Kit Build Order

Like many people, I've been patiently (?) waiting on kits to ship from Van's. This is my first build. When I ordered the tail kit, it looked like August was realistic to expect for delivery. Now it's sounding like October. I do have a second hand wing kit just sitting in the garage though. While I've been waiting on the tail kit, I did go ahead and deburr and flute all of the ribs, since I figured that didn't require a tail kit learning curve.

I know the general rule of thumb is to start the build with the tail because that's where the instructions are best, not to mention the parts to screw up are cheaper. Given that I "only" have 6 weeks to wait on the tail at this point, I could try to continue to sit on my hands and just wait. I'm curious though, are there other things I can easily do with the wings to chip away at them without just diving in completely? What could I do ahead of time without too much fear of learning curve failure (and not having to get things put onto stands - I'd probably have to move them once the tail was here)?

EDIT: Just heard from Van's and they said the -9 Emp kits are relatively small compared to others, so it's highly likely it won't actually take the full 6 weeks of lead time for crating/shipping. That being the case, I'll just hang on a bit longer instead of getting into a piece of the wings and having to stop mid-stream.

I am in a somewhat similar boat, just biding time until my emp kit arrives (Dec/Jan?) I've wrecked my practice kits to get better at drilling out rivets and countersinking wedges to minimize chattering. I ordered another practice kit and the digital plans for the -14, the former to prevent my skills from fading, the latter to read ahead.

Until *those* arrive, I've been setting up how I'm going to do my build log and, of course, reading the VAF forums. And flying. And reading up on avionics packages.

Sorry this doesn't answer your question. I don't know anything first hand about the wing kit. Though, if I were to guess, I'd say getting going on the leading edges could help you pass the time. They seem straightforward.

EDIT: Now that I see you're doing the -9, I am curious if the leading edges are a seperate thing like on the -14.

Why not continue to deburr the other parts in the wing kit? There are also probably some parts you can fabricate from angle or sheet. If you’re priming the parts in your kit, you could do that in advance, too.

As per RV9builder, you could carry on de-burring all the parts. There's other things in the -9 wing you can do now that aren't too taxing and they're sort-of stand-alone at this point, like cutting & marking centrelines on the J-stringers and preparing the aileron hinge brackets. Prep the parts for the Aileron bracket SB (if I remember rightly these were final hole sized already, so they literally just need to be separated & deburred). If you want to run conduit for wires you could drill those holes in the ribs as per the instructions from Vans.

Also as mentioned there are brackets you could start making (roughing out for now though) such as the tank attach brackets and flap brackets.

Wings before empennage

If you're confident in your riveting skills, I see no reason why you can't build the wings.
It's larger parts with lots more rivets but no more complicated.
That said, the parts do cost a lot more so don't mess up. Get some skilled eyes on the work.

wirejock said:

If you're confident in your riveting skills, I see no reason why you can't build the wings.
It's larger parts with lots more rivets but no more complicated.
That said, the parts do cost a lot more so don't mess up. Get some skilled eyes on the work.

Click to expand...

"Confident" is a strong term for my riveting skills at this point! Passable, yes. I like the previous ideas of starting to do some of the part fabrication, so maybe I'll sift through the instructions and pull out those items. My hope is that the emp kit will arrive faster than predicted and I'll be able to get underway. I learned my lesson and went ahead and ordered the fuselage kit last week. No more downtime - it makes me twitch.

Just get started. If you need practice go buy some aluminum from Home Depot until you're confident that you can smash a rivet and countersink consistently.

If you screw up a part, well that gives you six weeks before your crate ships and they can throw your replacement part in there and you get "free" shipping.