Flying longer than Building!

[schristo@mac.com]

Wow, time flies

Thursday, May 24 marks a milestone for me and My Beast... now a flying machine for longer then it was a project!

Construction begins - October 26, 2008
First flight - August 10, 2010... 644 days later

As of May 24, 2012... flying for 644 days!

10 Oil changes, 430 hobbs, 390 flight, 380 on the tach.
Lots of great travels - Vettermans Bad Lands fly in, GLO for paint, Sun-N-Fun 2011, Oshkosh 2011, LOE 2011, Sun-N-Fun 2012...

Keep pounding those rivets!


First day of work at the shop


First flight


Cross country traveler


Don't give up!

[DakotaHawk]

Ha! Great job Stephen! I never thought of looking at it that way. My first plane (a wood and fabric Fisher Dakota Hawk) took me 4 1/2 years to build. I flew it for about 5 years before I got the itch to build again.

My RV-7 took me 2 1/2 years to build, and I've been flying it for almost 3 years. Wonder when the itch will strike again???

ps: We fly out of the same airport, but I've never met you. Gonna have to change that problem soon!

[rockwoodrv9]

Stephen - what a great day for you. I bet the last 644 went faster than the first! Have fun with your very nice plane.

[Don]

Congratulations. It's nice to see another person take this perspective. I look at at ROI (return on investment) and while I've considered days actually spent building compared to days spent flying, I've been more inclined to approach it hour for hour. If it takes me 1,800 hours to build the plane, my break even point is 1,800 of flying...and I've thought about in terms dollars to complete the plane vs dollars in fuel flying. Anyway you look at it, the pay back is special. Congratulations and I hope to join the ranks of those who more than "break even".

[n5lp]

I've thought about that too.

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...hlight=payback

[N8RV]

Congrats, Stephen!

Let's see ... when I hit that milestone ... hmmm ... 13 years of building ... been flying for 3 ... it will be 2022 and I'll be ... umm ...

137 years old!!

(at least I'm sure I'll feel that old)

Again, congrats on reaching that milestone.

[dav1111]

Glad to have you with the rest of us. I passed the "more time flying than building" on my RV-10 in January of 2009.
Now I just need to fly less and finish some of my other projects.

[apkp777]

Same with me Stephan. I Started my project in Aug 2008 and had my first flight June 2010. I also just passed my 22 months of flying. Funny how you and I are sort of parallel in our stories (except you are a perfectionist and I am a hacker).

Kellie and I just flew down to Memphis and spent the day. I know no one will believe it but we had tailwinds both ways! It was her first "long" cross country in the plane (she has taken many short ones). It just puts an exclamation point on the utility of these little "magic" carpets.

[tc1234c]

Why didn't I think the way you do. I am still a long way from fly time longer than build time (1100 hr vs 1700 hr). You just reminded me that I am way over flying longer than building (2 yrs vs 5 1/2 yrs) !

[hydroguy2]

the curse of being slow. took me 4 yrs building, so still need to fly for another 2.5yrs.....hey that's no curse afterall