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RV-14 Wing Kit Awesome!

mcattell

Well Known Member
There's an advantage to living close to Van's. No crating and no shipping of wing kit required to take delivery. :D With the help of fellow RV-8er Randy I got the wing kit home this afternoon.

I'm currently taking inventory but very happy with what I see so far. Here are a few of the highlights.

- Very nice full-size punched holes that will require minimal deburring before assembly.

- Instructions printed right on the 11x17 plan pages. I needed my glasses before when I built the -9A so smaller plan pages won't be an issue. No other instruction pages required. I hear that's like the -12.

- Comes with those nice new fuel caps that are easy to open and very light weight.

- Trailing edge aileron wedge material pre-punch for rivets, complete with lightning holes. That's a cool time saver compared to the -9 empennage trailing edges.

- Complete wiring harnesses. Not only for nav lights but for wing mounted ADAHDS and autopilot servo. Now that's cool. And all made by Stein. They have Molex plugs on the ends so I'm assuming the fuse wiring kit will mate up to them.

- Nice gray colored wingtips. Maybe that means improved gelcoat or something.

Well, back to the inventory to see what other nice surprises I'm in for. I can see this airplane going together much faster than the previous solid rivet models.
 
Mark--
Please keep us up to date on the little things with the 14. From what I've heard, it is going to be a great plane, and faster to build.
Tom
 
- Instructions printed right on the 11x17 plan pages. I needed my glasses before when I built the -9A so smaller plan pages won't be an issue. No other instruction pages required. I hear that's like the -12.

Sounds like it's the same as the -12. And I can tell you the RV-12 plans are great! If the same concept, you will love it!
 
The inventory is done and all good. I also noticed the tie down plates are pre-installed on the spars and tapped for tie down lugs. The stall switch kit is also included with the wings. And you may have already heard that both wings have holes already cut in the leading edge for landing lights and come with bulb mounting plates & lenses. The holes are similar to the holes you'd cut for the typical Duckworks lights on other RV's.

One other thing I noticed looking at the demo RV-14, is that the flap rod seems to be internal to the wing. So it's not sticking down through a big hole in the bottom of the fuse. That's a nice improvement.

Assembly starts tomorrow! :cool:
 
Hi Mark
It is good to hear there is a local RV14 builder. I may have to come out and check it out some time.

Happy building!!

Richard
 
Thanks Mark for sharing! I am very interested in keep up with your progress. I plan on a 14 build in the future. Do you have a website set up for sharing your build? If so, would you share?
Thanks!
 
Mark, this is great to hear. I had an idea... maybe halfway into it, you could have a chapter 105 meeting at your shop. I'll bet it'll be packed with people like me who want to see it!
 
By the way, all of you who had your kit already shipped are probably missing Bag 1215-1, aileron brackets. It was shown at the end of the material list but not the expanded list with the complete bag breakdown. Vans is now aware of this and are shipping me and probably you the missing parts.

I also let them know about the typo of "RV-12 Design Objectives" in big bold print in the manual introduction, so no need for everyone to remind them of that one. I'm sure there'll be more little corrections along the way as with any new kit.
 
You do realise that without pictures you are just teasing us :D

Due to life getting in the way, I will not be able to start for about 18 months. However, by then I am expecting the trailblazers on the -14 will be showing us the way. Looking forward to following your build!

Cheers,

Chris
 
Photos

Okay guys, here you go, here are a few photos to get you motivated.

RV-14WingKit.jpg

The whole kit - lots of flat stock on the floor.

Wingtips.jpeg

New gray wingtips - new process?

Wiringharness.jpeg

Nice Stein wiring harnesses!

Trailingwedge.jpeg

Tailing edge wedge material, pre-drilled.

FuelCaps.jpeg

Nice new easy open, light weight fuel caps.

Hardware.jpeg

Lots of rivets and hardware. I'm not counting the rivets to see if I got enough!

Plans.jpeg

New style plans with instructions printed on them.
 
Looks like some great improvements!

We been sanding the RV-10 wingtips for the last several days. Way too many micro cracks in the gel coat. I couldn't see them initially until we primed. We basically had to sand ithe gel coat off and start over with a sanding primer to make things look right.

The gray cowl for the RV-10 was a big improvement, so I hope you'll see the same on the wing tips.
 
I got multiple, large spider cracks in the gelcoat on top, forward area of both wingtips on my RV-9 after flying for a little while. I had to sand the cracks out, do some fairing and completely repaint the wingtips. My guess is that the gelcoat was applied to thick in that area. So sanding off most of the gelcoat before painting would be my suggestion. We'll see what this new gray gelcoat is like.
 
Thanks for posting those.

What do the RV-14 instructions say with respect to drilling holes to final size? Is it required or does it come with holes already drilled to final size? I've not seen anyone post the definitive answer from the actual instructions yet.

I know that for some of the real RV veterans out there this makes no difference but for some folks who are on the fence about purchasing a kit this might be the thing that makes the decision easier.
 
The vast majority of the holes in the skins, ribs, spar webs, etc. are final size. No enlargement is required.
 
gelcoat cracking...ditto

I got multiple, large spider cracks in the gelcoat on top, forward area of both wingtips on my RV-9 after flying for a little while. I had to sand the cracks out, do some fairing and completely repaint the wingtips. My guess is that the gelcoat was applied to thick in that area. So sanding off most of the gelcoat before painting would be my suggestion. We'll see what this new gray gelcoat is like.

holee cwap! I wondered if I was the only guy with those cracks. NOT looking forward to refinishing them, so for now, they just get a lot of waxing.
....anyone know the negatives to not repairing them for a while?

( sorry for the hi-jack, but maybe it will help some others who haven't painted yet!!!)
 
holee cwap! I wondered if I was the only guy with those cracks. NOT looking forward to refinishing them, so for now, they just get a lot of waxing.
....anyone know the negatives to not repairing them for a while?

( sorry for the hi-jack, but maybe it will help some others who haven't painted yet!!!)

Yep, here is a sample of the cracks I got in my nice new paint from the gelcoat. And a photo of the extensive repair. The repair on the aft end was in attempt to hide the darn metal rib better. Hopefully these new tips will be better.

Wingtip4.jpg


Wingtip1.jpg
 
Yep, here is a sample of the cracks I got in my nice new paint from the gelcoat. And a photo of the extensive repair. The repair on the aft end was in attempt to hide the darn metal rib better. Hopefully these new tips will be better.

Wingtip4.jpg


Wingtip1.jpg

I don't know if it is relevant in this instance, but this is one of the reasons I am not a big fan of two stage paint systems on aircraft.

Clear coats (particularly if you are not buying the real high dollar ones) are not nearly as flexible as many of the popular paints are. Clear coat cracking, because of flexing on surfaces that aren't real stiff (like some areas of wing tips) can also be the cause of this type of issue.
 
I don't know if it is relevant in this instance, but this is one of the reasons I am not a big fan of two stage paint systems on aircraft.

Clear coats (particularly if you are not buying the real high dollar ones) are not nearly as flexible as many of the popular paints are. Clear coat cracking, because of flexing on surfaces that aren't real stiff (like some areas of wing tips) can also be the cause of this type of issue.

Actually I did use the high dollar PPG paint and clear. The cracks were in the gelcoat, not just the paint. The repair consisted of grinding the cracks all the way down to the glass to get rid of them. But with that said, I think I'd go single stage next time. Base/clear takes too much time, too much expense and too much weight.
 
Interesting RV-14 Design Difference

I thought you all might be interested in this little change on the RV-14 wing compared to previous 2-place RV models. I'm assuming the stick placement is ahead of the spar because there's a torque tube at the wing root to get the controls to the back of the spar. Interesting.....

Torquetube.jpg
 
Looks like some great improvements!

We been sanding the RV-10 wingtips for the last several days. Way too many micro cracks in the gel coat. I couldn't see them initially until we primed. We basically had to sand ithe gel coat off and start over with a sanding primer to make things look right.

The gray cowl for the RV-10 was a big improvement, so I hope you'll see the same on the wing tips.

My -10 wing kit came with gray wing tip, and was shipped early this summer.
 
The vast majority of the holes in the skins, ribs, spar webs, etc. are final size. No enlargement is required.

Seems like the single biggest improvement to speed the build. Are they able to do this now simply due to the quality and precision of the manufacturing tooling?
 
Admitting Failure

Ok - I've tried. I've gone into domestic rehab and slowly focused on house repairs. The wife has been fooled into thinking I'll never fall off the wagon and once again become Spruce dependent and addicted to Van's website. Nor would I ever again enter into a deep personal relationship with the UPS guy. She thinks that regularly flying my -8A is enough.

But I have no control - I'm an RV building addict and am about to become a repeat offender.

She'll eventually get over it, won't she?

"A man has to know his limitations" - D. Harry
 
FYI

I requested the tool changes for the -14 in case there was new hardware or space restrictions not in previous kits. I was emailed section 3 from the plans which says RV-14 but contains the tool list for what looks like the RV-12.

Since several tools required are not on that list, I wanted to warn builders to not order tools based on this list. More info will be coming from Van's in the next few days.

-Mike
 
You'll need a backing plate for the 14 wings, I don't think that is required for the 12 as they are pulled , correct?
 
RV-14 Wing Kit and entire aircraft are Awesome!

I took a tour of the Van's factory earlier today and was very impressed with their operation. I was so impressed that I purchased the RV-14 wing kit! I really enjoyed flying the aircraft and was really impressed with it's handling qualities and roominess! I am fairly tall and weigh 225+, and had no problem sitting in the aircraft and clearing the canopy. I had room to spare!!

Mark, you were right in your assessment of the RV-14 kit. Thanks, for all the info and for answering all of my questions about the aircraft. Also, thanks to all the others who have helped me to make the decision to build. I do feel that it will take less time to construct this kit than it has for previous models because so much of the self engineering and decision making has been removed from the process.

There's an advantage to living close to Van's. No crating and no shipping of wing kit required to take delivery. :D With the help of fellow RV-8er Randy I got the wing kit home this afternoon.

I'm currently taking inventory but very happy with what I see so far. Here are a few of the highlights.

- Very nice full-size punched holes that will require minimal deburring before assembly.

- Instructions printed right on the 11x17 plan pages. I needed my glasses before when I built the -9A so smaller plan pages won't be an issue. No other instruction pages required. I hear that's like the -12.

- Comes with those nice new fuel caps that are easy to open and very light weight.

- Trailing edge aileron wedge material pre-punch for rivets, complete with lightning holes. That's a cool time saver compared to the -9 empennage trailing edges.

- Complete wiring harnesses. Not only for nav lights but for wing mounted ADAHDS and autopilot servo. Now that's cool. And all made by Stein. They have Molex plugs on the ends so I'm assuming the fuse wiring kit will mate up to them.

- Nice gray colored wingtips. Maybe that means improved gelcoat or something.

Well, back to the inventory to see what other nice surprises I'm in for. I can see this airplane going together much faster than the previous solid rivet models.
 
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Good to hear you took the plunge

I took a tour of the Van's factory earlier today and was very impressed with their operation. I was so impressed that I purchased the RV-14 wing kit!

Outstanding news Rock! I got my delivery yesterday and am working on inventory. Look forward to following the progress of all of us early -14 builders.

I'm glad that there are lots of repeat offenders building. I'm sure they will plow ahead and give us something to follow. Now we need some build logs to start hitting the web.
 
Conway Freight

And a big shout out to Conway Freight. I was worried about the delivery part of this given my work schedule and lack of helpers but it couldn't have gone smoother.

They called to set up a delivery day and time. The driver showed up with a lift gate on the truck and a palet jack. He dropped the 200# boxes right in my garage. No worries!
 
I took a tour of the Van's factory earlier today and was very impressed with their operation. I was so impressed that I purchased the RV-14 wing kit! I really enjoyed flying the aircraft and was really impressed with it's handling qualities and roominess! I am fairly tall and weigh 225+, and had no problem sitting in the aircraft and clearing the canopy. I had room to spare!!.

Rock,

It was a pleasure meeting and flying with you yesterday!:D Thanks again for your business...
 
Rock,

It was a pleasure meeting and flying with you yesterday!:D Thanks again for your business...

Hey Joe, thank you very much taking time to give me a demo ride in the RV-14 as well. I was very impressed with the performance and handling characteristics. I love my RV-9A but I'm really looking forward to the roomier cockpit and enhanced performance of the -14. I've been plugging away on the new kit a couple hours every day or two, so only three years to go.
 
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I took a tour of the Van's factory earlier today and was very impressed with their operation. I was so impressed that I purchased the RV-14 wing kit! I really enjoyed flying the aircraft and was really impressed with it's handling qualities and roominess! I am fairly tall and weigh 225+, and had no problem sitting in the aircraft and clearing the canopy. I had room to spare!!QUOTE]

I'm pretty sure that I saw an RV smile on Rock after flying th RV-14. :D

RV-14_zpsf6c3fc19.jpg
 
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I took a tour of the Van's factory earlier today and was very impressed with their operation. I was so impressed that I purchased the RV-14 wing kit! I really enjoyed flying the aircraft and was really impressed with it's handling qualities and roominess! I am fairly tall and weigh 225+, and had no problem sitting in the aircraft and clearing the canopy. I had room to spare!!QUOTE]

I'm pretty sure that was an RV smile on Rock. :D

Now There is a dude that fits the RV14 perfectly.
 
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I took a tour of the Van's factory earlier today and was very impressed with their operation. I was so impressed that I purchased the RV-14 wing kit! I really enjoyed flying the aircraft and was really impressed with it's handling qualities and roominess! I am fairly tall and weigh 225+, and had no problem sitting in the aircraft and clearing the canopy. I had room to spare!!

Mark, you were right in your assessment of the RV-14 kit. Thanks, for all the info and for answering all of my questions about the aircraft. Also, thanks to all the others who have helped me to make the decision to build. I do feel that it will take less time to construct this kit than it has for previous models because so much of the self engineering and decision making has been removed from the process.

Hey Barry,

Good to see you gettting into the RV thing.

Regards,
Scott

JB MCO CA
 
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