Talk me out of this.

I researched like you are doing, saved the money, acquired my ppc, saved a bunch more and built our plane in two years flat. It was not a fantasy or dream. It was a job, just like building our house and garage. I spent 2000 hours building it. Yes I worked a full time job with a wife and two children. It is not easy and you had best have a great marriage. Coming up on 25 yrs for us. I watched very little tv, stuck to the plans and kept it simple. That is $50,000 in labor($25/hr), so not bad for a 160 kt family hauler that I can do 99% of the work on myself. About 40-50% the cost of any new certified of like performance. I enjoyed some parts more than others. I did not build for fun, but I definitely fly for fun. I will not build another unless this one gets wrecked or I lose my medical. We drive 10 & 12 yr old vehicles with liability only. Our house cost less than our plane. We all spend on what is important to us and our family. Lay out your plans, stick to a family budget, make your decision and just do it. Yes cost, build time, weight, performance were as Van's advertised. One reason nearly 8,000 are flying. Enjoy. We sure are.
 
DaleB said:
I'm making progress toward making the garage into a usable work space. The floor has been prepped and epoxy painted - 2/3 of it, I'm having to jockey crap around since I can't just leave everything in teh driveway for a week. Tons of cleaning and organizing done. Old compressor given to my son, and my darling wife got me a new, quieter, higher flow rate one for my birthday. Wash tub going in tomorrow, I hope... we'll see what the plumber finds. In a couple of weeks it will be pretty much done; then I can see if it can be made workable through the winter with a simple kerosene heater or not. I've finished up a few long-languishing projects in the mean time, and have a few more to go. Little refinishing stuff, that sort of thing. It's been a big plus all the way around.

I think my lovely bride is getting used to the idea of building. We had a brief discussion this afternoon about the order of big projects. We're about to completely gut and remodel the master bath, and I know she wants the same done to the kitchen. I told her we'd do bathroom, airplane, kitchen. I can see the potential for a never ending stream of projects taking precedence. We'll just have to work on the order in which things get done. I'm not too concerned... waiting a year won't cause any major heartache. It's more time to research, learn, help others build, fly, build time, maybe work on an instrument rating.
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Can you tell me more about helping others? I've always wanted to, but I don't want to get in the way, and I don't have many skills. I've very handy (well sort of). Is there just grunt labor to be done or do I need to be accurate?
 
wabower said:
Conversely, I had no preconceived notions about building until I helped another guy do it for a few weekends. No mas.
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Entiendo. But I am already getting the bug for another aircraft. I'm deciding between certified (mooney or corvalis) or an RV-10. Unfortunately my work demands won't allow even a quickbuild so if I want and RV-10 I'll need help. I'll be watching the OP to see what he does.
 
The best situation I've seen is when a group has holds regularly-scheduled "building parties" at the hangar. You get to see a lot of what's involved in the process, even though your particular tasks might fall into the realm of the mundane. Somebody said that if you rivet two pieces of metal together, you'll touch each piece at least seven times before the rivets are bucked. It felt like 3x that number



kimberlyanne546 said:
Can you tell me more about helping others? I've always wanted to, but I don't want to get in the way, and I don't have many skills. I've very handy (well sort of). Is there just grunt labor to be done or do I need to be accurate?
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RV10flyer said:
I researched like you are doing, saved the money, acquired my ppc, saved a bunch more and built our plane in two years flat. It was not a fantasy or dream. It was a job, just like building our house and garage. I spent 2000 hours building it. Yes I worked a full time job with a wife and two children. It is not easy and you had best have a great marriage. Coming up on 25 yrs for us. I watched very little tv, stuck to the plans and kept it simple. That is $50,000 in labor($25/hr), so not bad for a 160 kt family hauler that I can do 99% of the work on myself. About 40-50% the cost of any new certified of like performance. I enjoyed some parts more than others. I did not build for fun, but I definitely fly for fun. I will not build another unless this one gets wrecked or I lose my medical. We drive 10 & 12 yr old vehicles with liability only. Our house cost less than our plane. We all spend on what is important to us and our family. Lay out your plans, stick to a family budget, make your decision and just do it. Yes cost, build time, weight, performance were as Van's advertised. One reason nearly 8,000 are flying. Enjoy. We sure are.
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+1....

Altho I might add.. I did modify my experimental a little...
www.haaspowerair.com

But... flying a plane you built ... for the first time... is a feeling like no other.:yes::yesnod::wink2:
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Can you tell me more about helping others? I've always wanted to, but I don't want to get in the way, and I don't have many skills. I've very handy (well sort of). Is there just grunt labor to be done or do I need to be accurate?
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Start by finding a local EAA chapter. I found mine and went to a meeting -- then joined. Great bunch of people. I've had my first ride in an RV-7 at the chapter's pot luck picnic a few weeks after I joined... what an awesome little plane! Flying with a stick was effortless, no problem at all transitioning from a yoke. And it would very happily climb at well over 1500 FPM with me (275#) and a not-very-skinny pilot, and the airplane didn't even feel like it was breaking a sweat. We were cruising at 170kt, and the throttle still had some travel left.

But back to your question. I'm still looking for an opportunity to help with a build. I just took over the chapter web site, so I'll be talking to a lot of the members over the next few weeks. As for not knowing what you're doing -- well, not that long ago you didn't know how to fly either, did you? All it took was some time and effort, and you learned to do it pretty well, from what I hear.

:)
 
DaleB said:
Start by finding a local EAA chapter. I found mine and went to a meeting -- then joined. Great bunch of people. I've had my first ride in an RV-7 at the chapter's pot luck picnic a few weeks after I joined... what an awesome little plane! Flying with a stick was effortless, no problem at all transitioning from a yoke. And it would very happily climb at well over 1500 FPM with me (275#) and a not-very-skinny pilot, and the airplane didn't even feel like it was breaking a sweat. We were cruising at 170kt, and the throttle still had some travel left.

But back to your question. I'm still looking for an opportunity to help with a build. I just took over the chapter web site, so I'll be talking to a lot of the members over the next few weeks. As for not knowing what you're doing -- well, not that long ago you didn't know how to fly either, did you? All it took was some time and effort, and you learned to do it pretty well, from what I hear.

:)
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LOL thanks but you must not be up to date since in another thread a POA'er said I probably ended up in Arkansas.

Anyhow, I did join an EAA (chapter and national) and I even did Young Eagles. The meetings are REALLY far away from me (about 2 hours at worst, each way, in rush hour) so that is a big issue. Also, I thought I felt welcome but now I'm not sure. That was when I brought a guy with me (pilot or not) but when I go alone it is odd. Oh well perhaps I should switch chapters. Thing is, mine is a really big chapter with a lot of builders.
 
Kimberly, You just intimidate the guys. Hopefully they will warm up to you soon. If there is a smaller chapter nearby try that. If you ever get to Idaho you are welcome in my shop and I'll let you fly the Cub and the N3N. Remember girls can do just about anything a guy can. Don
 
Kimberly, I'm still groping my way around. I've been to two meetings, taken over as the new "web guy", and have talked to a few guys whose airplanes are done. I'll be contacting all of the builders with projects in progress so I can get the web site up to date. While doing that, I'm going to see if any need (or will allow) some help.
 
Sounds to me like a great strategy. Being able to observe numerous projects in your "web-guy" job is worth more than beating dimples or pounding rivets on a single build.

DaleB said:
Kimberly, I'm still groping my way around. I've been to two meetings, taken over as the new "web guy", and have talked to a few guys whose airplanes are done. I'll be contacting all of the builders with projects in progress so I can get the web site up to date. While doing that, I'm going to see if any need (or will allow) some help.
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I wasn't too impressed with my local EAA chapter. Just seems like they've had a lot of turmoil reading their monthly newsletters and they sure weren't very welcoming when I flew into their picnic.

I found it odd that a chapter's annual picnic would have no experimental aircraft there. The only one mine. And not a single person bothered to greet me out of the hundred or so there.
 
Really? You need to come on down and meet Chapter 80. Second Monday of every month, 7 PM at the KMLE main hangar. Great bunch of people, visitors very welcome, and they're always happy to gawk at someone's project.

Lisa and I went to the annual picnic down in Plattsmouth. RVs, Glastars, a Super Decathlon, Tri-Pacer, Stearman, and there was an Arrow and a couple of 172s as well.
 
jesse said:
I wasn't too impressed with my local EAA chapter. Just seems like they've had a lot of turmoil reading their monthly newsletters and they sure weren't very welcoming when I flew into their picnic.

I found it odd that a chapter's annual picnic would have no experimental aircraft there. The only one mine. And not a single person bothered to greet me out of the hundred or so there.
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That is crazy, I know my chapter would surround a plane and check it out.

But yeah, I know what you mean. The last time I went to a meeting, I arrived after everyone had already sat down to dinner. So I stood there in the doorway to the dinner hall and I sort of scanned the room for people I knew. I only found one (don't really know him), the president, but there were no seats by him.

And even though I made the effort to go over and say hello to him and that table, they were busy so I kind of left and came back after dinner - not wanting to sit in the corner or something all by myself. I'm kind of shy when I don't know people.

My chapter meets for dinner and then has a meeting but I work so far away it takes almost 2 hours to drive there so I often arrive after dinner has already started. At only $5 it is a steal though. I don't think there are many chapters closer to me, most will be about 1-2 hours' drive in rush hour traffic. This is largely because I only get 1-3 exits on the freeway in 30 minutes at 5pm (stop and go).
 
Oh and I forgot to mention there is one chapter closer to me but I've been advised against joining by a guy I know and trust. Long story there.
 
I decided to give it another shot.

Here is what I did:

1. Went to EAA "chapter finder" website

2. Wrote down all the places with names I know might be near me.

3. Created a list to search how far away each one is and when their monthly meetings take place


There are 11 locations that, according to Google, are 1 hour and 10 minutes away from me (or less). Two are out so I'm down to 9.

Without using Google, and just the links on EAA, only a few list the meeting times and location. The rest I've emailed the links on the sites which appear to go to a generic address I may never hear back from.

I will try to go to the 9 meetings over the next year or two and see if any are interesting. There are EAA chapters, Aerobatic chapters, and vintage chapters. Some meet in museums, restaurants, or even the hangars of famous air show performers.

Kimberly
 
I think a lot of chapters either don't bother to have a web site, or have something that someone tossed up at some point and doesn't get maintained. I have seen a couple that have sites that look like they actually care -- but I suspect most of the people care about flying and building, but not web sites. I can understand that. But -- I can also understand that if a chapter doesn't make it easy for interested new members to find them, it's going to dwindle away. Given the rate at which people are getting old enough to lose medicals and quit flying, that's going to be a problem for quite a few chapters, I suspect.

But hey -- the median age of the crowd at my EAA chapter meeting is still probably lower than that of the local ham radio club.
 
DaleB said:
I think a lot of chapters either don't bother to have a web site, or have something that someone tossed up at some point and doesn't get maintained. I have seen a couple that have sites that look like they actually care -- but I suspect most of the people care about flying and building, but not web sites. I can understand that. But -- I can also understand that if a chapter doesn't make it easy for interested new members to find them, it's going to dwindle away. Given the rate at which people are getting old enough to lose medicals and quit flying, that's going to be a problem for quite a few chapters, I suspect.

But hey -- the median age of the crowd at my EAA chapter meeting is still probably lower than that of the local ham radio club.
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I used Google instead and so far I am finding websites. The EAA has sub-sites but I got a mailer daemon and called the guy listed, got his wife, and they had moved across the country. She told me they have a young man and a real site, I used Google, and voila. The EAA only links to internal EAA sites which all look the same and have outdated info. When you use google you can see the real thing.

I've already found two I like (but I do love Skypark).
 
DaleB said:
But hey -- the median age of the crowd at my EAA chapter meeting is still probably lower than that of the local ham radio club.
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Heh. That's because you don't need a medical to operate a radio. ;) Both groups are deaf, for different reasons. ;)
 
I need to clone myself. So far three of these 9 meet on the second Tuesday of the month. Argh. That will take until January and how much do you want to bet the other 6 meet on Tuesdays?
 
PS - How many sons do you have, how old are they, where do they live, and can you send a picture?
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
PS - How many sons do you have, how old are they, where do they live, and can you send a picture?
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:D Four of them. Of the four, three live around here (Omaha) and one is out near Camp Pendleton. Two of the ones here are single; one is 27 and the other is 23. They're all good looking, they must have come by that quite by accident.
 
DaleB said:
:D Four of them. Of the four, three live around here (Omaha) and one is out near Camp Pendleton. Two of the ones here are single; one is 27 and the other is 23. They're all good looking, they must have come by that quite by accident.
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Have you ever heard a parent call their own child "ugly" though?

I am 33 you realize.
 
No, I'm not 93. I'm way older than that. :) And yes, that's a zipline... fortunately they let the really old guys do that still. I've thought about renting myself out as a stress tester for ziplines.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Age is just a number.

(Except when it comes to your sons)
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Meh. Five years difference (I was off by a year) isn't much, and every year it gets to be less. But you're spoken for, last I heard -- just make one of your clones a couple of years younger and we're all set.
 
I didn't read the whole thread, but my advice is to just build a scratch built or buy a project and rebuild it! You will know every inch if the plane and have a personal connection with it. Scratch building you can buy the parts as you need them (or as you can afford them) who cares if it takes 6 years or more. The journey will teach you more than anything else


-VanDy
 
EAA chapters vary greatly. Some are hard core builders and flyers, some are more social and a lot are a bunch of dreamers but everything starts with a dream. Find the right chapter and it can be a huge help if you decide to build. It takes a huge amount of dedication to build your own airplane but believe me there is nothing like flying an airplane that you built for the first time.
Dale, Another airplane you might like is a Glassstar 2+2. It is a great kit with good instructions and support and is easy to build. Also a great flying airplane that has great short field capabilities and still has a cruise in the 150kt+ range. Also a big cockpit for us larger than average guys with lots of useful load. I helped a friend build one and I've flown it quite a bit. Don
 
VanDy said:
I didn't read the whole thread, but my advice is to just build a scratch built or buy a project and rebuild it! You will know every inch if the plane and have a personal connection with it. Scratch building you can buy the parts as you need them (or as you can afford them) who cares if it takes 6 years or more. The journey will teach you more than anything else.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the input -- but as Clint would say, a man's got to know his limitations. I can build, but the idea of fabricating all of my own bits and pieces-parts doesn't give me a big thrill. I've seen and done the process up close, on a smaller scale. My father and I built a whoooole lot of R/C airplanes, most of them his designs, and all of those built completely from scratch. It was indeed a very instructive process, and I learned a lot about airfoils, CG, dihedral, washout, rudder offset, thrust angle, weight & balance, the whole thing. I'm not dedicated enough to build a full sized airplane from scratch. I'm sure that even then someone would think I'm a lightweight for not finding my own bauxite and refining the aluminum, or laminating my own plywood. :)

As for who cares if it takes six (or ten, or twenty) years... well, I do, for sure. I'm not looking at building as an end unto itself, it's a means to an end.
 
Sigh...

After all this time, and ten pages of this thread, all I can say is...

Epic fail.

:D

 
denverpilot said:
What, that we didn't talk you out of it, or that you haven't started building yet? ;)
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Don't distract me, I'm trying to pick out a registration number to reserve. Something catchy, easy to recognize when ATC calls.
 
DaleB said:
Don't distract me, I'm trying to pick out a registration number to reserve. Something catchy, easy to recognize when ATC calls.
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Well Nick's old N number may help inspire: N999NN
 
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