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Message
Can you really build a RV-8 Quickbuild in 9 months while still holding a
full time job? When do you sleep!!!! How? (serious question)
How many hours do you think it will take?
Hi
Ken,
At first,
this sounds impossible, but on paper, it's quite reasonable. I've
built about 2.5 RV's so far, including a standard kit RV-8. I spent
1602 hours over 2.5 years building the earlier -8, but again, that was a
standard kit.
The new kit
is a QB, which is supposed to save 800-1000 hours. If it saves 800
hours, then I will only need 800 to get the plane flying (not painted, or with
fairings, etc). You can probably knock off another 100 hours due to
the fact that the new kits are so much better than the older ones. For
example, the empennage is all "match hole" construction now, which means you just cleco it
together on the workbench. All the steel parts are powder coated, which
saves me the time of painting all that stuff. I'll also save considerable
time staring at the plans, and debating options such as where to put the
antenna, ELT, headset jacks, etc. Having "been there, done that"
before, is a huge advantage. Van's also sells a FWF package now, that
has everything you need, including all the pre-made hoses. Not only
will this save the time of making the hoses, but it will save the time spent
shopping for these items, forgetting something, ordering the wrong part,
etc. That shopping time wasn't included in the earlier total, but the time
saved will now be available for actual building.
The other
advantage(?) is a change in vacation policy with Philips this year.
They now only allow you to carry over a small amount of saved vacation from one
year to the next, rather than the 6 weeks we used to be able to carry.
Since I'm maxed on vacation time, and accumulate it rapidly, I will need to take
8 weeks of vacation this year to keep from losing any time. I can easily
work on the plane 70 hours in a vacation week, so that's 560 hours right
there.
The real time
savings is the fact that I have no kids, or social life, and a wife who doesn't
pile up too many honey-do's.
As you see,
it's possible, but still optimistic.
Cheers,
Rusty (when
will this message arrive, instantly, or 2.5 days later)
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