 Jon
Matcho's Homebuilt Aeroplane Project |
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Ramblings |
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Springtime Cometh I spent a few minutes cleaning up a part I cured in December of last year. Finally, getting my mojo back to get in the shop. I'll blame it on the cold and not wanting to heat my poorly insulated shop with greenhouse emitting gasses too much. That, and handful of other excuses, but never mind that, building, here I come. Blindsided by Apathy I slacked off for a couple of weeks and now my ETA is sometime in 2026 instead of 2013. I guess I gotta get myself in that shop more often, but interestingly enough, the reason for my delay involved some of what I just wrote about ("man-made obstacles") -- that along with a couple family weekend outings and work wiping me out. Man-made Obstacles I notice that I often find myself looking at next building steps as hurdles. These are the points where I pause to figure out how the sequence of steps I am about to begin will actually play out. For a variety of reasons I am not comfortable with just plowing through at certain places in the plans, and end up reading the plans a few times over in that area. This is a good thing. On the other hand, there are places where I over-think an area to the point of not starting it. I know what needs to be done, but something inside me is holding me back. It could be a lack of confidence, low tolerance for risks and mistakes, or even procrastination. Whatever the reason, in EVERY case, I always find myself looking back in hindsight laughing at myself for how small a barrier my concern really was. The worst that can happen is that you make the part wrong, or ruin a multi-part assembly. I am beginning to think that I need to let myself go, and run freely forward a bit more quickly. I'm building confidence and skill, and need to let this plane get built. Time is tick tick ticking (in my head) Another builder mentioned us middle aged types (that's about the first time I ever referred to myself as "middle aged") have the clock against us. Sure, there's some truth to that, but this fellow has just a few more gray hairs than me, appears fit, and -- at least on the surface -- looks to have a few good years left in him. Still, his words gave me the feeling he was more sensitive to the passage of time than I was. I don't think necessarily that his feelings were because he was 5 or so years older than me. Perhaps it was that when he signed up for the project, he expected that it might take just 4 years to complete the project. When I started, I had "about 8" in mind, but after things got rolling I decided that I wanted to finish before my kids left for college. That's 10 years, and yes, that's a LONG time. On the other hand, maybe it is I who should be more sensitive to the calendar! How is it that I have time to write this at 1:00AM? I have to wake at 5:30AM tomorrow. My point? (Must I have one?) Accept that it's going to take a ton of time, and keep going; never stop. Recognize all the time "sinks" that exist in your life, and consciously decide how each shall be adjusted. You know what I'm talking about. TV is a big one. Sports? Guys night? Other hobbies? You absolutely need a LOT of time available to finish this MONSTER-SIZE project. It's not something you can do part-time (well, okay, I guess we have to), at least not with a part-time attitude. Those who have gone before us and have completed repeatedly say, "Do something EVERY day, however small." Get that thing ready for an engine and a hangar! :-) Time flies I took a vacation late July and when I came back I found that Bob decided to start an RV-6A. Oh well, I tried to get him to see the superior capabilities of composite materials, but no dice. It was definitely a great help AND motivator to have someone checking in to see that progress was happening. Oh well, I'm going it alone now and Bob, well, he's off setting a bazillion rivets... For a variety of reasons (or excuses) I stopped building for a good 3 months. I've been back at it since late September, and am now realizing that if this thing is ever going to get completed, I'm actually going to have to work on it. So, I'm back in gear, looking forward to going 3D with the fuselage and making airplane noises soon. Over commit, under deliver I decided to give these ramblings semi-meaningful titles. So back to the topic at hand... I thought that I could commit to a minimum of 1 hour per day towards building, but this turns out to be another expectation I'm unable to meet. I tend to do that -- estimate that I will need far less time than I actually do in order to complete a task. It's a curse that pervades every aspect of my life. Perhaps I'm overly confident, or maybe just not good at estimating small goals and tasks. So rather than beat myself to death over this, I'll just change my goals:
My original intention was to keep things moving towards completion, which is still where I'm at with my new-and-improved guidelines. It does feel good to see my estimated completion date being reeled in from the year 2055! April 18, 2006 - I've set a guideline/goal for myself: I must build for a minimum of 1 hour per day (if I am ever to finish this plane). I can spend more than an hour, but that does not earn credit for the next day. I haven't figured out what to do if I have to miss a day... maybe just self-guilt. My builder-buddy Bob is now known as 'Bob the Builder'. He must have got home at 2:00 AM last night after laying up the inside of the fuselage sides w/me. The plans said "This step should take you about 3 to 4 hours. An assistant is handy in helping to place the glass cloth." Translation: You damn well better get help for this section, because it will take 3 people 3 to 4 hours to complete. Almost 6 hours later we were done. Ah... progress. I got to use the Fein tool to trim the glass clean (that's SO much more fun than glassing). I should have the sides done soon, and then ready for fitting my bulkheads that I KNOW will not fit. More on that later... April 11, 2006 - I hope I've been building more than writing here, but I'm afraid to check. Last night Bob the Builder (from my local EAA Chapter #1333) came over for what has become a weekly "Monday Build Night". The temperature is good for epoxy, or at least not so cold that I don't feel like I'm burning actual money to heat the garage. We decided to micro the fuselage side spacers to the fuselage side foam. Last night was also the first time that it occurred to me to ask myself what to do with Bob's time, since he's definitely contributing to overall progress at this point. I decided that I need to account for it, and any other genuine help from others. Of course this doesn't mean to count "shop talk", but we were well beyond that last night. It took us 3.75 hours of brisk work, which would have taken me a whole day I think. Once the epoxy starts flowing things tend to keep moving, and we made great progress. I've been telling myself that I need to spend, minimally, 1 hour per day building the airplane if I want to complete in an acceptable length of time. If I stick to that, the extended build sessions will just become 'bonus' and help to lock-in an ETA that is within 1 decade, not 2. Early to bed, early to rise. Rise and SHINE! March 30, 2006 - I sanded. Today I sanded for 1.5 hours. I noticed excess epoxy and shiny spots on the upper longerons. After going at them with a Permagrit block and sanding paper, I finally remembered that I had a Dremel! Once that was out things got fun again (brute force and repetitive sanding is monotonous; sanding sucks). March 27, 2006 - Work and family crept into the picture these past few weeks, with a wedding and some yardwork (after all, it's spring). My wife also looks to be going back to work soon, and so it looks like I'll have to share some more responsibilities too. I'll just have to cease TV entirely and optimize my time. Maybe getting up between 3:00 and 4:00 AM (as Mark Beduhn did to finish his plane in 22 months / 2400 hours) is the answer? I think I'll start with getting to bed a bit earlier. March 12, 2006 - Spent the better part of this weekend building -- finally feels like I'm getting somewhere. Slow and steady. Small steps. One part at a time. March 11, 2006 - I got my estimated completion date down to the year 2047! That's because 1 of my 1.8 years in the project was spent not building. Still, this 2047 year figure motivated me to calculate an ETA based on recent time periods, so now I have figures based on more recent time periods. Check it out in my Progress section here. March 6, 2006 - Updated a few pages... warming up the shop to kick things into a bigger gear. February 22, 2006 - I finally got my shop in order, jig table completed (thanks to the help of my "human sandbags" :-), and managed to do some unfinished instrument panel layups with the help of my EAA chapter #1333.
These tables are modified versions of what is available from EAA Chapter 1000. I just modified to be 2' x 6' and added a sandwich ply to stiffen the table tops. I'm fairly certain I could drive a car on top of these. I don't want to hear it about the gloveless people in the bottom-right picture -- they refused, at least until time came to use the "real" epoxy. The EAA chapter visit was a great motivator to get my shop in order for visitors and actual building. I am realizing that I just need to squelch some of my ideas for modifications and direct my spare energy towards building. Since I've taken a year off, my estimated completion date is in the year 2055 right now! Gotta get moving... |
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