Vans was a joy to work with during my 1992-2000 RV-6 build. $ 10,000 for the whole kit was a deal even without prepunched parts back then. I truly hope they emerge from chapter 11 because aviation needs Van.

I ordered RV8 EMP + wings + fuselage . New prices are 34% up . I paied the deposit, and probably will accept the new terms. I love too much Vans to give up . Good luck to all Vans builders .

Best of luck with your project. I hope Vans comes through all this in good shape.

Ken & Melissa thank you for the informative update. Sending good vibes and energy to all builders and Van’s Aircraft staff. Life is all about growing and evolving, learning from mistakes made moving on looking forward to the future while making changes and living in the moment.

There will be kit builders that will sell their unfinished planes and walk away. The delays and increased cost to finish is unknown, and Vans needs to communicate more frequently to salvage its customer base.

I feel your pain - well, mostly anyway. I don't have LCP in a QB kit but I do have LCPs, deposits on my finishing kit and engine as well as open parts orders. The worst for me though is I have a kit that I made full payment on in August that hasn't shipped yet. Since Vans gets no cash for this kit, I may have to wait a very, very long time to get it. Every new order will jump ahead of me. I'm OK paying more for the things I've made deposits on. But, I don't want my fully paid fuselage kit to be on hold indefinitely. Hang in there guys! We'll all get through this eventually and it will be worth it! Can't wait for the day I see you two in your finished RV-14 :-)

Excellent points, and I agree with everything you said. Congratulations to both of you, the baby is adorable. I’m hoping that things improve for them and no games are played with Lycoming on the engine prices or the existing deposits . Unlike Vans, lycoming did raise prices immensely over the last couple of years. That’s all I’m waiting for at this point. I have everything else.

All drama aside, it’s cool to have seen the plane come along as well as the family haha. Congrats.

I’ve fallen in love with the RV-10, and I wish I had the opportunity to build one years ago. It’s sad hear about the lead times and increased prices; things are getting much more expensive these days and I don’t think my income has been inflated on the same level. 😅

I think it’s very unlikely that engine or prop deposits/purchases will be adversely affected. Most of the cost is incurred by Lycoming and the prop maker. Everything else (like my finishing kit) will see an increase. The question is how much. Vans will do their best to minimize the pain. They may have made some bad business decisions, but they’re good people.

Chapter 11 is good for Van's because they have no obligation to individual builders regarding how they apply the deposits. Hopefully it is good for the collective community of builders because by using deposits in hand to improve the production cost effectiveness, all will be better. But, it can never be considered positive for a builder to have his deposit held at ransom as prices increase. The key question is how much the price increases are. Don't expect the price increase to be published quickly since the price increase must be approved by the court. Van's attorneys will spend an extended time developing a proposal that is likely to be approved by the court and the attorneys and the court don't really care about home builders. Their objective is to comply with the case law regarding bankruptcy.

Whoa 😮

Folks this is in bankruptcy court. Vans can't do anything without the court's approval. Thanks for the like. I was researching the chapter 11 statutes, to see how customer deposits qualified, because they are a short-term liability on the balance sheet. I could not find a statute in my research that addressed how the customers with deposits will be treated. I will be anxious to see if all those customers with deposits will be joining the creditor meetings during the bankruptcy proceedings.

I believe this is just the beginning of companies going under. People have stopped spending. How many people have tightened their budgets??? Airplanes are probably not high on the priority list. I hope Vans gets through this. I just heard Harley Davidson is in financial trouble as well.

33% price increases are expected. Basically they will keep your deposit and wash it out with a price increase. Nice that you’re keeping a good attitude.

The big question is how much will the price increase be? If 10%, not much of a big deal. If the price triples, it will be a much bigger deal & some builders may be forced to walk away from their deposit.

Glad I dont have a plane in progress. They clearly said the prices are invreasing, if you goy bad laser cut kits they sound like they are leaving you high and dry.

For some builders, this experience will be their most in-depth exposure to the American legal system. It isn't about fairness or right & wrong. It is about inane rules & procedures.

I'm want to buy the RV-15, but under new terms that will protect the money sent to Vans. They will need to provide such protections to customers if they expect to sale any kits to new customers. Without customer protections their customer base will disappear overnight. Building a plane is expensive and a high risk investment especially when they declare Chapter 11. If I were to purchase a kit, it would be for the complete kit and not in piece fashion, for delivery of all the parts of the kit for a single order. I'm amazed that Vans did not see the financial problem well in advance, and make corrections. I question why they went to Air Adventure last summer under financial pressure and the laser parts problems. That showed a big weakness in their accounting department, and their upper management. The RV14, RV15 and the RV12 are the best products that can save the company, and Vans needs to stop selling kits that have low volume of sales. The lead times for kits need to be shorter. This would reduce inventory levels for parts, and simplify part production, and reduce time for kit delivery time. Hope Chapter 11 will force them to make hard decisions how to scale back and streamline the company.

Get ready to fork out more $$$$, alot 😅

Hopefully the economy doesn’t tank in 2024

As I understand it, Chapter 11 isn't really bankruptcy, it a facility for a company experiencing financial difficulties to rearrange its affairs. I'm sure Vans will survive.

I believe the engine deposit and price is held with Lycoming not vans. All vans does is negotiate a price with Lycoming and pass that to the customer

DIS GUSTING

It's gonna get alot worse...chapter 11, inferior OVERSEAS parts..Jim Bede once again..

Tragic they have let so many down!🤮 They didn’t just one day say ….hey we are in financial trouble, they took money of customers full knowing g they were going down the toilet!😂 Vans have done irreparable damage to their business, trust is over!🤮

You signed a contract with them and they should honor that! The reason the owners of van have the money to loan to their own company is the large profit they made above wages they made while working at their company. Do you think they will pay you back if they get more profit then needed? They need to keep the profit margin down, especially for those of you that ordered kits in the past. They sold the kits in the past, paid for materials and wages and building and tooling, and after their wages they took the profits and put them in their bank so that they could loan it to themself s. When the oil companies do this and car companies do this their profits are theirs and losses are ours as the government (us) pays for their loses to keep them going. They need to eat their losses if they are going to keep excess profits. How much will they give you back when they get out of their hole they created by trying to make more profit by out sourcing parts? They made mistakes when trying to make more profit and they need to pay for their mistakes!

Don't believe anything anyone at the company says. Sad but true.

It will be a hard, damaging landing for all concerned. So, any landing that one can walk away from is a good landing? In this case, I think not