cdewey6969(at)yahoo.com
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 Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:38 pm Post subject: No Title |
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LONG LIVE THE LIGHTNING!!!!!!!!!!
--- Pete <pete(at)flylightning.net> wrote:
| Quote: | Let's put this into perspective just a bit. In 1989
I built a Van's RV 6.
I started the Kit (I think it was the 636th one
started) with the plans and
manuals Van provided. At that point in the
development of his company he
had been in business for close to 10 years and over
1000 kits were sold
between RV 3, 4, and 6. The plans I received were
poor and the instructions
were minimal at best. Now after 20 years Van's
manuals are pretty good.
Lightning has been offered as a kit for a little
over a year and a half.
Our manuals are far better than Van's were for my
RV-6. Those of us who
have had exposure to many kit builds will recognize
that the Lightning
manuals are better than most that are provided with
kits but not yet as good
as they will be.
The point I should make here is that the manuals are
more than adequate to
build the plane. It's been proven many times by
builders. It just requires
a bit more thought and initiative from the builders
than a manual that
instructs a builder on every little thing.
I do hope that we will be competitive with Vans and
become a bigger player
in the kit aircraft industry. It will not happen
overnight, though.
You can tell your buddy with the RV-7 that he should
be glad he was not
building an RV in the late 80's as I'm sure he would
have been baffled by
inaccurate plans and vague, sketchy directions with
no photos to help out.
We had to wait for the newsletter every other month
to clear up some of the
inaccuracies, then build the part over again with
the right dimensions.
I do take offense at your comment that there is no
"concentrated effort" to
improve the manual. I see the effort every day and
it is substantial on the
part of our one man product design, technical
writing, test flying, aircraft
construction, sales and marketing department. You
are way off base there.
You can see some of the effort in the seven new
manual sections completed in
January alone and posted on line with their revision
dates in the owners'
area.
As far as commitment to the buyer - I know for a
fact that our builders get
more help from Arion Aircraft and its dealers than
any other kit out there.
We don't set limited hours for technical assistance
like Vans or Sonex. We
answer the phone and email promptly. You have a
dealer right next door to
you where you can see Lightnings under construction
and Lightnings that are
completed. Take more advantage of that local
resource and change your
attitude that since the dealer is not as technically
educated as you are
that he can't advise you. The help is there, the
manual is all you need to
build a good aircraft. I know because I've built
great aircraft (including
a Vans) with a lot less.
And Bill, you might consider moderating your tone a
bit when you talk with
Chasity or Dana in our office. They may soon get to
the point of responding
in kind or hanging up on you as you do to them when
you don't get your way
immediately. As for wasting a weekend - I'm sure
you had plenty of other
areas you could work on or you could have seen first
hand how the elevator
horn goes together by calling or visiting your
dealer just a few miles away
from you.
As far as rudder stops - what kit are you looking
at? Rudder stops are
built into the rudder. Stop looking for something
in a book and look at the
airplane in front of you!
Pete Krotje
_____
From: owner-lightning-list-server(at)matronics.com
[mailto:owner-lightning-list-server(at)matronics.com]
On Behalf Of Sales Email
Account
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 9:56 PM
To: nick otterback; mark.stauffer1(at)gmail.com
Subject: The Lightning Builder's
Manual
Hi one and all,
First, I want to say that at least one at Arion got
the humor in the "secret
code phrase" post regarding the builder's manual.
That's a good thing.
However, this kit still lacks a concerted effort to
get the manual up to par
with the rest of the kit building providers out
there. The company's
emphasis on builder's assistance in the kit build
process takes much of the
fuss out of the build and that is just fine.
However, not everyone can
afford that route. Those of us who want to build or
who must build on our
own, don't have the benefit of the accumulated
experience the builder assist
program provides. The manual and tech support phone
calls are our only
recourse. I called Arion about an elevator control
horn install question on
Friday and there was not a single person available
because they all were in
an engine clinic. So, a wasted building weekend was
the result.
If the Lightning is to be a real success with the
kit building community, a
quality builder's manual has to be produced and
soon. Otherwise, problems
in the build process could very well start to become
a theme that will
negatively impact sales. I know that the company
wants to place a higher
priority on getting this done. I've been told that
several times. But,
lip service does not produce results. Commitment to
the builder/buyer does
and it helps everyone! The stand alone builder will
eventually dominate the
build process, in my view, and more Lightning sales
will result because of
that fact. Consequently, he/she deserves much more
consideration and
respect than is being provided right now.
I know that many of you on the "list" will find this
to be a very harsh
criticism of Arion. I am sorry that I may have
offended you and them, if
that is the case. However, I believe that this kit
has got the potential to
take a big chunk out of Van's market share. There
is a builder two hangars
down building an RV-7A and all he says when I
discuss a building issue with
him is you don't have plans and therefore you need a
really good builder's
manual. I don't have an adequate response to that
comment.
If the Lightning is going to really catch on with
those
=== message truncated ===
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