my guitar case hinges have rivets and I have broken drill bits and whatever you call that punch, they break in half... you can't drill a round surface everything. just slips right off, been working this for weeks now...
To emerge as a profitable company allows you to pay your creditors in full. Not 55%. Without making creditors whole leaves your name tarnished. I will have paid $15,750 for which I received nothing. Not to mention the time building a tail that’s now worthless. This is not great news for me, so spare me your exuberant enthusiasm. You must know this feeling is prevalent since you left the comment turned off on the restructure approval video.
Good to see that Vans might have a future yet. BUT let’s not forget how they destroyed their own trustworthiness, ruined many a customers long life dream, bare that in mind when you outlay a fortune! There’s a saying…..I forgive but I’ll never forget!
They ran out of money. Every company that goes into chapter 11 short changes creditors for a time. Hopefully things will go back to normal and vendors will be back to getting paid in full. Would you have preferred that they paid off more to their vendors (but certainly not all) and went bankrupt and then their vendors would have lost all future business? Or are you just angry that the money fairies didn’t descend from heaven and pay everyone with magic dust?
They can still recover from bankruptcy without not paying their vendors. Those vendors worked hard making parts in good faith. How you you like it if you got paid half for months of work already produced. They will not receive full payment on services rendered. It’s not the vendor’s fault of Van’s poor management.
@@johnwalters878 no I wouldn't like it and yes they delivered in good faith and no it's not their fault it is Vans' bad management and some poor engineering decisions. But vendors getting temporarily stiffed is the lessor of 2 evils. If they don't manage their finances and get back on a stable footing and continue on a very disciplined path they will fail - this has already been proven . It's only by cutting staff and getting a lifeline from Van himself and chapter 11 protection that they survived. It's ugly, no doubt. But the important thing is that they survive and this is in the vendor's interest too. I'm not sure why you think they can pay everyone off if they just came within a hair of failing. Usually when companies file for chapter 11 it is the end, so we should be glad that they are continuing and will hopefully be able to put this behind them as will the vendors, who will be able to continue doing business. I suspect without Vans some these vendors would shut down permanently as well.
Refreshing to see Vans doing such a professional job with their reorganization. As a Vans aircraft owner I find this integrity reinforces my faith in my aircraft and the company.
The aviation community needs VANS and other experimental companies to exist. I'm happy to hear how things are going forward and appear to be getting back on track. I look forward to receiving the updated parts for my RV-10 build.
I recently started monitoring Flightradar24 here in Las Cruces, NM. Starting 2 days ago three of your airplanes started buzzing the area. I live out near the airport and I hear them right now. They are 4, 6. and 8.
Again, great update Greg. Thank you! Finally received my engine build update. Thank you for the work and thank the van’s team for their hard work and effort to come out of ch. 11.
Haha. Cause rotax is a significantly larger company with deep pockets. Lycoming I imagine is very profitable - if you can’t be profitable with a several year waitlist…. Partial takeback. Textron appears to own lycoming. And they are bigger than Bombadier. I’d guess BRP makes more engines annually in total (not sure what percent are aviation engines)….
Lycoming engines 2 years out. If the Japanese built these, they would be available later this afternoon. I could design and prototype an engine by then. I toured the Lycoming factory back in 1997 as part of their training program. Couldn't believe how much of the process was still done by hand such as watching workers screw the cylinder heads on with giant bars. They build 1920's engines with 1920's labor. As far as working/living in Portland area, does Antifa/BLM still own Portland?
Aurora (Vans Factory location) is 25 miles south of Portland. There are plenty of small rural towns around Aurora that are actually fine. But yeah, Portland...sheesh!
Is there a production path to ordering kits from 100% in-stock inventory, or do you expect manufacturing to remain as just-in-time manufacturing of orders from backlog?
Actually, we've never manufactured just in time, in the literal sense. The large backlog of production work has been a challenge for a few years and we are catching up, which means shorter lead times. Our production batches are intended to help ensure we can have kits ready to go for customers without building up a large inventory that sits. Mostly it's about ensuring the inventory is properly balanced and therefore ready to be packed and shipped. Good progress on that front.
If you use a palm drill it becomes like a extension of your pointer finger and becomes intuition to drill straight. I only use a battery power drill if I am somewhere I don’t have shop air access
Now I understand why Richard has not flown until 04/14 since .08/01 last year while we had good soaring days in Aug. I am glad you resumed flying. Thank you for your assessment about the weather which is the great info for me who flew at the same days.
Great video. The one thing I'd suggest that works well for me is to use a slightly undersized drill bit when drilling to pop off the factory head (ie: a #41 instead of #40, or #31 instead of #30). Then, the pin punch to snap off the head fits tighter and is more likely to work, having less play in the hole.
Vans is a class act! I appreciate the continued updates and look forward to seeing you come out the other side stronger than you've ever been! Keep up the hard work! (Would have posted this in today's video but comments are off 🙂)
If removing a nut plate rivet, you can grind the mushroomed part with a Dremel. Do not drill, that causes a lot of problems. There is no danger of harming the airplane-the steel of the nut plate is expendable. After removing the mushroom, the rivet pops out easily, with no damage to the structure.
With a cold water cut, the bed it is cut on, may have to be better supported ,for the aluminium parts (there is very little heat with laser cutting with water )
Think the guy drilling in the background could have stopped for a few minutes while the 3 minute video was being filmed? Or maybe do the video somewhere else than a noisy hangar?
None of what you're going through is easy, but I appreciate the transparency, integrity and professionalism of your ongoing work. It is truly admirable what you the leadership, and your teams are doing. You have a lot of people cheering you on.
Still hopefull to build a 14, 26 yeatr A&P here with 3 boys that love aviation. 2 are current new A&Ps with the third 15 year old wanting to fly commercially . I see a Plane or two in our future :) Keep moving forward !
