Dgamble
Well Known Member
I wrote a blog post about what it's like to build an airplane, or at least what it has been like for me. I sent it off to the editors of Sport Aviation to see if they'd like to print it, but got no reply. I just thought I'd go ahead and share it here. It's a bit wordy for a single post, so here's a teaser:
You get a lot of questions from people that find out that you are building an airplane.
Some become routine.
Some test your ability to suppress an eye roll.
Examples of those are "When will it be done?" and "A real airplane? And you're going to actually fly in it??"
After awhile you build up a library of ready answers for the most common ones along with the ability to spit out a wordy non-answer when the real answer would require too much time and effort. You know, much like a politician.
The hardest question of all, though, is, "What's it like? What is building an airplane like?"
It's hard to answer because there is no simple, concise response that can truly convey what the experience is like. Most people have never tackled a project that requires the level of commitment, persistence, tenacity, frustration, elation, perspiration, dedication, and time that comes with the job of building an airplane. There are parallels that can help people to understand, of course, but few of those result in a day when you are going to trust your very life to the end product. It is that aspect, I believe, that erects an insurmountable communication barrier between those that have and those that haven't. It is also why one of the more routine questions, albeit almost always a rhetorical one, is "Are you crazy??"
The rest is here: http://www.schmetterlingaviation.com/2012/12/whats-it-like.html
You get a lot of questions from people that find out that you are building an airplane.
Some become routine.
Some test your ability to suppress an eye roll.
Examples of those are "When will it be done?" and "A real airplane? And you're going to actually fly in it??"
After awhile you build up a library of ready answers for the most common ones along with the ability to spit out a wordy non-answer when the real answer would require too much time and effort. You know, much like a politician.
The hardest question of all, though, is, "What's it like? What is building an airplane like?"
It's hard to answer because there is no simple, concise response that can truly convey what the experience is like. Most people have never tackled a project that requires the level of commitment, persistence, tenacity, frustration, elation, perspiration, dedication, and time that comes with the job of building an airplane. There are parallels that can help people to understand, of course, but few of those result in a day when you are going to trust your very life to the end product. It is that aspect, I believe, that erects an insurmountable communication barrier between those that have and those that haven't. It is also why one of the more routine questions, albeit almost always a rhetorical one, is "Are you crazy??"
The rest is here: http://www.schmetterlingaviation.com/2012/12/whats-it-like.html
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