builders' remorse?

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 21:05:44 GMT, "Ebby"
wrote:

For me it's both.

For me it's the journey (build) not the destination (the flight). Sometimes
I tell people I am going to do a Howard Hughes. Fly it once and sell it.
This type of project is a great source of pride learning the techniques of
welding, fabric, paint, wood ...well you builders know what I mean.

I build to save money although my project is not what any one would
call cheap or inexpensive. I build because I can not buy a
certificated plane with the same capabilities, and I build because I
like to build things and like others be able to say: I built that!


At the rate I build I can't see an end date so I'll just fly my Challenger
180 in the meantime and dream about flying the Hatz biplane.

Here my problem is when building I feel like I should be out flying to
keep proficient. When out flying I feel like I should be home
building so I can get "that thing" finished.:-))



Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Gene, that's a fascinating question. There's no doubt that anyone
taking on a building project has some sense of what building an
airplane is like, and thinks they like building. Do we learn anything
in the building process that might be useful to others who are
contemplating starting their own project? Did it seem easy and then you
hit a wall? Was it technically easy but tedious? After it was done, did
you hate the thought of building another one? Was there a moment, as
Scott so eloquently described it, where all the hard work was worth it?

On 24 Sep 2006 21:30:31 -0700, wrote:

Gene, that's a fascinating question. There's no doubt that anyone
taking on a building project has some sense of what building an
airplane is like, and thinks they like building. Do we learn anything
in the building process that might be useful to others who are
contemplating starting their own project? Did it seem easy and then you
hit a wall? Was it technically easy but tedious? After it was done, did
you hate the thought of building another one? Was there a moment, as
Scott so eloquently described it, where all the hard work was worth it?

Unlike Richard I'm building because there isn't a commercially made
aircraft that can do what the one I'm building can. OTOH I also enjoy
building and creating.

I have about 1300 hours in the project so far and every once in a
while I have one of those feelings of elation...but there are
sometimes interspersed with "am I ever going to get this part
finished" which would aptly describe doing the engine mount attach
point reinforcements. For the 6 reinforcements there are a total of 96
lay-ups.

I know when I finish installing the horizontal stab it will be one of
those moments. Doubly so as I also know that will be the point where
I'll gain enough room to put the 4-Runner inside instead of it having
to set out in the weather:-))

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

I love to fly, but being middle-aged with young kids, the only way I
can afford it is to build my own. Don't get me wrong - I'm enjoying
the building process. But my go-to-sleep last drifty thoughts are
usually of preflighting and propping rather than planing and glueing.
Then I dream of soaring on laughter-silvered wings - wings that I built
with my own two hands.

Tom Young wrote:
"Gene Seibel" ... wrote...
I believe there are flyers and builders. I am a flyer. Building doesn't
appeal to me. I see people spending years on a building project and it
appears they have some attraction to the building process. It seems to
be a valued part of their life like flying is a part of mine. As a
flyer, I wouldn't have the patience to build an airplane. Is it the
dream of actually flying the airplane or the building process that most
homebuilders are looking for? Just curious.

Some writers have to write, some artists have to paint, some flyers have to
build. That's how it is for me, anyway. I couldn't come anywhere close to
justifying the time and expense otherwise. I'm building an RV-4, which you
can pretty much buy already built for the money it's going to cost in the
end. I gotta do it myself.

Tom Young