goatflieg

goatflieg

Well Known Member
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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.
 
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. :D 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!
 
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
 
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.
 
Man hours

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.
 
Who cares.....

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Sam Buchanan said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

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.
 
fixnflyguy said:
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.
Click to expand...

Time spent pondering, waving your hands in the air, and talking to yourself ARE productive hours!
 
Time Units

I'm voting for the 'monthly' time unit method. Mark an 'S' on your calendar on the start date and a 'F' on the finish date. Count the months in between. The goal being to keep the number a small double digit number. :)
Then go fly!
 
Milestones serve a purpose

Since Ben Franklin invented the 'mile stone' system of placing stones along the roads of early America we've been measuring and documenting progress, which the Wright Bros meticulously did, too. Why wouldn't we?

Part of experimental (IMHO) is to see what it takes, and comparisons, and look-backs have value. I am amazed at how long some tasks take, especially in comparison to my day-job where everything is a few mouse-clicks from completion. It's discouraging to see some milestones, and enlightening to see others. It's a delight to accomplish a goal.

Count me as a 'time counting' (my time) and approximations only, build-time only. Research and background learning is assumed to be equal to build-time (1:1 ratio). [Don't hold me to Ben, didn't know him personally in those days.;)]

gary
 
What I would really like to know is how many hours I obsessed over stuff that didn't amount to a hill of beans in the end!........
 
MikeyDale said:
What I would really like to know is how many hours I obsessed over stuff that didn't amount to a hill of beans in the end!........
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Oh man... don't even want to know... I lost a lot of sleep over the canopy fairings and it turned out to be a non-event.
 
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