Hours... or man-hours?

[goatflieg]

I realize it may be of no significance... but now that I've reached the point that I've had someone help me buck rivets, I'd like to find out what other builders have done when it comes to recording hours spent on the project.
Do you count hours individually per person? Or just total up the hours spent on working, regardless of the number of people involved. It seems to me that man-hours is the way to go, although you have to factor in time that a helper might spend just standing there, waiting to help...
Just another thing I'm sure I'm over-thinking... but I am curious.

[Veetail88]

If you're going to count hours, it makes sense to count only productive total man hours. 2 guys 4 hours, 8 man hours.

Or, you could just not count them because you really don't want to know. I didn't. Just know it took me 6 years. And geez, I probably spent as many hours researching and planning as I did actually building. Actually, probably a LOT more!

[David Paule]

I've just been logging my own hours. The project has too many of them already to want to add other people's.

Dave
RV-3B, very slow-build

[WingsOnWheels]

I don't log any hours. Not required, and I don't care to know it took me way too long. Unless you have your own desire to know, it is a wasted activity.

[wirejock]

Depends on how OCD you are. Do you really want to know? If so, I would log them separately so you can see your time. Excel is a great tool for the OCD. Pop me an e-mail. I'll send you a builder log template.

[Sam Buchanan]

I logged hours for two planes.....no hours logged for the other three. I couldn't figure out why knowing the number of hours was useful.

[goatflieg]

All very good points. I guess as a first time builder, I like to be able to compare my experience with others... and required or not, I consider it to be part of the documention. If I counted all the time I spent on research in the thirty years I've dreamed of building my own plane before my first actual purchase... that would run well over six figures.

[airguy]

I'm logging mine on my first build, but I won't on the next one(s). I did it this time just as a sanity check for my progress versus the factory predictions.

[deek]

Originally Posted by Sam Buchanan

I logged hours for two planes.....no hours logged for the other three. I couldn't figure out why knowing the number of hours was useful.

Same here; I logged building hours for the first plane, none for the next four. I won't log hours on the -14

[fixnflyguy]

I kept an "old school" wall calendar in my shop and wrote something in the day block each time I worked on the plane..simply " 2hrs. drilling skin" type entry. What I found it did most for me, is show at a glance, how easy it is to realize several days of not working on it. I have a stack of old calendars I can look at and see work history, but I also know many days turned into pondering,socializing and non production. At the end of the day, its meaningless, not required, and a PITA to keep accurate. I do it at my day job (heavy jet overhaul) and often see 1000-1500 man hours PER DAY on an airliner I have to bill a customer for..The RV did not get that level of time tracking.