I wanted to post a bit about the clarity of the instructions in the kit. I’ve run across conflicting information (plan vs. instructions) clarity issues, and vagaries before. It never feels overwhelming, and always seems to conclude with me figuring out why something might be phrased differently in one are or left out of a certain drawing. Additionally, though, it’s also always an unneeded frustration, and can bring the project to an unexpected halt.
In the wings, I kept running into this bit here:
I’ve included the step from the start, so you can as well verify that the part highlighted in read is the first you hear of the baffle being attached to the spar. There isn’t even a note about attaching the brackets to the spar–which comes first.
Now, every night I read ahead in the instructions on my iPad. Take a look at this screenshot of the PDF instructions:
Alright, for some color decoding:
- Yellow are instructions that are not needed and have been removed because the fuel tank attach brackets are predrilled in the kit now.
- Orange is where you attach the bracket and baffle to the instructions in the first place.
- Red is that problematic piece of hold-over text that had me baffled–pun entirely intentional.
You can now see where that text came from, and why the baffle is on the spar. It seems this is a common theme–if you’re here because of my most recent video, you saw this a few times. Van’s has updated the production, done some additional work, and the instructions haven’t been completely reworked to match.
So is it a problem? I’ve heard a lot of griping–mostly from myself. But I don’t know that it’s a problem, per se. We’re here to problem solve, and build an airplane. Having instructions that are updated with each production modification, and then controlling the versions such that each kit gets the correct versions of the instructions likely adds more complexity than one would think. (Read: kit cost.)
I think if you’re building a plane, you need to be able to work through these things. If you’re building anything that takes years, dozens of plan sheets, and a book of instructions, you’re problem solving skill needs to be up to the task.
However, is it annoying? Certainly.
Good luck and keep building!
I ran into the exact same problem. Running these issues to ground is time consuming taking us away from the build. In today’s computer world there is no reason the build plans in the kit should not be up-to-date.
Great videos.
I’m literally having this exact same moment as we speak. I sat down at the computer to take a second look at your video to see if I could find clues. This blog post affirms my sanity. LOL
Obviously, the baffle needs to be attached at this point despite the lack of any instruction to do so. But, I wasn’t sure if they were to be bolted in place or if there’s a cleko size that would hold them. For me, this blog post is gold because my digital copy of the plans doesn’t include the old bits you’ve posted here. Thanks! – That Hippie Pilot