Heads Up on Vans Quickbuild Wings.

mustang · Post by **mustang** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:30 am

Guys and Gals,

Here is a heads up on the QB Wing Kits.

The first thing you should do when your kit arrives at Vans, is to arrange to go and look at it BEFORE it is crated for shipping.

Some things to check for are:

1. Check the fuel tank to spar fit and conformity to the airfoil. One of mine had a huge wow in the top surface and a bulge in the bottom surface. The concavity spanned three rivets in the root rib of the tank. We managed to get this out with a lot of fiddling around. Like a week of working on it.

2. Check the top surface trailing edges where they are riveted to the aft spar. I have seen two sets of QB wings now with a ski jump on the trailing edge of the upper skins. This is caused by the flange of the aft spar being incorrectly (under)bent as shipped from Vans to the Phillipines. The guys in the Phillipines are good riveters, but they don't really know what an airplane looks like. They just bang the parts together as received.

This second problem is so common, that Vans has a loaner tool which they will ship out to you, to complete the spar flange bend "in situ".
It is easier and better to do this bending before the flap brace and aileron gap seal are riveted in place. So check on this stuff before you start work on your wings, not half way through as I did.

When you inspect the wings, have a game plan. Bring a straight edge with you. Even a one foot ruler is enough to check on the airfoil conformation. So run the ruler down the trailing edge of the UPPER surface and lower surface too in the direction of the airflow. You do NOT want a big gap under your ruler from the trailing edge of the skin in the vicinity of the aft spar rivet line.

3. Another thing I was not happy with, was that the flaps are built with a HUGE trailing edge radius. You can slide an AN5 bolt into my flap TE, it has so much radius! The ailerons also have a fairly large radius TE, but not as bad as the flaps. This sounds slightly innocuous, but what happens then is that so much metal is used up going around the large TE radius that the flap becomes shorter!?!? Now, when your ailerons are installed, the flap will not extend aft far enough to use the standard supplied hinge stock. (Not enough rivet spacing to the edge) We had to order the widest hinge stock available to extend the flap aft far enough to match up with the TE of the aileron.

Probably, none of this is too serious. But when I pay 10,000 USdollars extra for a QB Kit, I would like it very much, if I didn't have to spend almost as much time tinkering with it to bring it up to standard, as I would building it from scratch. Not to mention, running back and forth across the border on a 400 mile round trip to pick up tools and parts to repair the QBuild stuff.

If I was gonna do it again, I would do a slow build and make the gas tank longer for a few extra gallons.

Thanks for your attention.

Cheers, Pete

jim_geo · Post by **jim_geo** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:20 am

Sounds like you've had a hard time of it.

N537TM · Post by **N537TM** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:54 am

Pete

We have a 7A QB .. shipped to us in Sep 05. It has the Ski Jump Top Skin TE... Last wek we were at Sun 'n Fun and the flap to Top skin distance is "line to Line"... ours has a 0.075" gap.. Now I know why...

Flaps fit ok, right at the min edge distance.

We will have to remove the Aileron and Flap brace to fix this ... Even our btm skins are riveted on... This could be fun...YUCK

Mike Brown

mustang · Post by **mustang** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:23 pm

Mike,

You can do this operation without removing the flap brace for sure, and I have read that it can also be done with the aileron gap seal in place.

Cheers, Pete

N537TM · Post by **N537TM** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:51 am

Pete

Just finished "FIXING" the Ski Jump... Van's send me the Tool...

The Top skin over the flap is now in contour with the wing .. Flap seals tightly to the top skin ... The foot print of the Van's tool is only 3 inches, so you get to take many bites. Found that if you bite every 2 rivets, it makes a smoother bend... Did not have to takeoff the flap brace. This came out .. ok... the top skin TE has waves in it, but the flap is attached it levels this all out.

Next came the top skin to Aileron, this also has the ski jump and a 3\16 gap.. I had to remove the rivets on top skin to aileron gap seal to get the tool in there. NO WAY to remove the bottom rivets, NoO way to reintall the lowers... When I was bending the Aft Spar. the gap seal gets kinked up..NASTY.. wrinkles in between the top rivet line. The Ski jump is gone, now I have to deal with gaps between the rivets on the gap seal.
That's tonight's fun..

Mike

Post by **Spike** » Mon May 22, 2006 11:42 am

prestwich · Post by **prestwich** » Wed May 24, 2006 1:12 am

Well, this is not a good sign. I was starting to lean QB, but if the Filipinos can't make a wing any better than I can, what's the point? Is this just a case of excess demand leading to quality compromises?

More to the point, why should a customer have to go to Van's to inspect the quality of what he's paying for? Shouldn't the company be providing quality assurance? And if the exterior fit and finish are sub-par at best, what might the understructure look like? Does it meet the airworthiness standards for workmanship emphasized in Van's own construction manual?

It's absolutely conceivable that the problems mentioned constitute the unfortunate exception, and that most of the QB assemblies are being manufactured to the highest professional standards.

If, however, these issues are not isolated anomalies, it's time for Van's to step up to the plate, come clean, and solve these problems. If something systemic is degenerating, and the ship is off course, then it's time to climb, confess, conserve, and comply.

N537TM · Post by **N537TM** » Wed May 24, 2006 10:59 am

Here is some pics of the right flap ski jump...

[img]file:///D:/Documents%20and%20Settings/brownm2/My%20Documents/RV%207A/All%20Pictures/New%20Folder/R%20Flap%20Ski%20Jump1.JPG[/img]

N537TM · Post by **N537TM** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:26 am

WAY TOO MUCH EFFORT TO POST A PICTURE for me...

After an hour of going thru the twists and turns of old treads I did find my way to the close to the end.... I don't have an Album...

Once I get that I need to figure out how to get pic to the Album...

Thanks... but no thanks...

If ya'all are interested in some pic's of this Ski Jump and Van's tool to fix I'll email them to you... let me know..

Mike

prestwich · Post by **prestwich** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:44 pm

Mike,

I'd be happy to post the pics if you'd mail them to me: prestwich at cox dot net.

Jon

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Wed May 31, 2006 5:59 am

prestwich wrote:Mike,

I'd be happy to post the pics if you'd mail them to me: prestwich at cox dot net.

Jon

Here are Mike's pictures he spoke about. I posted them to my album.

He says:

Here is the ugly pics of the jump and the fixes... notice the aileron gap seal
how it wrinkled when I had to pull it down to get the Van's tool in there to
bend the TE down...

Anytime, Mike!

CJ

Thanks Spike!

papakeith · Post by **papakeith** » Wed May 31, 2006 6:40 am