Heads Up on Vans Quickbuild Wings.
Posted: 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
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
CJ