Where are the instructions?

[Kerry Fores]

This is an age-old discussion. Sonex chose to use drawings to represent how its products are assembled. This began with the Sonex, which was intended to be scratch built. It has continued through all the models, but with less detail for the kit-built only models. You don't need a drawing that lofts the wing ribs if your ribs come preformed.

Each kit company decides how to present their product. Each builder adapts or finds a design they like that provides assembly instruction in the format they are comfortable with. Comparing plans to manuals is like comparing cars to trains. They seem like they do the same things, but they serve different purposes. As someone who has lived most of my life in engineering departments as a detailer/design detailer/technical writer/illustrator I would say each has its place. Blueprints can convey more information with a few lines--and few lines of text--than paragraphs of text in a manual can. If, however, you need to be told every time that a pilot hole is drilled with a #40 bit and that the final hole must be duburred, then you may not like using blueprints where the "how" is generally left unsaid.

This ongoing criticism that the plans are "backwards" is silly because the plans are designed to be used one page at a time, climbing each branch of the Drawing Tree. Or climbing multiple paths at once. I've told builders a million times, "Use one page at a time following the flow of the Drawing Tree. Do everything on one page, nothing more and nothing less, and then move on to the next drawing. If the plans being "backwards" is an issue, find plans that match your sense of what's right and build that airplane, but don't fill other people with doubts about building a design they've fallen in love with. When you decide to commit $40k and years of spare time to building a flying machine does it matter where in the stack a drawing is? Has a residential electrician every struggled to wire a house because the electric plan was in front of the interior elevations in a set of house plans? Lord, I hope not.

The day will come when builders will criticize kit planes that don't have a step-by-step video for their construction. Then they'll get stuck because the factory-applied Protex on the flap skin in the video is clear, but the part they received has white Protex. Or no Protex. "I think I've been sent the wrong part." Trust me, that happens.

Kerry Fores
Scratchbuilder
Sonex s/n 009, "Metal Illness"
AirVenture 2006 Plans Built Champion
Sonex Tech Support Manager
Kitplanes Magazine Contributing Editor

[Area 51%]

1) Pull the staples on the plans and reorder the plans the reverse of how they are sent to you. I have never seen something as absurd as page 1 of the plans or directions being the finished product and the last page being step 1.

I guess I had the advantage of a Waiex being my first build. The plans, their layout, and order all made perfect sense after a short examination. It didn't hurt I attended one of the last seminars that Sonex held.

I'm sure those of you who find the Sonex plans awkward have never started at the back of an aviation magazine and paged your way to the front.
You don't know what you're missing.

Wetting the left index finger to get a grip on my second Waiex build here @Area 51%

[dboeshaar]

Well! My kit is here, and fully inventoried. I'm amazed at the quality of packing and shipment of the entire airframe kit. I do have some back-order items, but all is here in the shipping invoice and no parts were damaged in shipping.

Thank you Sonex!

I'd also like to thank you all for your feedback on the question of a builder's manual. I'm more and more understanding the process I'm about to go through. Here are my 10 tips for the beginner builder:
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1. Organize the inventory. There are LOTS of small parts.
2. Start at the bottom of the assembly tree.
3. Pick a page and do the entire page before moving on.
4. Do not pick a page with a page below it until the entire sub-page is completed.
5. Mark the page as completed in the tree and move either vertically or horizontally as required.
6. Do NOT drive a single rivet until you have absolutely have to.
7. SonexBuilders.Net, Sonex tech support and You-Tube are your best friends. (But note that there can be bad advice in Youtube as well. Use care. The factory is the final authority.)
8. Follow the plans. There are aerospace engineers out there that can deviate from the plans. That is not me. I'm the New Guy!
9. Total build time does not include "head scratching time", but that is just as important.
10. Don't be afraid. If you screw up, order another part and move on. We all do this.

Thanks everyone!

Gung Ho!

(Gung = To work, Ho= in harmony)

Dkb