Quality of Aircraft Tools for Homebuilt Aircraft

I want to share some thoughts on the quality of homebuilt aircraft tool kits.

There have been several suppliers over the years that have entrenched their names in the minds of builders. These aircraft builders have become the experts that new kit builders rely upon for advise. This is particularly true in the Van's RV Aircraft world. For many of these former builders there is no alternative to the tool kits and tools they used when building their RV airplane.

This could be true if the older aircraft tool suppliers were the only ones that offered their own branded product. The fact is that the old tool suppliers, for the most part, sell the same exact tools as the new suppliers. Each aircraft tool company may have a specialty item or two, but there are only a few manufacturers of rivet guns, pneumatic drills, rivet squeezers, dimple dies, tin snips and most other tools contained in the tool kit.

Occassionally a new product comes along that is a big hit with RV builders. This is the case for the ExperimentalAero DRDT-2 Dimpler (see the web link in the title above). This new dash 2 dimpler makes professional quality dimples consistently. The DRDT-2 has a reasonable price tag and is in very high demand by RV aircraft builders. I have seen several posts on the RV web spots where former builders just cannot see how this tool can replace their conventional hammer operated C-Frame riveter and dimpler.

The piece of the puzzle the experienced builders are missing is competition. In a competitive market a company provides an equal or better product at a lower price. The way they do this is by having a lower cost. This can be by quantity purchases, lower overhead, lower operating cost and other factors that improve their competitive position.

A new competitor will also offer quick delivery and service after the sale if a customer has a problem. In a tough market like Van's RV aircraf tools it is critical for a company to offer service beyond the sale. RV builder's talk a lot! With over 8,000 RV aircraft kits out there they have websites devoted to people building RV aircraft.

When a homebuilt aircraft kit builder is looking for a quality aircraft tool kit look carefully at the price and the tools provided in the kit. RV builders are finding that they get the same or better quality at a lower price by looking at the latest tool kit options, versus the old companies.