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1. 07:57 PM - Rant, question, suggestion: errors in plans/drawings (Charlie England)
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| Subject: | Rant, question, suggestion: errors in plans/drawings |
--> RV7-List message posted by: Charlie England <ceengland@bellsouth.net>
Rant mode on; drinkers of the 'Van's can do no wrong' koolaid, please
stop & delete now.
Several weeks (months?) ago I built up all the fuselage bulkheads
including the main spar carry-thru for my -7 kit. I carefully followed
all the directions/drawing indications I could find, especially on the
spar carrythru bulkhead. I noted & carefully followed the exploded views
on dwg 11 (rev 10-16-00) & later, dwg 22 (rev 10-27-00) showing the
bolts for the F633 L&R control brackets & all the F716 seat ribs with
the heads to the rear, threads forward.
I built up the tail cone. I completed the prep work for final assy of
the midsection. I began the riveting of the midsection several days ago
& today, neared completion of the riveting.
While studying dwg 22 section views to determine the orientation of the
bolts through the F715 seat ribs, I noticed that they show nuts on the
rib flange of all the F716 seat ribs where they bolt to the F704 spar
carry-thru. 'Curses; must have not been paying attention when I bolted
this stuff together.' (Bad medium term memory of earlier careful study
of plans.) Out came the wrenches, re-oriented all the F716 bolts,
retorqued. Happened to glance at the exploded view on the same dwg. All
rib bolts drawn with head on the rib flange. I checked dwg 11 exploded
view for the F633 bolts; it's inconsistent with the section view on dwg
22 also. Errors/inconsistencies #742 & 743 (guesstimate :-) ) noted in
the plans and/or instructions. By the way, this same section in the
instructions tells you to cleco in & drill the seat & baggage floors
without telling you to install the baggage ribs at all & before they
mention installing the F715 seat ribs, which must be curved by the
builder, have centerlines drawn on their bottom flanges (not
prepunched), & be match drilled to the belly skin. My revision of dwg
shows the control stick walking beam assy to the spar with bolts
oriented in a fashion that cannot be achieved under the current laws of
physics. When I called about that, the tech guy had different
orientation for some of the bolts, on his dwg with the same revision
date. Excuse: 'Well, sometimes minor changes are made without changing
the rev date/number.' His 1st suggested change also could not be
achieved under the current laws of physics. The final result was
basically, 'assemble it however you can to get it to work.'
I've lost count of the number of times I've called the tech guys at
Van's to politely question or point out this kind of stuff & asked
repeatedly why they don't offer a section of the website with
corrections & updates. They are usually courteous, but I invariably get
various lame excuses like 'you should read ahead', you should know how
it's done', 'well, when we built the prototype, we didn't have the
instructions', etc etc etc. Sometimes they say they will bring up the
issue 'at a staff meeting' but rarely if ever do they act like the
issues are any big deal. Never is there any feedback or encouragement to
continue reporting this stuff & with a single exception (defective AL
bar stock) never an admission that others have had the same issue.
Ok, rant mode off.
Question: should I care which way the F716 bolts are oriented (currently
head forward, nut/washer on rib) or the F633 bolts (currently head on
F633)? The belly skin rivets under the F716 bolts will be less
convenient to drive, but still 'doable'.
Suggestion:
We all take advantage of Matt's wiki to add a section for each model &
sub sections for each assy or part that we have problems understanding
or that are obvious errors/inconsistencies. The entries should document
the plan revision date and/or the instruction revision date. This should
help us all by consolidating records of problem areas, something Van's
is obviously unwilling to do.
Is this a worthwhile suggestion?
(Again, koolaid drinkers please don't reply.)
Thanks,
Charlie
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