This past weekend, I helped Louise build new seat backs for her RV-6, and I found it to be an outstanding learning experience - and by that, I mean that both of us learned a lot! Since Louise didn't build her -6, she is doing all that she can to pick up the skills necessary for our future endeavors, and we found the seat back project to be a great "Learning Kit" - plenty of drilling, de-burring, and riveting on easily reachable parts, with the bonus of having to lay out rivet lines and build without the benefits of pre-punched parts. At the same time, I found what I have always felt about teaching - if you really want to improve your knowledge of something - teach it!
I have always enjoyed teaching the things that I have learned, and way back in the dark ages, when I was going to school at the same time I was working 40-hour weeks in the diving business, I found that the absolute best way to bring people's skill levels up quickly after basic training was to get them to help teach basic classes. It's frequently easier to learn by watching other people make mistakes (and do things correctly) - you see someone having a problem that you yourself experience, but from a different perspective, the solution becomes more apparent to you. We often told people that if they only dove with the same person after basic certification, that they would simply keep making the same mistakes over and over. Only when you got involved with other divers, and observed other people's techniques (and problems) would you be progressing. Translate that to aviation - it's great to fly with other pilots - both junior and senior to you - to learn new things. I have learned a lot taking biennials and refreshers - usually more than the IP thought he was teaching - simply be observing different techniques.
The same is true of building. Louise came in to town on a Friday night, and I had already scrounged together the materials we needed for the seat backs. I had cut the side and top angles to length, and done a lot of the tedious metal shaping using the band saw, belt sander, and scotchbrite wheel. But I had left enough of that work for Louise to do so that she'd be able to practice all of the tasks. The seat back skins I left untouched (you don't know how hard it was to have airplane parts in the shop for a week and not go to work on them!!), so she had to smooth the edges, remove plastic, and eventual drill and debur all the holes. Our first task was to lay out rivet lines on the side rails - I figured out what we needed to do, explained the thought process and things to watch for, showed her the basic skills and how to make things precise, then turned the job over to her. When they were all marked, I handed her the center punch, showed her once, and I went off to set up the drill press. Each task, I got to show her, then she did the rest, and I was looking out ahead, to make sure that we didn't build ourselves into a corner.(Oh, another tip - don't drill the "end holes" in the top and bottom angles until you drill them "in assembly" with the side rails and seat back skins?.or you'll end up with figure eights. Don't ask how we know?)
When it came time to rivet, I realized that without a longeron yoke for the squeezer, we were going to do that little trick where you "float" the adjustable set towards the factory head of the round-head rivets, teasing the trigger on the pneumatic squeezer while holding that big chunk of metal in the air - a tricky task for a rookie. The first few tries were tough, but Louise figured it out, and ?.. (Oh heck, I just figured out how we could have done it even easier! Should have laid the squeezer on the table with the seat back on edge above it, and adjust the piece to the squeezer - see what I said about learning by teaching?)?.and we took turns riveting and occasionally drilling out rivets - both hers and mine. With the flange on top of the seat back, we just could squeeze the rivets with the yoke we had, so out came the rivet gun, and Louise got more practice in a different task, both on the gun and the bucking bar.
Overall, I learned a lot, I think she did too, and "Mikey" gets new, tall seat backs to support the new interior that will be coming from D.J. sometime soon. As much as I enjoy working quietly in a shop alone, I found that working with a partner was a lot of fun - stimulating and educational in both directions. The seat back proved to be a GREAT learning project (Louise did the toolbox a few months ago, and that was an excellent introduction to the building process as well), developing additional skills in thinking through the project and laying out rivet lines when you don't have pre-punched components. And, of course, learning patience, because we didn't quite finish - since we didn't have the airplane with us, we couldn't install the hinge lines, since they couldn't' be "matched in place" with the existing floor or brace hinges. We carefully wrapped tape around the line of clecos holding the bottom angle in place so that we wouldn't rivet it without the hinge material as well - another lesson to pass on!
And it was great to be back in the shop with airplane tools in hand again - a great warm-up for things to come?.
Paul
I have always enjoyed teaching the things that I have learned, and way back in the dark ages, when I was going to school at the same time I was working 40-hour weeks in the diving business, I found that the absolute best way to bring people's skill levels up quickly after basic training was to get them to help teach basic classes. It's frequently easier to learn by watching other people make mistakes (and do things correctly) - you see someone having a problem that you yourself experience, but from a different perspective, the solution becomes more apparent to you. We often told people that if they only dove with the same person after basic certification, that they would simply keep making the same mistakes over and over. Only when you got involved with other divers, and observed other people's techniques (and problems) would you be progressing. Translate that to aviation - it's great to fly with other pilots - both junior and senior to you - to learn new things. I have learned a lot taking biennials and refreshers - usually more than the IP thought he was teaching - simply be observing different techniques.
The same is true of building. Louise came in to town on a Friday night, and I had already scrounged together the materials we needed for the seat backs. I had cut the side and top angles to length, and done a lot of the tedious metal shaping using the band saw, belt sander, and scotchbrite wheel. But I had left enough of that work for Louise to do so that she'd be able to practice all of the tasks. The seat back skins I left untouched (you don't know how hard it was to have airplane parts in the shop for a week and not go to work on them!!), so she had to smooth the edges, remove plastic, and eventual drill and debur all the holes. Our first task was to lay out rivet lines on the side rails - I figured out what we needed to do, explained the thought process and things to watch for, showed her the basic skills and how to make things precise, then turned the job over to her. When they were all marked, I handed her the center punch, showed her once, and I went off to set up the drill press. Each task, I got to show her, then she did the rest, and I was looking out ahead, to make sure that we didn't build ourselves into a corner.(Oh, another tip - don't drill the "end holes" in the top and bottom angles until you drill them "in assembly" with the side rails and seat back skins?.or you'll end up with figure eights. Don't ask how we know?)
When it came time to rivet, I realized that without a longeron yoke for the squeezer, we were going to do that little trick where you "float" the adjustable set towards the factory head of the round-head rivets, teasing the trigger on the pneumatic squeezer while holding that big chunk of metal in the air - a tricky task for a rookie. The first few tries were tough, but Louise figured it out, and ?.. (Oh heck, I just figured out how we could have done it even easier! Should have laid the squeezer on the table with the seat back on edge above it, and adjust the piece to the squeezer - see what I said about learning by teaching?)?.and we took turns riveting and occasionally drilling out rivets - both hers and mine. With the flange on top of the seat back, we just could squeeze the rivets with the yoke we had, so out came the rivet gun, and Louise got more practice in a different task, both on the gun and the bucking bar.
Overall, I learned a lot, I think she did too, and "Mikey" gets new, tall seat backs to support the new interior that will be coming from D.J. sometime soon. As much as I enjoy working quietly in a shop alone, I found that working with a partner was a lot of fun - stimulating and educational in both directions. The seat back proved to be a GREAT learning project (Louise did the toolbox a few months ago, and that was an excellent introduction to the building process as well), developing additional skills in thinking through the project and laying out rivet lines when you don't have pre-punched components. And, of course, learning patience, because we didn't quite finish - since we didn't have the airplane with us, we couldn't install the hinge lines, since they couldn't' be "matched in place" with the existing floor or brace hinges. We carefully wrapped tape around the line of clecos holding the bottom angle in place so that we wouldn't rivet it without the hinge material as well - another lesson to pass on!
And it was great to be back in the shop with airplane tools in hand again - a great warm-up for things to come?.
Paul
