Kit transfer and registration questions

First of all, let me introduce myself. I'm a relatively new pilot in the Phoenix area. I've always been interested in aviation (I have pics from the 80s of me reading Sport Aviation mag lol). My wife and I are getting ready to embark on an RV7A project and are really excited about it.

I acquired a empennage kit second hand, as well as a set of partially built wings, for a reasonable price. In reading through the material on the Van's website, they ask for Bill of Sale to document a kit changing hands in order to update their records.

I have a paperwork that documents how these partial kits changed hands and information on the previous owners. However I have run into a snag. I contacted the previous owner of record on the inventory list for my empennage kit. He agreed to fill out a Bill of Sale and email it back to me. I sent the Vans Bill of Sale to him, and he went dark. After a few days, I sent a follow up email asking if he received the blank Bill of Sale. No response.

The previous owner is actually well known in the RV community so I don't know why they would just go dark on something like this. Obviously call out threads are prohibited so I'm not going to name them. I'm guessing the Bill of Sale isn't really required for me to complete and register my kit with the FAA and so perhaps they just feel like it's superfluous to deal with me on such a minor issue.

I'm requesting advise. I spent yesterday evening perusing the FAA guidance on registering a kit built airplane. They do state that if you can't come up with a Bill of Sale, you should at least present evidence showing the chain of possession, which I do have.

Also, this is slightly less than half of an entire RV7A kit we are talking about....the empennage kit and partially built wings. I am still going to need to order some wing parts to finish them, as well as an entire fuselage kit and finishing kit from Van's to complete the project. At that point I guess I get my own Kit # from Van's anyway, and my original receipt from the empennage kit and old BoS from the partially completed wings just get added to my purchase documentation for registration purposes?

Thanks for any advice! As excited as we are, I don't want to start building until and unless I know I can register the completed kit!

Geoff,
Call Van's
Tell the person that answers what you want to do and they should connect you with someone that will tell you what you need.
In the end, your customer (and kit serial) # will be the same as the one issued for the emp. kit that you purchased.

At this point you need to satisfy Vans to get one of the serial numbers changed to your name or a new one created. Any kind of Sale document should work. I had a single page purchase agreement for mine. When you get ready to register you'll request an FAA Kit Bill of Sale from Vans. Check with Vans. You may already have enough documentation.

Maybe the risk of liability is keeping the previous owner from supplying you with the bill of sale?

9GT said:

Maybe the risk of liability is keeping the previous owner from supplying you with the bill of sale?

Click to expand...

Then the previous owner should have thought of that before making a sale. Now that the deal is done, some sort of BOS or equivalent is in order, no?

Welcome to VAF, and Congratulations

GeoffMM said:

First of all, let me introduce myself. I'm a relatively new pilot in the Phoenix area. I've always been interested in aviation (I have pics from the 80s of me reading Sport Aviation mag lol). My wife and I are getting ready to embark on an RV7A project and are really excited about it.

Click to expand...

Geoff, welcome to VAF

Congrats on the new project.

We took on a project started by someone else, the factory folks were just great to work with getting everything transferred over.

Thanks for all the great responses! I appreciate the feedback.

The seller actually saw the thread and responded to me via email with an apology and the BOS. It sounds like he scanned his BOS in but never sent it and moved on thinking he had already sent it. I was like "****......" Definitely did not expect that! I'm currently flying the certified world where vendors are like "I'll get to your stuff in 3 to 4 weeks, if you are lucky, and you'll like it. 6 weeks if you keep calling me". As busy as this guy is (and I know he's busy) he fixed it as soon as he was aware. So, my bad for assuming he was yet another recalcitrant vendor type lol. That's on me.

Yes Vans has been very helpful, but they wanted a BOS, no more and no less.

It's complicated a little more by the fact that my wife had ordered me a preview plans set two years ago for Christmas....so Vans has both our names, and various kit #s lol. They told me once I have documents for these kits, they will consolidate it all under one kit #.

Now we can move on to building. WOOT!