I received an update from Vans Aircraft this week, two bits of really good news with respect to my project.
The first, and possibly the most important, was with respect to the final drilling of holes in the RV-10 kit. As you may recall, in July of 2020 Vans announced that they were moving to final sized holes on the RV-10 kit. When my empennage kit arrived last year, as I was reading the manual, it instructs to final size drill the holes. So I sent an email to Vans and this was the reply:
Hello Robert, The plans have not all been updated, however, most of the holes on the RV-10 kits are now final size. Thanks! Tom
Needless to say, that will save a significant amount of time and opportunity for error.
The second bit of news was with respect to the cracking of dimpled holes on laser cut parts. It’s a long update, suffice to say I can now order the parts on an available, keyed, web page, plus they have provided a lot more information on the parts. Here is the gist of the email.
All laser-cut parts have been classified as either “Recommended for Replacement” or “Acceptable for Use.” The parts classified as “Acceptable for Use” do not have to be replaced. They can be used when building the airplane and are functionally equivalent to punched parts, as described in more detail in the engineering assessment document and latest laser-cut parts list, which were published today and are linked below. Please be sure you examine your kit parts to determine if they are laser-cut or punched before making your selections. On the portal, you will be able to add parts to your list, save your work, and return later to make changes if needed. We will use that information in our production planning process. When we need you to finalize your selections, we will email you so you can return to the portal and do so.
In addition, when you access the parts portal for the first time we will send you a survey link via email. We sincerely hope you will complete this important survey, as it will help us better understand your thoughts as we work through this.
Please review the following documents, if you have not already done so. They describe the latest testing, results, and classification of parts.
- Read the most recent update posted to the Van’s Aircraft website
- Read the Van’s engineering assessment and classification report (PDF)
- Review the latest list of laser-cut parts by model (PDF)
- Read the guide to identification of parts to determine whether they are punched or laser-cut
So, like I said, two bits of really good news in my update from Vans Aircraft this week.
On an entirely separate subject…I have been working hard with the guys at Felenasoft with respect to implementing my live streaming (without Facebook, YouTube etc.) using their Xeoma surveillance software and we made some real headway. You can head over to the Build Live Streaming page to see how things are coming along !
