800 hours / 18 months

[WiVM]

Hi,

I noticed that the factory is giving 1000 hours or 18 month as average build time. Even 200 hours less with quick build wings. Looking at the builder websites, this looks VERY optimistic: 800 hours / 18 months = 44,5 hour per month = 11 hours per week.

How realistic is that build time given by the factory? I am talking about a 7 STi with Rotax engine. No fancy (time consuming) modifications.

Thanks

[Esser]

There are lots of people who do it in that time frame. Ross did his in about that time. Scott N was about a year and there are lots of guys like Cherry Bark, Jeremy, and Eddie who are in-line for about 2 years.

I’m 6 years in with whole periods of a year where I didn’t touch the plane. I’m probably a couple hundred hours over the average however my FWF is completely different than the kitfox instructions which ads time (EFI, dual alternator, Intercooler, ect)

I would say 1200 hours for a first time builder. Others will chime in

[aviator79]

I'm not far enough along to have an authoritative word, but I would say that 1000-1200 hours if you ordered Quick Build wings is more reasonable. 18 months is reasonable as well. However, what is "reasonable", "average" and "typical" are three different things. I would say that the average and median build times are considerably longer than 18 months. While it is probably on the optimistic side, enough people have done it that it's certainly not unreasonable.

[jiott]

I think a lot has to do with how you log your time. Many folks estimate from memory after several days and only consider time "actually working". Me being a detail oriented engineer logged my time accurately starting from the time I stepped into the shop, until I left after all cleanup and tools put away. I even logged time spent reading the manual and planning the next steps. My total time doing it this way was a little over 2000 hours, for a first time build.

[jiott]

To further clarify, I did not use quick build anything or any prefab parts.

[WiVM]

At OSH I generally hear people saying "at least double the time the kit manufacturer says". Being aware that it all come down on how much time someone can spend on it every day/week/month, I just want to do a reality check with those numbers, so I know were I get myself into. A lot of kitplanes are never finished. It is not an exact science, more a guideline. I come from a RV background were there are amazingly boring stages in the build. The wings or the fuel tanks to just give two examples. That kit requires a lot of preparation of mental sheets: drill, debur, countersync, dimple, prime, ... while the actual building, meaning putting things together so the final rivets can go in, it rather limited. It takes time before people who are not building see that it actually becomes an aircraft. Not always very motivating for the builder. To my feeling this kit is different in that way that you see quicker and more consistent progress because you don't do all this boring preparations on metal sheets. I think this helps a lot to motivate to continue...