I inventoried both the empennage and wing kits over the Christmas holidays. There was no damage at all (I was very favorably impressed with the crating) and exactly this missing:
One little plastic bushing.
One small AN bolt.
One bag of miscellaneous lens attach hardware.
which I though was pretty good. Was that about the same for you all?
While talking to the guys at the factory about these extremely minor discrepancies, I commented on the high quality of the crate and learned that the guy that builds the crates is totally blind. He knows his wood shop so well that he doesn't need his cane in there though. The rest of the Van's personnel don't dare move or deliver anything without him being there because he has the layout and location of everything perfectly memorized. Had you all heard that story?
Yep. I've seen him every time I've gone to Van's to pick up the next major kit in my project. Pretty amazing watching him work!
I've also been very impressed with my inventory results (emp, wing, and fuselage so far, RV-7A). I think the only discrepancy I've found is, in the wing kit, one of the little plastic bags of rivets had the wrong size rivets in it (it was labeled AD4.5 but had AD4 in them or something like that -- yes, I actually measured a rivet from every bag to confirm it was the size specified on the bag! I also checked for the dimple on the rivet head (structural rivet).). Van's stuck a new bag of rivets into the mail, no charge of course. I didn't even have to send them back the incorrect bag.
I've had my share of missing bags, wrong size bolts, 2 right sides and no left side, etc. Van's makes good on these every time and usually pretty quick. I inventoried the fuselage kit back in April. Started working on the elevator pushrods and found that they gave me the wrong size rod ends. Called them up and even though it had been over 6 months later, they made good on the mistake.
john_r_graham wrote:... the guy that builds the crates is totally blind. He knows his wood shop so well that he doesn't need his cane in there though. The rest of the Van's personnel don't dare move or deliver anything without him being there because he has the layout and location of everything perfectly memorized. Had you all heard that story?
- John
Yes, and there's an interesting video interview of him floating around on the internet somewhere, I remember seeing it a few months ago. I'll post a link if I can find it.
john_r_graham wrote:... the guy that builds the crates is totally blind. He knows his wood shop so well that he doesn't need his cane in there though. The rest of the Van's personnel don't dare move or deliver anything without him being there because he has the layout and location of everything perfectly memorized. Had you all heard that story?
- John
Yes, and there's an interesting video interview of him floating around on the internet somewhere, I remember seeing it a few months ago. I'll post a link if I can find it.
CJ