I am located in Australia, in the same state as the factory so the advice here may not be as suitable for you if you happen to live on the other side of the world. So bear with me.
If you can work out all the details of the instruction manuals you may not need advice about stuff from the manufacturers. If you are a mere mortal like me you will have lots of times you need help and the factory will be the only ones who can supply the help. I will get specific about the instruction manuals later.
The Jabiru Manuals were very poor when I built my aircraft. They have now completely upgraded the manuals and made them available on their website. So the same problems should not arise now.
My advice: Get acquainted with the Jabiru staff - Don’t hesitate when you have a problem to ring them. After all you have paid a huge amount of money for the kit. If you don’t ring them ( a lot) they won’t upgrade the manuals or change things for our later fellow builders. I got to the point where I felt embarrassed at having to continually ring them about stuff not covered in the manual, and tried to solve some issues myself but in the end wasted so much time and had to ring them anyway.
Unfortunately the time you need them is likely to be when you can’t get them (nights and weekends)
Hints about phoning:
The staff always took lunch breaks between 12 and 1 pm. (Eastern Australian Standard Time (GMT + 10 hours)) They were uncontactable then even though it was often the only time I could actually phone or be contactable. Same with "smoko" time. (Roughly 10 am (00.00 GMT) Their reply/response rate to messages left was variable.
Emails:
As first method of contact I found it a waste of time to send an email without a phone call. I followed up primary emails days later only to have the person I was speaking to open it for the first time as I spoke to them. Call first and then send stuff by email if needed. Follow up the emails with a phone call to make sure they got them.
Feedback :
The Jabiru guys actively ask builders to give them feedback. It is to everyone's benefit if you do. Write down all your problems with the kit, the build and the instructions and make a point of sending it in. I spoke with one of the guys there and he said they ask people to do this but everyone forgets or when they get near the end they just want to go flying and don’t bother.
