Greetings, all.
This being my first post on this forum, I didn't want to jump out with a brand new thread, and this one seems to fit the general subject anyhow.
First off, I am not a pilot. Yet. I've been an aviation nut as long as I can remember, but until now I've never had the means to make that dream a reality. My dad bought me a red-white-and-blue plastic space shuttle when I was three years old and I've been hooked ever since. I built and flew my first radio controlled plane when I was twelve, from a kit, and then built another like it using only plans a month later (you can guess why).
I've talked about building a kit plane for years, though not a plans built. A few months ago my wife finally told me to either shut up and build one, or just shut up about it, but shut up either way. I took this as an oblique way of giving me permission, and after prodding her and bugging her over the last several months while I investigated getting my license and a type of plane to settle on, I realized she's becoming quite excited about it.
I landed on the Cozy when I first started looking, but rejected it because it was plans built. However, it seemed like I just kept coming back to it. The more I read about it (especially after Mr. Slade's website-- I actually enjoyed that better than some novels I've read lately!), the more I came to believe it's do-able. In fact, after reading some of the progress pages written by some builders, I realized I'd found my plane. I'm starting to think of this as a scaled up (very scaled up) version of what I've been doing since I was a kid, from an engineering perspective.
I have a dilemma though. I can't decide how to go about doing this. Obviously, buy the plans. That'll come next month, most likely. More importantly, however, other than the plain ol' fun factor of building it, there's no point in having an airplane I can't fly.
I've given this a lot of thought. I can get my license first, then spend a few years spending my money renting a plane and getting some hours, then building a plane for a few years and losing my certification (face it... we'd all rather spend our cash on building our own planes than spend it on renting someone else's aircraft.), or at the very least get rusty. Or, I can build the plane first and get my license after building it and have it sitting there pouting at me while I'm flying someone else's airplane.
License first, build later, or build first, license after. Which is the best way to go? It's not as though I'm totally unfamilliar with aerodynamics and flight, though I'll be the first to admit I'm left feeling a little lost when it comes to FAA regulations and rules. Building from a pilot's perspective will certainly give me some advatages in building some components, but as for crafting a safe and well made flying machine, I have full confidence in my abiblities. I'm finding about an equal number of pros and cons to going either way.
I'd appreciate any input on this. Thanks.
I'm still doing some research on just about everything aviation related, to include frying my brain trying to figure out the faa.gov website. There's so much information there that its hard to find something specific. What I'm looking for in particular are the regulations/rules pertaining to resale or selling of a homebuilt aircraft. I know it can be done, but I was curious if there are people who build them for profit, as a source of income. There's a fella I met once in California who builds RC planes in his spare time and sells them, making a tidy profit in the bargain. He's retired, and can afford to spend the time, but he sometimes turns out two or three a month, and from what I saw they were really well put together. I guess he was one of those who preferred building them to flying them. Does the world of homebuilt aircraft have an equivalent? By the way-- I plan to build mine, so please no comments about wimping out!