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xavierm

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Is there any reason to keep track of the time it takes to complete individual tasks, such as completing a flap?

I see many builder sites keeping track of the amount of time each task takes to complete.

Whether it takes me 2 hours, or 10 hours to build the trim tab, the goal is the trim tab is complete.

I'm not in a race, so do I really have to keep track of the time?
 
It depends

on individual and his occupation.
Many builders who maintain extensive websites are of precise nature. They have websites keeping track of the amount of time because digital discipline is their second nature. That's why they have website and we don't. They are IT professionals, engineers, accountants, project managers, bankers. They may postpone project as a whole for a long time but they will be tracking time for individual tasks again as soon as they restart.

Tracking individual task doesn't speed up the building in general, just gives you feeling of completion.

Certain tasks, especially beyond airframe, are impossible to track. Engine, firewall forward, instrumentation and wiring may stall time counter and sometimes be frustrating. You will spend dozen hours or couple days just to figure out where to route that bunch of wires. It burns a lot of mental power. Reading manuals or schematics often not included.

I would stop the individual task time counter and turn on annual counter. Count years not hours.
 
If you don't care ...

If you don't care then it probably isn't a big deal. There is the possible need to supply credible evidence that you actually built the airplane when you go for a Repairman Certificate but a lot of people seem to glide through this process with little documentation. When I went to the FAA office in Long Beach they went through my documentation very thoroughly but that is probably an exception ... this is just for fun right?

I have a series of two builder's log books now that I continue to fill in every time I work on a speed modification so I have a complete log of every piece of work that was done to bring the airplane to the current state of completion. In the entries there are personal drawings of hardware stacking order, control cable routing, notes about configuration decisions, etc. Accompanying the log books is a single expandable photo album with 12 photos on each page that is approximately 10" thick. The photos are in sequence and every one is hand dated on the back with the date it was taken and the date is the same as the builder's log entry date where the work session is described. In more than 5 years of operation I have had several occasions to refer to the log and the search order is: 1 - go to the album and find the area of interest, 2 - pull out the photo and find the date on the back, 3 - go to the builder's log entry with the corresponding date and read the work details. It's not essential but it is orderly and it allows you or someone else later on to pick up where you stopped for a while and continue building with confidence.

Another detail of this type is a wiring diagram or schematic of the electrical system you decide to install in your airplane. There are probably a lot of airplanes out there that are simply point to point wired using equipment manufacturer pinouts without a lot of system thought but maintenance and upgrades have got to be nightmares.

Once you decide to press on without detail documentation it is a fairly irreversible decision.

Early in my aerospace career I worked in the aircraft part of the industry (F-101, F-4, AV-8B, F-15, F-18, DC-9, DC-10) the customers, both military and commercial, wanted complete build documentation and we were required to maintain copies for a contract number of years after the completion of the full contract production requirement. If you sell your airplane someday your build documentation and system schematics should be a factor in the salability and price.

Bob Axsom
 
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I mark down all the time I spend actually working on my project almost down to the minute. My format is that I write the dates, how many minutes total spent working on my project (rounded to the nearest 5 minutes), a quick blurb about what I did, and occasionally a comment about what I learned. All of this is in a little Word document. The whole thing usually takes 30 seconds to a minute to complete at night. Here is an example:
08/01/09
20 min
Cut another slot of T03-02
(Comment: Not much done today. Could spend another 10-15 mins working, but I want some soup.)

I do this EVERYDAY, even if I did nothing that day. One of the things this does is it keeps me honest with myself. I am able to track whether I am putting the amount of time I expected/hoped to put in my project. If I am slacking it becomes obvious and there is no denying it. It is very easy to skip working on your project for a day or two, and the next thing you know it has been several weeks/a few months since you have done anything. There is no denying that I'm getting lazy if I have to write:
07/08/09
0 min
NO WORK DONE

There is also no denying why a project may be taking longer than you expected if you are looking at the hours you are spending on it. It is also a nice mini-journal to express my thoughts and feelings about the build process as it is going on. It is also a fun way for me to play little games with myself, like having a month where I do something everyday, or having a month where I average X hours of work on my project a day. I am naturally competitive, and I especially love competing with my self and trying to improve my performance.

An additional reason is if you ever want to use your time building your airplane as partial credit toward the experience requirement for getting an A&P license.

I am not into building some super builders website/resource. I would rather spend that time working on my plane. However, making a few quick notes about what I did that day is completely painless and gives great returns in terms of motivating me to do more.
 
Detail time spent is NOT a requirement.
I'm doing it on my bi-plane simply because it's a "scratch build" and I want to know.
 
I did for a while. But took lots of pics.

In the end, it didn't matter for the final inspection or repairman certificate. The pics were plenty.

L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
xavierm said:
......I'm not in a race, so do I really have to keep track of the time?
Click to expand...
You can keep track of time if you want to but I doubt the FAA really cares much. I was issued the Repairman's Certificate on both my RV's with the only documentation I thought to present them with......photo albums and vendor receipts. The only "handwritten" stuff the STL FSDO got from me was filling out forms while at their office.
 
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