Wow! Well...so much for being a prolific blogger... Almost 2 months since my last post. Well, I've been busy with the holidays, preparing for my next endeavor and, quite honestly, I forgot that I had started the blog.
I mentioned next endeavor. I currently fly an experimental airplane. Egads...experimental... Yes, someone built this beauty by hand - it's a Vans RV-7A:
When I purchased this plane, the idea of building one had intrigued me, but I was really unsure of whether building one was really something I truly wanted to do. I figured if I purchased one, and had no desire to build, then I would know the answer. Owning this plane has done nothing but increase my desire to build.
One doesn't enter into this project lightly or without a lot of thought - or without the compliance of their significant other. This is a huge undertaking. Times vary but I would say the average man-hours required for the plane we will build is 2,300-2,500ish. Depending on time dedicated to the process, we are talking years here. Tonya - my significant other - is on-board; if not as on-board as I am... The bottom line with this is that I just would not begin this project if she was truly against it. It is just too much time devoted to plugging away in the garage and far too much $$$ to proceed if she was against the idea. Plus, there are times when I will need the extra hands and assistance. WE will build this plane.
I will stick with the same company - Vans - who, with approximately 8,300 planes out there flying, is probably the most well-known kit airplane company in the world. What this means - especially for a neophyte builder - is that the kits are extremely standardized and well developed. And, more importantly, there is a huge community of builders out there, so one can fairly easily draw from a collective knowledge bank. The plane we will build is the RV-10. Unlike our current model, which is a 2-place, aerobatic plane, the RV-10 is a 4-place, non-aerobatic model. The aerobatic deal just doesn't trip my trigger to be honest. I enjoy cross-country flying and using the plane for travel purposes. Our current plane does fine with Tonya, me, and baggage in the back; or with Tonya, me, and our special cargo in the back; but not special cargo and baggage - hence the desire for more space. The special cargo...:
Currently, it's either take Katniss (yes, from the Hunger Games. She was a rescue who was named by her foster family. When we adopted her, we decided to keep the name since she was already responding to it) for day trips only, or take over-nights without her. Since we do not enjoy leaving without her, we decided to build the 4-place RV-10:
The past couple months I have been cleaning out the garage, selling the junk on craigslist, and getting the garage ready to become an airplane factory. The latter entailed building several work benches:
a downdraft painting table (you can google that one):
installing better lighting:
and piecing together the required tools - both bench-top and aircraft-specific hand-tools:
The result is a garage that is about ready to become an airplane factory:
So, that's where the last few months have gone. I will be ordering the first part of the kit (the empennage) next week. I will be attending a metal workshop over the MLK weekend to gain some knowledge and begin practicing my skills with some practice projects before starting on the plane. I was going to post some pics of a flight over the holidays to visit family, but this post has already gotten out of hand, so that one will have to be a follow up...
