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RV 10 finish kit delays

huse0054

Well Known Member
I know there are plenty of threads on the supply chain delays, increase demand etc...just wanted to highlight my experience to see how common this is with fellow RV 10 builders and to just say to others... place your orders years in advance!

I thought I placed my finish kit order plenty early. I even deleted many items like the cowl, brakes, windows, tires etc... So maybe incorrectly assumed it would come in before the expected date.

My order was placed in March of 2021 right after I completed my tail kit. I was told to expect the finish kit the end of Nov. I called end of Nov. and was told end of Dec. Was then told more like end of Jan. for crating. As of today there is no expected date and am waiting to hear back from Van's. Looks like I will be over a year for just the finish kit.

I have managed to complete the fuselage the end of Dec. and am now playing the waiting game and haven't really been able to make any meaningful progress which is frustrating but hey it could be worse.

I'm not ranting just wanted to provide my experience for others who haven't placed orders yet, get them in early.

I am very grateful for Van's, their customer support and for giving us all the opportunity to fulfill our dreams and passions. I feel blessed everyday and suppose I just need to work on my patience:)
 
I'm in the same boat

I'm in the same boat as you. I ordered by RV 10 Finishing Kit the first week of April 2021. My crating date was Dec 14th. That date has come and gone. In late December I sent a note to Vans customer service and received a boilerplate response. My progress is pretty much stopped at the moment.
 
I'm in the same boat as you. I ordered by RV 10 Finishing Kit the first week of April 2021. My crating date was Dec 14th. That date has come and gone. In late December I sent a note to Vans customer service and received a boilerplate response. My progress is pretty much stopped at the moment.

Glad to hear I'm not alone.... was worried that maybe I got lost in the shuffle.
 
From memory, I don't think Vans produce much of the finishing kit in-house. most of the items are tires, wheels, cables, hose, exhaust, which are supplied by other vendors. While I ordered my finishing kit about 1 year before the OP, the missing items were delivered 3-4 months after the kit was received. I don't think my situation is dissimilar to other people. With the suppliers running behind, even aircraft spruce is having trouble with backorder for common items too.
 
From memory, I don't think Vans produce much of the finishing kit in-house. most of the items are tires, wheels, cables, hose, exhaust, which are supplied by other vendors. While I ordered my finishing kit about 1 year before the OP, the missing items were delivered 3-4 months after the kit was received. I don't think my situation is dissimilar to other people. With the suppliers running behind, even aircraft spruce is having trouble with backorder for common items too.

Honestly, all I really care about at this point is getting the doors so I can start working on that dreaded process:). Most of the other stuff you mentioned I ordered aftermarket anyway and deleted from the kit. I wonder if VAN's would just ship me the doors so I can get started on those.
 
I'm waiting on an 8 finishing kit ordered in July. Also removed a lot of parts including cowl, canopy, tires etc.. At the time it showed a 5 month wait; now shows 11. I ordered the Hartzell prop at the same time they figured it would be 6-8 weeks. Last I asked they had no idea but the website currently shows 6 months. Like you, I don't blame Vans for the delays and agree others should plan much further ahead than they expect to actually need the stuff. It's difficult to cough up that much money sometimes years before you'll see the product not knowing where you'll be in the build or your life at that time.
 
It isn't just Van's. I won't name names here, but there are two things from other parties that I need to finish my build and get flying.

The first one has an expiration date, and I was told to buy it near the time of first flight since it was always available within 2 weeks. Placed my order. Four month delay.

The other is something custom that had an 8 month waiting list when I placed the order. 16 months and counting...
 
Curious, has anyone purchased a finish kit from Van's in January, February or March of 2021 and received it? Specifically for a 10.
 
I'm sure you can ask them for certain parts of the kits ahead of the entire kit. The issue is so many of the parts are interconnected with parts from the fuselage coming together with the finishing and FWF kits. I'm guessing they would take a look at where in the que you are and review how many parts are in inventory and or in the delivery cycle. It's not going to be very efficient from shipping perspective but at this time people are willing to pay a premium for parts delivered earlier. I've seen a customer who had his RV-10 QB kits get a 25k premium over what he paid and then that same buyer received a 25k over what he paid. The Vans machines are doing very well on the open market (And desirably so) and we are lucky to have Vans although the company has taken a bashing. I received a BFR a few years ago in a 172 and could hardly stand flying it. Before that a 152 and almost fell asleep before getting to cruising altitude.
 
Curious, has anyone purchased a finish kit from Van's in January, February or March of 2021 and received it? Specifically for a 10.

I know of one builder that ordered their finish kit in Jan 2021. They got the bulk of their kit in July and the remainder last month.
 
I know of one builder that ordered their finish kit in Jan 2021. They got the bulk of their kit in July and the remainder last month.

Well, not sure if that is promising or discouraging....

Meaning ...I'm next in line or the delays are that severe.
 
In Jan 2021 shortages and shipping problems had only just started to become an issue. My guess is anyone ordering a finishing kit for a 10 in March or later has still a decent wait. Based on when I received mine even a February order might need another month or 2. I thought when I ordered mine since it was just a bunch of parts from third parties no problem since not being shipped overseas. Turns out the domestic supply of parts might be more of an issue than parts from abroad.
 
Another Perspective

In another post elsewhere, it mentions that the factory Cessna C172 wait time to build is over one year. With the vast resource of such a large company with aircraft porfolio that ranges from trainers to business jets, Cessna is still struggling to deliver the C172s. This is for a very old airplane design that will cost over 1/2 million US dollars new. It was reported that Cessna is working around the clock to meet the demand. This is to put things into perspective. The Vans people are working full stop to deliver parts and kits to its customers too. For a small company like Vans (relatively in the global corporation perspective) I can pick up a phone and talk to a real person at the factory instead of a person from a call center in the Far East. I just don't know of any company that provides that personal service. If you flop down $500K cold cash, I doubt Cessna will let you jump the queue and deliver you a new C172.
 
Those waiting on a new Cessna apparently have a sense of their lead times. That’s a good thing.

I expect that Vans is working hard to determine something about lead times. I think that most people have a grip on the unprecedented supply chain issues, and that having some expectations set will go a long way.

Patrick
 
Hacking the system

Interestingly, using the new Vans Web Store you can kind of piece together where the supply delays are. For each item, the webstore tells you which items are in stock and which are on backorder. Looking at all the big items for the finishing kits it appears as though the only things on backorder are the doors. The store says that the engine mount, cowling and landing gear are "in stock".
 
If inflation keeps rising and the market keeps tanking, I suspect we'll see a significant reduction in the demand for discretionary, hobby items. We have had way too many good years that has led to all this spending. When was the last time someone feared about losing their job. It seems inevitable that this historic bull run will end in the near term. It just doesn't make sense how this can go on once the feds start pairing the balance sheet and raising interest rates. I still believe that the fed intervention has kept the steam in the market for the last 10 years and if that goes away - watch out.

Food for thought.
 
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I am in the same boat as you, ordered my 10 Finish kit spring 2021, no ETA for now.
Greg @VANs called me couple days back, we had a conversation about this situation. VANs does everything they can to avoid any additional delays to whatever happening now. With the same time they depend a lot on many parts which are manufactured by contractors. With all this COVID thing the supply chain was broken big time :( and now it will take some time before things we get back to normal.
Parts manufactured and supplied to VANs by their contractors is the one of the main reasons for the delays we all experiencing now. Contractors simply do not provide ETA when parts will be ready because they are out of resources due to panademic :(

Check out latest video from VANs where Rian and Greg explain more about what is going on now:

Video

I also had plans, hangar rental for my other airplane etc, but now things changed so have to get my self busy with other tasks. Now I work on all avionics, electrical etc for my fuselage.

Hope we will get our kits before OSH ;)
 
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Interestingly, using the new Vans Web Store you can kind of piece together where the supply delays are. For each item, the webstore tells you which items are in stock and which are on backorder. Looking at all the big items for the finishing kits it appears as though the only things on backorder are the doors. The store says that the engine mount, cowling and landing gear are "in stock".

Interesting and thanks... many probably know the answer but VAN's must outsource the fiberglass work?
 
I am in the same boat as you, ordered my 10 Finish kit spring 2021, no ETA for now.
Greg @VANs called me couple days back, we had a conversation about this situation. VANs does everything they can to avoid any additional delays to whatever happening now. With the same time they depend a lot on many parts which are manufactured by contractors. With all this COVID thing the supply chain was broken big time :( and now it will take some time before things we get back to normal.
Parts manufactured and supplied to VANs by their contractors is the one of the main reasons for the delays we all experiencing now. Contractors simply do not provide ETA when parts will be ready because they are out of resources due to panademic :(

Check out latest video from VANs where Rian and Greg explain more about what is going on now:

Video

I also had plans, hangar rental for my other airplane etc, but now things changed so have to get my self busy with other tasks. Now I work on all avionics, electrical etc for my fuselage.

Hope we will get our kits before OSH ;)

Thanks Vlad, love your videos!

I'm assuming Greg did not give any indications as to your finish kit arrival?

Agreed... onto other items. My brain is very linear so tough to jump around in the plans but I will work on that:)


It's curious to me that someone ordered a finish kit only a month or so before I did and received a bulk of the kit in July. I can only glean that those manufactures halted production after July due to all the supply chain reasons or many more ordered kits that month before I did. But hey I'm no supply chain expert.
 
Thanks Vlad, love your videos!

I'm assuming Greg did not give any indications as to your finish kit arrival?

Thank you about my videos feedback :) New one is coming soon!

No, unfortunately Greg have not provided me with the ETA for my kit. He mentioned that there are at least two-three dozens of finish kits ahead of me so I guess it will take some time :(
What he mentioned though is that as soon as they have ETAs they will be in touch with customers to update them.

The bottle neck for VANs are the parts which they source from contractors. This is where you can't control things that much. Here up north in Canada we have so much broken supply chains at the moment, and especially with current omicron spike that my suppliers (for my business) are not able to give me ETA for simple parts which does not even require QA. Imagine what VANs experiencing with their mandatory QA parts.
 
Fuselage Kit Update

I ordered my RV-10 QB Wing and Fuselage just prior to the announcement of QB mitigation problems. I accepted a wing kit and it arrived the end of May. I'm still waiting on the Flaps and Ailerons and a few other pieces that were back ordered.
I was sent a message in December that the Fuse will be ready for crating between Jan and May. In the interim about 2 weeks ago Van's asked for a healthy payment applied towards my Fuselage and Finish kit (ordered with lots of deletions) which I paid. Friday evening Vans sent a no reply email which had an attached PDF they sent to ABF for a shipping quote.
It was too late to call so hopefully, I'll find out more tomorrow. I imagine that it will still be two months before I see it. It's probably time to start pressing for the rest of my wing kit.
What a difference from when I built my RV-7 starting in late 2006 and flying in the summer of 2008
 
You must have just missed the window where they still had parts in stock. I ordered the RV-10 finish kit on 2/22 and I got it just before XMAS. I had several items removed (governor, alternator, fuel lines, oil cooler, etc). Potentially that helped, too.
 
Wanted to provide an update for those who might want to know.


I ordered my RV 10 finish kit March 1st 2021. Received an email Monday this week that I was #33 in line to be crated. Received an email today saying that they are ready to ship my finish kit. Great news! Onward and upward.
 
I just placed my order for my -10 finishing kit. I don't have a confirmation yet, but I was told 13-14 months lead time for the finish kit, and approximately 6 months for FWF.

I was actually hoping to get this plane in the air before the end of 2022, but that is apparently not going to happen now.

I'm probably going to see what can be done to buy and install the avionics out of sequence--assuming those don't have an extreme lead time too.

I may even consider doing a panel upgrade on my Mooney in the interim if it looks like the -10 won't be done before the end of 2023.

I have the engine already, but without an engine mount or landing gear, I can't do much about it.

I really hope that Van's is able to ship some pieces, for instance engine mounts, gear legs, and doors faster, and makes that offer to builders to help us along.
 
Another data point...

I reached out to Vans last week about where I am in line for my finishing kit. They got back to me on Wed Feb 2nd and said I'm #54 in line. I ordered on April 8th 2021.
 
RV-10 Finish AND FWF Kits

Ordered RV-10 Finish and FWF kits Jan 2021. Got an email from Van's yesterday that my Finish and FWF kits were ready to crate. Yay! :)
 
Same

I have been building for about 1.5 years. Had the empennage done a long time ago.

Massive delays on what was originally a QB fuselage and settled for a slow build that is coming along nicely.

Just had a reply from Vans that a slow build wing kit could show up in the next two months. YAY!

The wing were originally ordered QB.....oh well...good thing we enjoy the process!

I agree with the comment on the doors.

If Vans could ship just some doors some of us could stay busy for quite a while.

Hello Vans...are you reading this...doors?

All in all...very grateful for Vans.
 
I agree with the comment on the doors.

If Vans could ship just some doors some of us could stay busy for quite a while.

Hello Vans...are you reading this...doors?

All in all...very grateful for Vans.

This could be an opportunity for a third party such as Aerosport Products to sell an alternate door as well, if they could produce ahead of Van's schedule.

I just sent an email to them about this idea.
 
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FYI I did receive a response from Aerosport about the RV-10 doors--they say they have considered it but that the required testing to verify performance of the door during a crash would be too expensive for them to undertake.
 
It is good to hear that for some of us delivery will happen soon.
Please post here updates about your ETA for crating/delivery if you get know that.
Yesterday, Feb 10th I have met with Greg Hughes VP at VANs Aircraft and he was able to find some time to talk to me a record an interview with some updates. I am terribly sorry for the audio track quality in some parts of this interview, it looks like one of the microphones failed intermittently and I have not noticed that. Anyway I have this interview now on my channel and you are welcome to check it out:

Video Interview with Greg Hughes

I will have another part of this video out soon with the factory tour provided by Greg :D which I was waiting for two years since pandemic started ;)
 
I placed my order for finish kit on April 5th 2021.
Today I am number 39 in line.
This is just for update purposes.
 
Ordered FWF and Finishing kit middle-end of Jan 2021, happy to inform all parts are now on hand!!!! Still waiting on QB wings, ordered ~18 months ago. RV-14 took to paint last week Northern Alabama.
 
Any updates?

Just checking to see if anyone has received word on their RV 10 Finish kit?

I see that "Plane Lady" recently received hers. Apparently she ordered March 2021.
 
Interesting. I also ordered in March 2021 but I don't even have an estimated crating date yet
 
I ordered my finish kit in first week of April 2021 and still no crating date. I was number 25 in line about 1 month ago and still in the same spot as of few days back.

Not sure how big the next batch of RV10 finish kits will be but hopefully at least 25 kits :D
 
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I see that "Plane Lady" recently received hers. Apparently she ordered March 2021.

Hmm I guess in this case I should be just a month away from mine :)
However I think it all depends on how big batch of finish kits will be the next one.
 
Progress!

Latest update: I exchanged emails with the folks at vans 2 weeks ago and I found that I was #39 on the list for RV10 finish kits and they had just sent 9 to crating.

Fast forward to today. I checked the kit status page and I see that I have a crating window of June 6th through June 28th!

Reminder: I ordered on April 8, 2021.
 
Finish kit ordered on April 5th 2021, picked it up yesterday from VANs.
Thank you all the VANs team for their great service!
Finally I have something to work on 😉👍
 
QB Wings

Was informed by Stewart QB wings should arrive week of the 6th of June. Almost 2 years since order placed. At that time ordered Empennage, QB fuse and wings. Freight for the QB wings higher than anticipated ($1,900) but maybe typical. All parts now on hand except panel and that should be soon. Still waiting on airframe to come out of paint. Seems everything takes forever now.
 
VANs impressed me again- I had few items from my Firewall forward on back order since this Tuesday and they already shipped overnight and I already got them in Blaine,WA. Thank you very much!!!
 
RV-10 Finish Crate received

RV-10 finish kit ordered June 1, 2021. Estimated crating date is Aug 12, 2022 - Sept. 12, 2022
 
RV-10 Finish Kit delays.

Hope you all are well. Wanted to see if there was any newer info on those of you who were waiting on finishing kits for RV-10. Helpful if you could include order number as it will give a better idea of where in the Q we are.

We ordered Feb 2022.
 
As of Mid-February 2023

Hope you all are well. Wanted to see if there was any newer info on those of you who were waiting on finishing kits for RV-10. Helpful if you could include order number as it will give a better idea of where in the Q we are.

We ordered Feb 2022.

Benny,

We ordered in late February 2022. Spoke with Vans last week. We were #151 on their list. We expect our engine (ordered at the same time) in December. Vans told us we would get our kit well before December, but that's all they'd commit.

Don't know if this helps....

Cheers!
Mike
 
Ordered the finishing kit 8-21-21 got and email back on 1-19-23 that crating would start on Feb 3 to March 3. Nothing sense then ��
 
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