Van’s Aircraft LCP status updates appear to have stopped. Here are some more thoughts on my current situation.
Fortunately, I am a patient individual and I am not in much of a hurry given that it is cold these days in Tennessee and I am finishing off insulating the workshop. Add to that, work in the peach orchard has begun with pruning. It takes some time even with electric and pneumatic pruners to prune 700 fruit trees !
I have been thinking more about the process at Van’s and, as I have talked to other kit owners, I have come to the conclusion that those of us waiting for LCP replacement parts are at the bottom, or close to the bottom, of the service list. If I were the management / resussitation company managing Van’s that would be my baseline position.
My reasoning would be that the first order of the day is to make sure Van’s Aircraft survives. How that is achieved would be of primary importance because, as the reasoning goes, if Van’s succumbs to bankruptcy, nobody is served. I’m not sure this is entirely ethical, or moral, but it would almost certainly be the “business” decision I could talk myself into.
Consequently, the orders I would fill / complete first, would be those that would bring in the most money with the least cost. That means that my list of priorities would be:
- New orders
- Orders on which the minimum deposits have been received
- Orders on which higher deposit amounts have been received
- Replacement parts orders that still require payment
- Replacement parts that are a cost center for Van’s
- Back-ordered parts that are paid in full
Item 5 on that list would be LCP parts and in reality item 6 is at about the same priority level.
Understanding that Van’s has expressed their commitment to clearing all this up by the end of 2024, it could be that kit owners such as myself could be waiting until the end of 2024, at the earliest, to see those replacements.
I am hoping this is not the case, of course, but I am planning as if it is.
My current plan of action is to not do any further work on my kit until I know what kind of wait time I have for the replacement parts. If that is too delayed, then I likely will simply sell my kit. Fortunately I am waiting on 5 replacement parts, unlike some whose kits are, in their words, riddled with LCP.
On the other hand, if Van’s actually contacts me with a shipping schedule I can believe, and tolerate, I will build my kit, mainly because that allows me to prime everything, and then put it away and wait for them to exit Chapter 11.
Time will tell.