that needed the most encouragement to place were the 2 each side that go through the U-01403 Gear Attachment Bars in the Finish Kit (page 40A-04), 3 of them some encouragement and one a lot of encouragement.

The fuselage back skin edges were broken (29-09); no issues cosmetically with the joining to tailcone.

Wing mounting holes seem to be reamed to size; I will recheck with mic to confirm.

The items I have not been able to verify per Rteem's list are 1 & 2; where does it describe how to seal the firewall and top skin at firewall in order to do it 'properly'?

A visual of the sealant all around the edges is all I can see and to reseal those seams would be a significant operation.

All appears to be ok so far with my QB Fuse. I am significantly finished now with the Finish Kit > cowling, wheel pants and leg fairings yet to get into.
 
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A visual of the sealant all around the edges is all I can see and to reseal those seams would be a significant operation.

For the first part on the firewall it was easy, I could see light through the relief notches in the firewall when looking from the inside. Sort of a pain to fill, but correctable.

The second, was the top skin of the front fuselage, they actually sandwiched the sealant between the wrong layers. It wasn't possible for me to remove that and reseal it, at this point it's just cosmetically ugly.

Also, jeffw, we're about at the same point in our builds, I'm not too far away in Charleston. I'd love to maybe come take a look or meet if you're up to it.
 
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