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Transitioning from Kit Builder to General Contractor

claycookiemonster

Well Known Member
I just thought I'd throw out this revelation I've had recently. If it resonates with others, perhaps they will see this sea change coming in advance, rather than finding yourself in the rip current as I have recently.

The process of actually completing an RV (which I've not done yet) begins with a nice, concise kit package from Van's. All the parts are there. All the fasteners are in tidy bags. Several tool companies will ensure you have all the tools required. You follow the instructions and use the tools and you get an airframe. It's nice. It's fun. It's controlled. If you begin to go off the rails, you can recover.

Then you get close enough to the end of the airframe to begin to see the next stage. There is no tidy kit anymore. There are processes you will have to do, and you have neither the tools, nor the parts, not the expertise to do them. You have outgrown the Van's crib and are in the wild world of wiring and fiberglass and upholstery and engines and propellers and paint and inspections and insurance and hanger space.

Actually, it's all fine, but it's shocking. You won't know you need a part or a tool or a fastener until you suddenly NEED it, and then another order goes out to Spruce. You don't go broke on engines 5 figures at a time, you go broke on the nickles and dimes of shipping. You get to/have to decide on limitless options in ways you've never needed to before. The instructions are over and the binder is up on the shelf. And, it will be fine.

It's just another one of those life lessons, where you go from a big fish in the sheet metal world, to a tiny fish in every subsequent world. It's a bit ego bruising initially, but as I've said before, you'll be fine.

Just a little head's up from my garage to yours. You'll be fine.
 
This is all very true but by your third or fourth build, you will have this process also relatively nailed down :)

With the rise of shipping charges, I keep putting things in my cart on Spruce or have a note pad for the parts that I will be needing from VANS or elsewhere and will order a bunch at the time to hopefully either get free shipping or reduced.

There are ways to lessen the pain.
 
In other words you are making the transition from “assembler” to “builder”.

The new kits tend to defer this transition until much later in the project.

Carl
 
And this is precisely the reason there are so many "80%" projects available for sale on the used market. People get to the end of the hand-holding with relatively simple assembly instructions, and they don't know what to do. Selling out is easier than breaking new trail.
 
Found

I found other things to do when it came time for the canopy. It was pointless, because I had to do the canopy eventually. I ended up just delaying my build for 6 months.
 
It is also precisely the reason that the RV 10, RV 12, and RV 14 kits were advanced to the level that they are, during development. There is much less thinking and figuring out for the builder to do as long as they are willing to build it per the plans. This has become more and more of the case with each of these kit introductions with the RV 12 being the most so.
 
Mine is a 1990s-era RV-6. The panel was a blank sheet of aluminum with a bend in it and no plans other than how to trim it to shape and affix it to the airframe. FWF was a few pages of suggestions.

And I wouldn't have had it any other way. The Bingelis books and local RV group made up the difference and I very much enjoyed figuring out how to do all that stuff. And I feel like it really was a better "education" in A/C systems and processes than builders with the newer kits are likely to get.

Ah well, old curmudgeon talking. And I know the newer kits make kit-building more accessible to a wider variety of people with probably a better completion rate. So worth the tradeoff I'm sure.
 
+1 on this one. My kit was originally sold in 1989, and the level of documentation is considerably different from that with even a -7. I have enjoyed the build, although some of the issues were a challenge. Fellow builders and EAA members were the grease that moved it along.


Mine is a 1990s-era RV-6. The panel was a blank sheet of aluminum with a bend in it and no plans other than how to trim it to shape and affix it to the airframe. FWF was a few pages of suggestions.

And I wouldn't have had it any other way. The Bingelis books and local RV group made up the difference and I very much enjoyed figuring out how to do all that stuff. And I feel like it really was a better "education" in A/C systems and processes than builders with the newer kits are likely to get.

Ah well, old curmudgeon talking. And I know the newer kits make kit-building more accessible to a wider variety of people with probably a better completion rate. So worth the tradeoff I'm sure.
 
What the Cookie Monster says is all true. But it does get easier with experience. I'll confess that after three homebuilts and two RV'S, I'm still getting schooled in the sourcing and shipping department.

Last week doing some fiberglass odds and ends in preparation for painting the RV-10, I ran out of West hardener but still had a good bit of resin left (looks like my mixing by weight technique has some rounding error, or they don't ship the stuff in 5:1 ratio, I don't know). I needed a small can of hardener to keep rolling with the pinhole filling, there are no West Marine outlets within 100 miles, so I dutifully ordered from Spruce, acknowledging that shipping charges would exceed the item cost.

Hey, Bub - it's 2022; let's check Amazon now that it's too late. Yup, better price, free shipping, rapid delivery :rolleyes: Old habits die hard. The retail landscape has shifted since the 6A was completed in '98. I'm still learning.
 
And this is precisely the reason there are so many "80%" projects available for sale on the used market. People get to the end of the hand-holding with relatively simple assembly instructions, and they don't know what to do. Selling out is easier than breaking new trail.

Yes, I agree. In the aviation community there are flyers, builders, and tinkerers…or some combination of the three. Like many, my life, family, and career commitments make me sincerely doubt my ability to commit to building an airplane. I’m confident in my skills, but not my commitment, and I’d likely be one of those guys someday looking to sell an 80% project. In the meantime, I love to fly, and I like to tinker. The various, mostly low-level repair and replacement projects on my plane more than meet my tinkering needs, so my entry into Experimental aviation was by just buying one already-built. That has worked great for me and was definitely the right decision for my airplane-owning and flying goals. In the meantime, you guys that build and fly these things have my sincere respect for your commitment to years of tedium and problem-solving. And you have my gratitude because one of you built my current airplane and someone here may very well be building my next one.
 
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Maybe because it was a slow build and I moved slowly (2016 to 2021), but I found there was always something else I could work on while accumulating an order big enough to justify shipping. Seemed like I was always months ahead in thinking and planning.

Just have to be willing to shift gears and work on something else.

Finn
 
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