#1LK617C T minus 9 and counting

It is about 9 days give or take until my crate for kit #1LK617C is closed and awaiting my exploration. Although the original date for completion was January 15th 2018 I have decided to delay it a few days to make sure everything goes relatively smoothly.

One small hitch has been a few requests I have made before the crate leaves Progressive Aerodyne. It is common to be short shipped, missing and or back-ordered components in the kit-plane world. Kit #1LK617C consists of all of the necessary components to assemble the Hull, fuselage, electric retractable landing gear, flight surfaces, fuel tank, sliding canopies, seat belts.... (list is too long), to construct the basic aircraft. The engine will be a 914 Rotax turbocharged 4 cylinder 115hp 1200cc engine so I needed to order the special mounting kits for oil cooler, radiator engine etc on top of all that and it should come all nicely packed in the crate. The avionics and finish materials are much later in the build process. You basically need to build this aircraft in your head first, to suit the type of flying you are going to be doing or modifications you want to make, accessories that are a must and those that can be chucked in good faith for weight. Weight is another issue to deal with but I will get to that much later in my posts.

My world is automotive service and repair so the term "back-ordered" can be an extremely foreboding experience. I'm gonna get to this in the next paragraph just thinking that I hope someone from PA reads my post some day and realizes I'm not being an asshole about it. It was in the nature of the scorpion to sting the frog half way across the river drowning them both....

In the kit plane world "Back-ordered" means the crate comes short shipped a few items that are not ready from in-house or outside vendors and will be prepared, packaged and shipped to the customer when they become available in a timely promised fashion at not extra cost to the customer. These parts are used later on in the build process so the customer can expidite the assembly and increase the overall enjoyment factor.

In my world "back-ordered" means we might be screwed here. Thanks to the collapse of the automotive sector in 2008-2010 many manufacturers needed bailouts to keep going. Sure the juggernauts were given a gigantic mulligan on production but there were many companies that had to close the door, chapter 11 or used David Copperfields accountant and magically restructure.

Case example. 2009 Dodge Avenger won't shift out of first gear. Unless you are commuting to your neighbors only every day that is pretty much a parked car. The PCM and TCM (powertrain control module with transmission control module) are in the same FRED (f-ing ridiculous electronic device). Lets say the magic got out of the box. This is when a little puff of smoke escapes from a computer and it becomes a paperweight. The smoke is the little genie FRED that does all the math inside. These computers are no longer available. The used sector is becoming difficult to get and some computers are a write only once. That meaning it can only be used on one car and not re-written the VIN or necessary information to. Sure, there is a solution to everything, but at a cost.

I don't want back-ordered parts. I want a list of everything that must be backordered and be given the choice whether or not my escrow individual that will be inspecting the kit on my behalf hands over a shit ton of hard earned money. It is difficult enough to take on a multi year project. I don't even want to get into the statistics of completion by original purchasers..... A kit minus some landing gear, a main boom and an elevator is not completed.

If a sinkhole opened up under PA and swallowed the whole company and they decided to start selling floor mats I want to know when I open this crate there is 100 percent chance of assembly (minus a few hundred deliveries from Aircraft Spruce)

I do not think this is an unreasonable request.