How good is the kit?

I am continually amazed at how precise the engineering is in the RV14 kit. The following picture show the landing light support bracket in the leading edge of the right wing.



The ribs were cleaned,fluted and dimpled. The leading skin edges were cleaned and the holes dimpled, NO deburring required on the skins. The ribs and leading edge skin were then clecoed together, for the first time, ready to rivet.
The part in question had the edges smoothed, holes dimpled and I then set it in place in the wing. The flanges had the perfect bends and the dimples lined up exactly with the dimples in the wing skin. In past models this little exercise would have taken hours and hours longer to do. Heck the leading edge cut out for the landing light is already done. Amazing.

I started on the wings last month and have the upper skins on both sides already. If I were not priming and trying to make the edges of all the parts perfectly smooth, I probably could have had the O.B. leading edges and tanks done by now. The level of accuracy and detail of the parts is comparable to parts being produced by OEM airframe manufacturers for current production aircraft. So far the only parts that I have come across that needed "work" done to them were the rear spar attachment fork, fork doubler, flap hinges and aileron hinges. These parts are very thick and appear to be cut using a die shear. The shearing process leaves these parts fairly rough and distorted. The drawings do call out to file and straighten the parts, but it is time consuming to get them nice and pretty. If these parts were milled on a CNC they would be ready to go out of the box, but it may be cost prohibitive to mill them...then again maybe not....

Some may say that the newer kits such as the -14 are too easy, or they may give you a hard time and make comments like "you didn't build that airplane, you assembled it" but I am OK with that. If I wanted a project to take up all of my spare time for the next ten years I would build from plans or from scratch. I am enjoying being able to build at home in my two car garage. Part of the decision for choosing a -14A is that I "get to" build it, but the ultimate goal is to have an awesome high performance aircraft to fly, not a never ending project to keep me busy.

Mike H said:

The level of accuracy and detail of the parts is comparable to parts being produced by OEM airframe manufacturers for current production aircraft.

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Based on what I've seen on the 4 planes I've owned (Cessna, Piper, and two Bonanzas), I would have expected better from Vans. That's too bad!

Mark Dickens said:

Based on what I've seen on the 4 planes I've owned (Cessna, Piper, and two Bonanzas), I would have expected better from Vans. That's too bad!

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Not quite sure what you mean....

Mark, The point I was trying to make is the newer generation kits, and specifically the RV-14, consist of parts that are manufactured using tooling that was developed and produced using CAD programs and modern CNC tooling. As an example, when you inspect a wing rib, it does not look like someone rough cut a sheet of metal, then pounded it into shape using wooden form and die blocks. All of the parts are darn near perferct with no excess material to trim or remove, flanges and radiuses are perfect and the pre-punched rivet holes are exactly where they need to be. Not only are the individual parts this nice, but they also fit and assemble nearly perfectly. I chose to put a small radius on the corners of my wing skins with a small file prior to priming and installing them...that was the ONLY thing that needed to be done other than countersinking and dimpling, the rivet holes are even final size when you remove them from the crate!

Most current production aircraft and aircraft parts are built with this level of precision and detail. Have you ever looked inside a newer Cessna 172 or 182? Externally the airframe may not look very different, but inside it is evident that they are made using modern tooling. The fit and finish is MUCH nicer that the older models...not that there was anything wrong with the older models. There is even a huge difference in the parts from a RV-6 that a friend is building vs the RV-14.

Not speaking for Mark, but I think he had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek!

Maybe so....hard to tell on the net sometimes

Van's is state of the art. BeechCessnaPiper are simply government approved.

Mike H said:

Not quite sure what you mean....

Mark, The point I was trying to make is the newer generation kits, and specifically the RV-14, consist of parts that are manufactured using tooling that was developed and produced using CAD programs and modern CNC tooling. As an example, when you inspect a wing rib, it does not look like someone rough cut a sheet of metal, then pounded it into shape using wooden form and die blocks. All of the parts are darn near perferct with no excess material to trim or remove, flanges and radiuses are perfect and the pre-punched rivet holes are exactly where they need to be. Not only are the individual parts this nice, but they also fit and assemble nearly perfectly. I chose to put a small radius on the corners of my wing skins with a small file prior to priming and installing them...that was the ONLY thing that needed to be done other than countersinking and dimpling, the rivet holes are even final size when you remove them from the crate!

Most current production aircraft and aircraft parts are built with this level of precision and detail. Have you ever looked inside a newer Cessna 172 or 182? Externally the airframe may not look very different, but inside it is evident that they are made using modern tooling. The fit and finish is MUCH nicer that the older models...not that there was anything wrong with the older models. There is even a huge difference in the parts from a RV-6 that a friend is building vs the RV-14.

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Well, as Foghorn Leghorn said, "It's a joke, son!". But I have seen some pretty ugly factory work on every plane I've owned. Take a close look at certified planes and I'd bet you can easily find parts that were obviously not CNC machined, etc. And given that those planes are OLD designs, it doesn't surprise me in the least that they sometimes look that way.

No offense intended!

I have always said there needs to be a sarcasm font !!