Kit quality & build time

Kit quality

In my (admittedly limited) experience, the component quality of the kit is very high indeed. My inspector, John Whelan, said of the trike that it was 'superbly engineered', and also commented on the leading edge to cross strut hinge as being 'one of the best he's seen'. You wanna see the size of the cross-struts on this baby!

Initially, I was unimpressed by the quality of the fibreglass components. Indeed, you will still find the odd little moan in my day to day build diary. When I raised this with Flylight, I was told that this is because the pod is supplied unfinished. Again, I was unimpressed, as I expected the kit to 'just bolt together', but accepted that I had little choice but to do the work. I now find there is a reason for all this....see below under build time.

Now the pod is actually in place, the quality of finish on the 'glass is much higher then I first thought, although there is still hand finishing to be done.

Build time

I was not aware that one of the requirements of a home build kit is that it must take the home builder 51% of the total time required. So if Air Creation take 50 hours to produce the Kit, it should take me longer then 50 hours to assemble it.

Now this is a very difficult thing to quantify. My experience over the years in rebuilding motors has probably given me an above average skill level in this kind of work (a plane is easier then a V8 rebuild - believe me!), and who is to say what is an 'average skill level'? I'd say the fairest thing would be to assume a very low level of mechanical competence as the yardstick by which to measure build time.

Compare and contrast this with (say) the Mainair Blade kit, which they supply as a 'quick build 40-hour kit' according to the adverts, and which comes with the wing pre-built. Clearly, they are kicking at a different set of goalposts, and I believe their machines are classed as factory built, and as such do not need to satisfy the 51% rule.

This is all very interesting (well, it was to me) but the point is that if Air Creation finished every little bit of the kit, it would be impossible to say that an average home builder would require more then 50% of the overall time to assemble the kit. When considered in this light, I far prefer having to do some finishing on fibreglass, then having to do major engineering work on trike or wing components. Get that wrong, and you are in a world of hurt (read: world of expense)!

Gossip

Just heard that a fellow Kiss builder, who shall remain nameless, fitted the upper beam (monopole) to the lower beam using the wrong bolt hole in the hinge (he used one of the holes which are just there to lighten the assembly). Once this pole is in place, it has to be drilled to take a security bolt. That hole is now in the wrong place, necessitating a new monopole being ordered. Guess who ran out to the garage on hearing about this and checked his own work again!

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Last Revised: 28 September, 2004