Vern,
I am truly sorry that nothing happens fast enough for you... and that nothing is designed well enough for you... and that nothing goes together easy enough for you.
Maybe this is not how you really feel, but if anyone takes a look through most of the post that you have made in the past, that is the conclusion they have to come too. (my opinion anyway).
I truly am sorry you have to feel that way because I am sure it makes building an airplane a very frustrating experience. Hearing all of your complaints certainly frustrates me.
Building an airplane (even with a kit as advanced as the RV-12 ) is no simple matter. If anyone expects it to be, please don't try it.
The point of my previous post was to point out that if a large number of people succeed at a specific task and a few do not does that mean it should be re-engineered?
I know people that have stripped out the threads for the oil drain plug on their car. Should the car makers redesign the process for changing the engine oil? Not likely.
Now I will try and be helpful...
When installing the top cover on your fuel tank, cover all of the sidewall flanges with a smoothed layer of tank sealant that it about 1/32" thick.
Place a large blob (about 3/4" in diam) into each corner on the interior surface. Do the same at the break in the top flange on each side where the bend occurs in the top cover. Place a smaller blob (about 1/2 the size of the ones previous) directly over the 6 breaks in the flange on the outside of the tank (the same locations where you just blobbed the interior) Cleco on the cover and install all rivets coated with a small amount of sealant. Lay the tank upside down. Insert a bright flashlight in the tank. Use a popsicle stick to smooth/slightly spread the 6 blobs on the interior.
If the tank leaks along the top...disassemble and carefully follow the above steps again.
P.S. The only plastic problems I have seen is builders not getting it seal properly. I do not think that is the fault of the plastic.
(about as good of) regards (that I can give at the moment)
Scott
Hi Scott,
Quote Scott "I am truly sorry that nothing happens fast enough for you... and that nothing is designed well enough for you... and that nothing goes together easy enough for you."
I think you will find that I have only originated two or three complaints on this forum and one of those was the first week working on the wings kit when we found a production mistake on one of the spars. I have agreed with others when they have complained about issues particularly about the fuel tank, that is true.
Quote Scott "Maybe this is not how you really feel, but if anyone takes a look through most of the post that you have made in the past, that is the conclusion they have to come too. (my opinion anyway).
I truly am sorry you have to feel that way because I am sure it makes building an airplane a very frustrating experience."
I think that if you would take the time to in fact look through my posts here you would find, as I just did, that less than 20% were negative or involved a complaint. I have posted about 135 times on about 90 threads and as over 80 % were positive or constructive it would seem that your opinion of me is somewhat colored by something other than the facts. Yes building is a fun experience and building my first RV-12 was a great deal of fun except for the 12 or so days that triggered the under 20 negative posts.
Quote Scott, "Hearing all of your complaints certainly frustrates me."
I am sorry to cause you frustration it is not intended to be personal when any of us comment about issues with the RV-12 or Van's as an institution.
Quote Scott, "The point of my previous post was to point out that if a large number of people succeed at a specific task and a few do not does that mean it should be re-engineered?"
As we only have 17 RV-12's flying and three of them are factory ships this does not seem like a large number to me, I know you are lumping all of the RV wing tanks in but they are very different tanks. I would guess that there are less than 50 tanks for the RV-12 that have been worked on and less that have been sealed and tested, so I think that until we get some significant number of tanks flying and some of those with a considerable number of flight hours it would be hard to declare the RV-12 tank an engineering success. It might be interesting for you to look through all of the fuel tank related threads here and see how many of your customers who actually have fuel tanks in hand have indicated their concerns about the tank or the desire for some fuel tank that they would have more confidence in.
Quote Scott, "Now I will try and be helpful...
When installing the top cover on your fuel tank, cover all of the sidewall flanges with a smoothed layer of tank sealant that it about 1/32" thick.
Place a large blob (about 3/4" in diam) into each corner on the interior surface. Do the same at the break in the top flange on each side where the bend occurs in the top cover. Place a smaller blob (about 1/2 the size of the ones previous) directly over the 6 breaks in the flange on the outside of the tank (the same locations where you just blobbed the interior) Cleco on the cover and install all rivets coated with a small amount of sealant. Lay the tank upside down. Insert a bright flashlight in the tank. Use a popsicle stick to smooth/
slightly spread the 6 blobs on the interior.
If the tank leaks along the top...disassemble and carefully follow the above steps again
Thank you for the constructive information I am sure it will be helpful on my next RV-12 kit that was due to ship in mid December, I hope it will ship soon and that Van's will have all shipments back on schedule very soon.
I do have one question on the part where you say " Use a popsicle stick to smooth/
slightly spread the 6 blobs on the interior." How do you see where the blob is so that you do not move it or over work it with you arm blocking your line of site to the inside of the tank? I found it very hard do small detail corrections or smoothing when I could not see any of what I was doing. I also found it hard on the inside of the top to do a good job of coating the rivets and overlaying the seams due to the lack of vision.
On my first tank the blob in the top corner behind the site gage leaked because it was not possible to see the area well enough to see that the tank sealant had not pressed all the way to the tank skin leaving a tunnel for an air leak. It is now fixed but as you know it is no fun fixing tank sealant issues.
Have a good day.
Best regards,
Vern