Tip: Stumped?

I don?t personally know of a single RV builder who hasn?t, at least once, been completely stumped or skunked in the shop. I?m talking about one of those days when you have the time, head out to the shop, and end up accomplishing nothing ? or futz around for 20-30 minutes and then call it quits. There?s stuff to do, you just can?t get motivated, or figure out how to do what it is you need to do, or?..?

I?m a builder who believes in having many parallel projects going at once so that if you can?t figure out how to route that wire, you can step over to the workbench and do an elevator tip, or bend some brake tubing, or put one more layer of goop on that cowl to try and eradicate more pinholes. That works pretty well for me, but when I don?t have an on-going ?major project? ( we haven?t really started the -3 kit sitting in the garage ? that?s a fall project start), just a list of little things on the hangar white-board, I sometimes don?t get much done.

For example - because of odd and unexpected work schedules this week, I have been messing around with new upholstery panels for Louise?s RV-6. I?ve come up with several different designs, bought a few trial materials, and today I even set course on building actual parts. Then I realized I had to drill out a couple of existing pop rivets holding a headset bracket in place that is in the way of the new parts, and I didn?t really feel like crawling upside-down into the foot wells with a drill, because that means dragging out air hose, etc. etc?..

But, after writing about it, I?ll probably realize I have another hour before I need to clean up and get ready for a busy afternoon/evening, and in that hour, I am SURE I can get those rivets out. So for me, one way to beat getting skunked is to write about it!

Anyone else? What gets you stuck? Lack of materials, lack of motivation, missing tools? Maybe we can share a few ideas of how to get ?unstuck? a few more folks can finish their airplanes!

Paul

Parallel projects-----I like that term.

Sounds so much better than my usual "cant stay focused" on one thing for long.

Yep, I spent a couple hours yesterday fighting a clearance problem on my ram air system, so worked on landing lights in the meantime.

Only problem is having 37 parallel projects, it takes a long time to figure out where I was at when I return to one.

Sleep on it...

nothing cures the "stumps" better than time.

Multi-tasking parallel processing....

Sounds better than stumped but I only get four or five hours per week to build (you can guess how long I've been at it from that statement!) When I hit the wall I try to switch off to a completely different area to work on. I designed and built an interconnect PC board for my various Nav - GPS - Radio - Transponder - encoding altimeter - HSI interconnects. I then designed and built a combined two speed trim system and selectable flap positioning system. Put Mahogany veneer on my panel, designed a center console and am now putting them all together in the plane. If I got hung up on any of them I would switch to one of the others to get as much out of my build time as I could. I hope to be done late this year or early next.... if I don't get too many more of the "stumps".
Paul

I found throwing the offending part or tool across the shop and swearing a big help! Then there is bourbon and beer, both a big help.

Taking time off works for some people but just like exercising, it is hard to get back to it once you?ve stopped doing it.

Like the others, I would work on something else, anything else. Eventually the solution would come to me. Sometimes by UPS with a Van?s label as the offending part was damaged when it landed on the other side of my shop, then dinged by the tool that followed, and finally crushed by the empty bottle.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has a chapter that deals with this... amongst all the other metaphysical stuff, he talks about what he calls "gumption traps", and ways to deal with them and keep going on your project. I may have to read that chapter again!

mcb

For me

I suffer the motivation issue (trying to get back to studying for my PE exams after 25 years out of school is the same thing).

Here's what I do..i give myself permission NOT to work..I.e I either work or I don't..if I can't get into it I make myself a deal.."OK Frank, take the day off..Its OK.But you'll be back at it at...Name a day/time"

Of course I may have to "Punish myself" by working longer to make up the time..and thats a motivator to not slack off next time, which surprisingly works.

For me the worse thing is to look at parts (or in my case now..Books) and pretend to work when all I'm doing is just stressing about not getting anything done..Rest IS productive, and doing something else while you recharge is worthwhile.

Thats my method of getting unstuck

Frank

Asking for another point of view

Paul, We do alot of work from scratch in our prototype shop. "Parallel Tasking" for us is many times batting the dozens of ways a particular problem can be solved within the confines of weight/cost/complexity, etc etc. Ideas first go to the big white board, then usually into a CAD or solid modeling program, then directly to fabrication. Its not unusual to have to throw away the first few efforts.

In this kind of jungle, the thing that gets me "over the hump" better than anything else is to bring in another person's point of view. We've found that by working together, the sum of our effort is far greater than the individual parts added up.

Then go have the beer!

Keep your feet moving... so to speak

I will stop and "clean" the work area(s). Generally I find what I am needing is a little "victory" for the day or the session. "Finishing is better than starting" so I will do something easy (like shop vac around the grinder), broom the floor or resort and replace the tools I left spread all over the benches. Clearing the work surfaces helps clear the mind.

More ice and diet Pepsi doesn't hurt either.

I choose my battles and pick something I can finish in the time available if possible, or set a way-point on the piece(s) on which I am currently working that I think is reachable.

Sometimes I also "batch" tasks together to compress time and motion. That helps me build motivation. It requires a bit more pre-planning but pays good dividends when I step back and declare the piece is complete and I can now fly with confidence.

ccarter said:

I will stop and "clean" the work area(s). Generally I find what I am needing is a little "victory" for the day or the session. Clearing the work surfaces helps clear the mind.

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Works for me as well. A cluttered work space kills my motivation. A clean shop is like a blank page just begginig for something to be written upon it. A nap works well also.

Thanks for the reminder.

I work like that too, Paul.

I have several things on the go at the same time, and alternate as interest and perceived ability fades in and out.

And thanks for the reminder about the book. Time to re-read that.
I remember it being an eye-opener.

Will anyone admit to actually being addicted to building? There are times when I get stumped, and I'll wake up in the middle of the night with the solution. It seems the problem sometimes just keeps running around inside my head until it gets fixed. I used to leave a note pad by the bed so I could write it down before I forgot it!
I remember building the RV-4 back in the '80. N0 internet then, and the plans weren't exactly accurate (sometimes the measurements didn't add up.) I'd spend 3 hours trying to figure out something, and when I came in my wife would ask me what I got done. I was embarrassed to say "nothing". But in the end an airplane came out of the garage and it's been fun ever since. Except for those days I still get stumped!

Vic

stumped is good

Vic, I was stunned to learn that everyone was not like you described.

It helped explain much of the universe to me, though

I would respectfully submit that I, and a lot of builders, am here for the parts of the build that stump me.

And specifically for the joyous revelation when I work out a solution.

I never enjoy being stumped, but I really, really enjoy not being stumped any more.

I think I'm preaching to the choir here, but so many folks out in the world don't understand it. I didn't understand them either, until the "aha" moment reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

I have to back to the shop to meditate now.
I meditate best while making something.

Regards,

When I first started making metal shavings on my tail kit, I discovered rather quickly that I hated doing the small fabrication parts of the kit. You know the ones - trimming stiffeners from a stick of angle, or making a mounting lug or spacer for something from a piece of stock bar or heavy angle, all those little "Easter Eggs" that Van dropped in the kit for us. I wanted all nice, clear cut, cookie-cutter pieces that could be dropped in place and riveted together. I wanted to make make little pieces into BIG pieces. I wanted to MAKE PROGRESS.

Somewhere in the middle of the wing kit I suppose that attitude began to change, and now that I'm working on the fuse I actually believe I enjoy the fabrication as much if not more than working with prepunched parts. That's almost certainly a good thing - considering that I've only just begun the fabrication journey at this point. Maybe it was the leading edge fuel tank mod I did, maybe a little maturity kicking in, or maybe the realization that I'm enjoying the building process every bit as much as I will enjoy flying it - but whatever the reason, I'm glad to have reached this point and I thoroughly look forward to getting home from work and spending a couple hours in the shop. I'm building in my garage (no air conditioning - West Texas - summertime) and when it's 108 in there and I'm sweating off a couple pounds and working the alclad, I just keep going with this goofy grin on my face, thinking about the cooler temperatures at 15,000 and how much fun I'll be having flying over the top of the Dallas Class B at 5pm and looking at all the crowded freeways...that's usually where I start giggling and my wife thinks the primer fumes have finally had their way with me.

It's the little things like that, that keep me going.

vic syracuse said:

... It seems the problem sometimes just keeps running around inside my head until it gets fixed. I used to leave a note pad by the bed so I could write it down before I forgot it! ...

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Vic, funny you say that about the note pads. Guess who else admitted to keeping note pads by the bed? Burt Rutan did, back in OSH 2005. I'd say you're in good company there!

Very cold adult beverages and loud Jimi Hendrix, setting with the floor fan blowing smooth and looking at the plans hung on the easel page after page, patting the shop cat and planning. I am a great believer that we don't "think" enough so I work at thinking. Don't hurt and don't cost nothing!

Mental blocks

Over the years I've occasionally encountered mental blocks to difficult problems. When I hit one, that problem generally has to wait a few days for me to sort it out.

Like Vic, I think I mentally ruminate in my sleep on a mystery until I suddenly awake with a solution. Apparently, my brain has a 'night shift' which specializes in solving problems. I tell my wife that I've had an 'ah-ha moment' when I do this and awaken her.

I've often run out into the garage, or to my basement office, in my underwear in the middle of the night to check out the new idea.

You're the man!

Ironflight said:

...
I?m a builder who believes in having many parallel projects going at once so that if you can?t figure out how to route that wire, you can step over to the workbench and do an elevator tip, or bend some brake tubing, or put one more layer of goop on that cowl to try and eradicate more pinholes. That works pretty well for me, but when I don?t have an on-going ?major project? ( we haven?t really started the -3 kit sitting in the garage ? that?s a fall project start), just a list of little things on the hangar white-board, I sometimes don?t get much done....

Paul

Click to expand...

Paul, once again your brilliance in explaining a concept in clear understandable words will (remotely possibly) get me out of hot water with the wife. She accuses me of starting too many projects. I now have a better and more concise answer for what I've been telling her for years.

Stumped...in the shop? almost never! But getting the motivation to go to the shop?...yep that's a killer.

My problem is funding. Hard to keep on task when you know that even when you finish with the parts you have, there are none to follow with the current piggy bank. I thought staying in the flying club logging Citabria time once in a while would help...wrong it just siphons off project money. I used to fly 80-100hrs/yr..last yr was 18hrs Time to drop the club and finish MY plane.

I had a very relaxing time at NWEAA Arlington last week, camping on the field immersed in aviation was excellent.....ok spent $300 of project money buying gas, food and tshirts. But was probably the best thing I've done for my project this summer. I hate to do it, but think I'll borrow engine money this fall and get'r done.

Great post, Paul.....C-ya, I'm headed to the shop.

This article has made the rounds in the RVator and other places, but in case newer builders haven't read it here is my way of keeping a project on track:

Working Smart

Do something cool!

When I get actually "stumped", I can usually find the answers (or at least plenty of opinions to give me something to chew on) right here on the the VAF site. But on the "motivationally stumped" problem, I have to do something cool! Something that makes the project look more like an airplane.

Having been dragged down lately by fuel and vent lines and motorcycleitis, I'm now bolting the landing gear together and putting the wheels on!

Although obviously not the optimal time to do so, I rationalize it by knowing I'll be able to move the fuselage around easier on it's wheels.

I'm moving into fitting the canopy next, but I'm saving hanging the engine for that period in time where I get bogged down again and have to do something cool baby!!

I can usually use the "ADD-approach" to fine end. In fact, even when I'm not stumped, I find myself picking up work on part of the plane (I'll be on my way to pick up a wrench for an engine bolt.... "Oh, that empennage tip is sitting there, I think I'll fiberglass it on!"). This is one of those areas where I think it pays to have a big dry-in board in the hangar to make a list of things you want to accomplish that week. You can check them off as you go and won't leave an engine without a bolt that way.

But a lot of my time is spent looking for stuff. Tools mostly, even though I keep the place fairly clean.

Sometimes, it's not that I'm not accomplishing anything, it's that I don't FEEL like I'm accomplishing anything. I'll putt around for a couple of hours and even though I was always doing something, it seems that nothing really got done. That's probably the most frustrating thing.

So I grab one of my camping chairs (all of my Oshkosh equipment is now at the hangar in one pile so once a year, I just back the car up, load, and go. I stock it up during the course of the year.), and head out to the side of the runway and watch planes land and take off.

I'll spend a half hour doing that -- or walk around and talk to other people in their hangars -- and then when I go back, stuff seems to come easier.

FrankH (I suffer the motivation issue (trying to get back to studying for my PE exams after 25 years out of school is the same thing).

I can identify with that problem, I took the EIT after 22 years of not setting foot in a classroom except for several evenings in an EIT refresher course, then the PE the next year. For the PE, I found that checking into a motel 3 or 4 days in advance near the test site, threatening anyone who tried to contact me with bodily harm, and cramming all day and half the night for the duration worked for me, as the results were favorable.

OldSam
RV7A Empennage done
Wings under way
Fuse to be ordered at OSH