In early March 2019, I thought that the empennage kit was going to go quick and we would soon run out of work on our precious aluminum baby. Not wanting to be bored, I ordered the wing kit on March 6, 2019. A certain unforeseen aviation event occurred on March 10, 2019 that significantly changed the amount of free time I expected over the course of the next 12 months. Nonetheless, the kit shipped on its scheduled date of May 20, 2019, and I brought it into the garage on May 23, 2019.
The wing kit comes in two crates: one contains the wing spars (primary structure) and the other contains skins, ribs, and everything else. We were not completely finished with the empennage kit, so we had to move things around in the garage to ensure we had enough space to receive the wing kit.
The day before the kit delivery: In preparation, we moved the garage around a bit to make the storage racks more accessible. Remaining empennage kit parts were able to fit on the other rack (and in the wooden crate above).
The largest-dimension box of the wing kit contains the fully assembled main wing spars. These spars are pre-assembled at Van’s Aircraft factory – they carry the majority of the lifting force load. I had some concerns that the spar box may not actually fit in the garage we had, as it’s a pretty small “two-car” space. After a bit of research I was able to find the crate dimensions for each kit. Van’s has a really good resource for this. Turns out we had enough space to fit it on a garage edge. It’s actually since been rearranged to maximize available space and runs under the hot water heater (gasp!).
The other crate is relatively square and contains pretty large sections of wing skins. As we have come to expect, things were well-packed from the factory and we had no issues unloading and inventorying. I will say that the factory continues to use Gorilla tape instead of a more modest duct tape to secure parts from wiggling around. The strength of the tape ensures that some of the protective blue vinyl is ripped off when you separate pieces. (Minor complaint!)
Wing Ribs! It’s amazing how thin and light some of these parts are. It’s a special feeling when you start unwrapping pieces that you know will support your wings and carry your flying dreams.
The importance of careful parts inventorying was made clear this time. We had five small missing parts – a rivet, a washer, a pair of bushings, and some heat shrink tube. Honestly, the parts missing seemed to be random – they were in different bags, etc. I did have to wonder if their factory was trying to fulfill orders a little too quickly after Oshkosh 2018 (where the RV-12iS was the “One Week Wonder”, an airplane assembled in the week of Oshkosh). Nonetheless, Van’s sent the missing pieces quickly without charge.
The real question is – when will we get to start assembling the wing kit? I’m hoping summer 2020. We’ll see!
RV-12iS Build 