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How do you build an airplane? Philosophical musings...

jcoloccia

Well Known Member
How does one build an airplane? The same way you eat an elephant: one bite at a time. We've all heard this but how many of us practice this?

As many of you know, I sold my RV project some years ago and switched to a Bearhawk. We just decided that the Bearhawk was more what we wanted - a camping, go anywhere, lotsa' room for the wife and dog, airplane. And by the way, many thanks for all the folks that have kept up with me over the years. I truly appreciate that there are a couple of folks out there that actually cared what was going on in my life!

We ended up moving from California to Connecticut last year. In CA, I could fly pretty much every day being 10 minutes away from an airport (with perfect flying weather). Heck, I used to go flying at lunch when I was bored!

Here, the gods need to smile on me and give me a day when I'm free from work, have nothing else to do, and the weather is pleasant. Those three miracles just don't happen very often...certainly not often enough to justify the time and expense required to finish, maintain and hanger an airplane. Ellen and I decided to close this chapter and we sold the Bearhawk as well. Oh well, such is life.

Recently, I'm embarking on a new business venture. This will be my first business and I'm taking it slow. I'm keeping the day job for the time being, and we'll see what develops. There are SOOO many things that have to happen to get this done right. I'm working on converting the garage into my shop/home office and I have to figure all of it out as I go along (I've never done anything like this before). I'm trying to figure out the building code, vapor proof fixtures, outlet locations, layout, etc etc. Everywhere I look there are problems and I don't know how to fix them. Leaking concrete, utility lines that have to move, oil tanks etc etc etc. There's plenty on the business end to figure out as well, and it gives me a headache to think about it all. Thank God for CPAs!

I know doesn't seem like a lot but for those that have done it, you know what I'm talking about. There are a million little things, and a couple of big things, that have to happen to make it work, and it can be overwhelming at times.

So tonight I'm looking at my garage and I'm feeling overwhelmed. I don't mind saying that being in the garage, even though it's a different garage, brings back memories of my two failed builds. Yep, I'm another statistic! LOL. Old pieces of aluminum, bucking bars, AN hardware, dimple dies....it's all a reminder of the failure. Granted, this was a decision on our part to give it up due to our new life in CT, but it feels like a failure nonetheless.

I was feeling pretty depressed, and overwhelmed, like I'd never get to the finish line, so I did the same thing I always did when I was feeling stuck on the RV and the Bearhawk - I took a bite. It wasn't a big bite. I unpacked a box and threw the box away (we still have a bunch of boxes that just came out of storage). And then I picked up an empty bag, and put THAT in the dumpster. Then I moved a small box of scrap aluminum into the shed. Then I moved a small bin of wood scraps into the shed. And then a small piece of wet 2X4 found it's way to the dumpster. One bite, then another, then another.

Here I am an hour later and I made progress....REAL progress.

So when you're spending countless hours deburring, dimpling, fitting, measuring, and wiring, or when you screw up and have to replace a part, and you just don't see the end in sight, remember it's OK to just take a tiny bite. Give yourself permission to deburr one rib, or one row of holes. Give yourself permission to just crimp one connector. You don't have to do it all today.

It's overwhelming at times to see a project that requires 15 baggilion steps when you're only on step 107, but you'll never get to the end if you don't do step 108 first. The tiniest bit of progress is progress and don't ever come away thinking you "only" did such and such this week, and "Oh my God I'm falling behind and am never going to get this done!" That's not what get's it done.

One bite at a time gets it done.
 
Thanks, John! Wise words, indeed.

I tell new builders that it's easy to be overwhelmed when looking at the sheer number of steps in that assembly manual, or the number of untouched parts sitting on that storage shelf in the corner of the shop. But once things get rolling and you've got an identifiable part (or two or three) sitting there, the fun has begun and it's easier to keep going.

I've had to remake about a dozen parts along the way, and I found the first couple "re-do's" pretty painful. I felt like I was getting "behind" somehow. As if I was a production line worker, and I'd be penalized for taking too long. :rolleyes: Had to remind myself that this is a hobby, and there is no deadline whatsoever. Yeah, it would be nice to make Oshkosh 2009, but who's gonna care if I miss it by a few months, or even a few years?

Most difficult was the decision to re-do my interior paint, which required removing everything that I'd already installed. Getting past that point solidified the motivation to get the project done. ("Danged if I'm gonna stop after going through that.")

There are a few huge milestones that appear quicker than most builders ever think possible: Getting the tail feathers on, getting it on the gear, mounting the wings, and mounting the engine. You can see all the small parts beginning to gel into a machine with a personality. That's when every day in the shop starts to become a gleeful adventure, IMHO.

Well, I'm off to the shop. Tonight's one little "bite" is to set a row of rivets on the battery box. :D
 
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