Extra costs when building a kit

[Thirsty]

Hi All,

 

I'm thinking about the future when I intend to build a kit LSA and was wondering what the extra costs are above and beyond the actual aircraft/engine. What I mean is extras like inspections/registration/painting etc. For example if I were to paint an all metal plane myself what sort of costs are there for the primer/paint etc.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Tony

 

 

[crashley]

Hi paint anything from $500 home job to $15000 full shop job with lots of graphics, rego $220 , inspection depends on the inspector

 

 

[dazza 38]

Hi Thirsty, depending on Kit, there can be alot of extras.Things like, upholstery, seat belts , avionics.Glues, rivets, fabric etc etc.Have a realy good look at the fine print of what you are actualy getting included in the kit.Some kits are very complete, with not much extra to buy.Vans RV 12 i think is very complete.Savannah as well,i think .

 

 

[Thirsty]

Thanks guys. So what inspections are required when building a kit? I'm guessing RAAus inspectors do these?

 

Looking around the kit that has caught my eye is the CH650 from Zenith. Seems to be very reasonably priced and seems fairly complete.

 

 

[old man emu]

Don't forget to allow for the purchase of tools and sundries that you'll need.

 

If you are building a sheet metal airplane, you'll need Number Drills, and a variable speed drill to use them; a deburring tool; possibly a dimpler, and temporary pins (Clekos). Then you'll need either a pneumatic pop rivet gun (and compressor) or a rivet gun, rivet hammer and bucking blocks. Good industrial earmuffs; plastic trays for storing rivets of various sizes.

 

If your airplane has fabric covering anywhere, you'll need dressmaker's scissors; a 12" needle, tapes and ribbing cord; glass bottles to hold glue and dope (start saving your Moccona jars). A laundry iron. A candy thermometer. Brushes.

 

It's wise to allow about 10% for wastage of materials (measure twice, think about cutting, measure twice again, then cut).

 

A coping saw, hacksaw, Dremel Tool with cutting attachment. Drill press. Plumb bobs, Spirit levels. Screwdrivers. Hole cutters. etc, etc ....

 

As you can see you need a lot of other stuff, which all adds to the cost of your build, before you even get near to needing inspections, registration, insurance etc.

 

And my advice:

 

Tell every naysayer to bvgger off, and full steam ahead into your build. Best of luck!

 

Old Man Emu

 

 

[rgmwa]

If you're importing a kit from the US you'll also need to factor in the exchange rate, air or sea freight, and customs charges, plus GST. I'm building an RV12, and without paint it will be up around $85-$90k (including $2k spent on tools). If the Aussie dollar holds up long enough against the $US, that might come down a bit - maybe $5k.

 

One advantage of the RV-12 is that because it is a very complete kit, you'll know up front how much you have to mortgage your house for.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[Thirsty]

Mortgage the house?? I don't think my wife will let me do that :) No, for me it's saving and maybe selling a motorbike or two!

 

I understand what you say about all the extra tools etc as well. The main reason I bought this up was that I had a quote from Jabiru and in that quote was a statement to allow $15K over the cost of the kit/engine etc for other stuff like inspections/registration/painting/upholstery and so on. Well I'll be doing virtually everything myself without paying someone else so I thought that figure seemed a bit high.

 

 

[old man emu]

One other thing to consider is where you are going to build your airplane.

 

Will you have enough room at home, or will you have to rent premises?

 

OME

 

 

[Brett]

Probably close that figure they quoted,,,

 

 

[rgmwa]

$15k sounds a bit on the high side to me if you're prepared to do most of the work yourself. I think about half to two-thirds of that would probably cover it, but I guess their quote has to be a bit conservative to cover those who have most of the work done professionally.

 

I don't trust my painting skills enough (and value my health too much) to tackle the external painting, so I'm expecting that a simple two-colour scheme with decent quality paint is going to set me back at least another $6k-$8K. As for space, I'm building mine in a two car garage.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[maddogmorgan]

3 times your kit price is always a good guesstimate too...

 

 

[Thirsty]

3 times the kit price to complete including everything? Engine/instruments etc?

 

I guess I'll have to research some more and try to get to a final price.

 

Can someone enlighten me as to what inspections are required and by whom?

 

 

[maddogmorgan]

Yep works out pretty accurate most times... to give you an example of the costs involved: CH750 Complete Kit is about $20,000US at the moment by the time you get it here you'd be looking at around $28,000, plus a jab 3300 $16,000??? or thereabouts, plus avionics $10,000, plus paint etc and tools...but I can GUARANTEE it will be more than you first expected...

 

 

[Yenn]

If you are building LSA every bit of equipment will be specified by the kit producer. You will have a list of what they supply and have to price the difference.

 

I spent about $1000, for tools to build the RV4, over and above what I already had for general workshop use.

 

Painting can be very expensive, but it can also be cheap "and nasty" Upholstery is another area with wildly differing costs. You may just get some foam and cover it with canvas, or go mad with leather and fancy designs.

 

Of course if you are building other than LSA anything goes and you may be able to make big savings on instruments for example.

 

 

[Thirsty]

Is there a link to the requirements of LSA vs other methods? I know the AUF web site has links to the various CAO categories - is one of those LSA? It's a bit confusing :)

 

 

[rgmwa]

Thirsty,

 

Basically, LSA aircraft come in two flavours - S-LSA which is a light sport plane built by the aircraft manufacturer (eg. factory Jabs), and E-LSA, which you build yourself from a kit supplied by the manufacturer. Same plane, different builder. The E means Experimental.

 

In order for a manufacturer to sell E-LSA kits, they have to have built at least one factory aircraft and have it certified. When that's done, they can sell you a kit which you assemble. However, your kit has to match the factory aircraft in every detail. You can't deviate from the plans in any way until you have your plane inspected and declared airworthy. After that, you can modify it any way you like (but see note below). Seems strange to me, but that's the rule.

 

The other path is EAB (experimental amateur built), where you can build any aircraft from a kit or plans and modify it any way you like, including an LSA kit. You can even design your own plane if you want, and build it under the EAB rules. However you may not be able to fly it anywhere you want (eg. over built-up areas) if the inspector doesn't like look of the contraption you've put together.

 

Note: If your E-LSA aircraft kit is built and certificated as an LSA, your subsequent modifications must not take the plane outside the LSA performance and operating parameters. However, if your E-LSA kit is built as an EAB, you don't have that restriction.

 

rgmwa