Capflyer

Capflyer

Well Known Member
What scares you to the point that you are afraid to start? I'm a curious guy and as a salesman in real life always ask lots of questions to fill my thirst for knowledge no matter how trivial.

Being the first RV and one of very few homebuilts to grace my busy airport, lots of my flying buddies are enjoying flying again when they go up for a ride. It's like a whole new world for them and the questions always come up about how hard it was to build it. There were lots of things along the way that all of us have or will experience that had us wondering "how the **** am I going to do that?" I now have my canned lines and pick what seems the best at the moment but the reality for me was that the two things that had me in total wonderment of how I was going to accomplish the tasks were the fiberglass work and the physical aspects of wiring the plane up.

I had no problem reading schematics but my fear was making good connections that wouldn't fail. For the fiberglass work the fear came from many years ago (ok, it was only 29 years ago) when I tried bonding a spoiler on my Camaro and failed miserably.

So, what raises your blood pressure and keeps you up at night and for the vets what did this for you?
 
The thing that had me scared early on was Proseal - simply because of all the horror stories associated with it. But once I got into it, it's not that bad - just messy and smelly. Glove up, use a respirator, and use LOTS of MEK on everything to keep it clean, and it's really not so bad.

Now what has me worried is the painting - I'm a painting idiot (Krylon is my friend) and I'm thinking I'll likely end up writing a check for that part.

Other than that, there's really not much to be scared of. There are kids barely out of high school making $12/hr building spam cans. If they can do that, surely we can too.
 
Having to drill/cut/form something irreplaceable. Maybe my 'duh' is showing, but I get real nervous when I have to alter pieces of the QB fuselage that are buried deep in the structure, like, say, the main longerons, which you gotta drill holes in for the pedal bearing blocks. That engine keeps me up at night too. I still haven't found a Los-Angeles-based A&P who makes house calls, so I still haven't pulled a jug off to get a look at the innards. I also worry about getting the finished product to the airport and pranging it on the first flight.

But I just keep doing the microtasks and try not to think about it too much, and stop just short of OCD on my pre-cutting/drilling measurements.
 
My recreational interests and by profession both rely heavily on general aviation. Dangers to the continued enjoyment of our airplanes keeps me up at night. Fuel prices, regulatory creep, economic factors etc.

One of the resons I come here is to reassure myself that people are still passionate about these machines and that the market is, indeed, healthy.

Thanks DR and VAF!
 
Everything I haven't done yet! First it was bucking rivets without damaging skins, then it was proseal. My finish kit will be delivered tomorrow morning so now what is keeping me up is fiberglass, and canopy installation.
 
hi mike,

i'd say the biggies are everything fiberglass... not that it's super complicated, but just a lot of annoying work...

what i found most challenging for planning so far was getting a slightly non-standard firewall forward setup going. where to start, what to order and in what succession. what are minimum separations between parts, how to make / acquire control cable brackets that actually fit etc...

rgds, bernie
 
Scary and sleepless

I'm gonna have to go with the Pro Seal also. I was so convinced that I was in for the biggest challenge of my entire life that I prolonged the tanks for months. Once I got into it, I got so mad at me for putting it off.

For all of you just starting out and building your first airplane - This Ain't Rocket Surgery Guys!!! Just build the plane. Now my biggest concern is getting that helper over to help me when I'm ready to rivet!
 
My kids, that's why the project is at a stand still for the moment. A 6 Mo old and a 2.4 year old will wreck your sleep and eliminate motivation faster than I can believe. Good thing aluminum is forever cus it'll take that long to finish my airframe.

But that's a little too literal for this discussion!:D

What keeps me up at night for the sake of this discussion is not knowing what I don't know (which is a lot). After doing an owner assist on the -4 and helping with some of the exhaust replacement tasks along side my AnP, there's a lot that I'd do wrong for simple ignorance if he wasn't there. So my ultimate fear is doing something STUPID in the finishing kit systems/electrics/fuel or maintanence that'll reflect poorly on homebuilders in the NTSB report!!:rolleyes: I don't wanna be the black eye on homebuilts.
 
As a super newbie... I'm wondering what to learn while I await all the stuff I just shelled ~$8K to arrive... priming, alodining? the threads here and elsewhere make my head spin...

My local EAA is mostly old guys talking, not building, it an hour drive to the meetings so I'm low on the hands on experience as well...



grantcarruthers said:
My kids.... A 6 Mo old and a 2.4 year old <snip> So my ultimate fear is doing something STUPID in the finishing kit systems/electrics/fuel or maintanence that'll reflect poorly on homebuilders in the NTSB report!!:rolleyes: I don't wanna be the black eye on homebuilts.
Click to expand...

Don't want to hijack, and I'm sure you meant most of this in good humor, but flying .mil regularly... I'm less concerned about how the incident report will read, and more concerned about making it home to my 1yr old, 3yr old, and wife! But it doesn't keep me up at night!:cool:
 
You don't think that the Velocity guys and EAA'ers in Vegas arn't feeling burned by the guy that took out the house?

I'm just saying I don't wanna be the guy that makes us all look bad/stupid/reckless and risks reducing our freedoms in the homebuilt arena.

This is in no way to say I know anything about the details or cause of the Velocity wreck, the pilots contribution, the airframe contribution, or why it happened or to disparrage the pilot. Just that none of that matters when non-flyers and especially non-eaa'ers sit down to decide what our freedoms will be next year and beyond.

There are some in EAA and AOPA that feel the Vegas accident is very poorly timed for the outcome on the "new" 51% rule.

So in short I just meant I feel a responsibility to the greater eaa community not to screw the pooch for everyone

As far as priority one being coming home to the family, I didn't go there because we all feel that way every day regardless of whether we're flying or not.

Cheers, not flaming just splainin a bit
 
Fire!

I really don't have any sleepless nights due to flying (at least not flying my own airplanes after putting enough hours on them to trust them....), but I think the thing that made me the most nervous early on in the flying life of a homebuilt was the possibility of a fuel or oil line leak and subsequent in-flight fire. This is why I always wear Nomex (including gloves), a helmet, boots, and a chute during the first few hours of flight test, and pull the cowling after each flight to make sure that nothing is leaking, rubbing, or fixin' to come apart.

I have complete faith in the structural integrity of the RV design so long as something really radical wasn't done during building), and I know how they are going to fly. My concern is firewall forward as a potential for flame, and that's why I am very "by the book" when it comes to engines and installations. We do things certain ways because there are lessons learned in blood by those who came (and went) before us. That is why when I do Tech Counselor visits or Flight Adviser consultations, my emphasis on what is going on up front (well, those things and control continuity!).

Paul
 
What keeps me awake? Shoulder pain. I had shoulder surgery 5 weeks ago and still have not recovered enough to get back to work on my airplane. I am nearly there and with the return of some cooler, dryer weather down here, I am itching to get back out to work.

At least I have taken the break from building to work on my electrical layout. I was set to start laying out the panel, then I learned about the new Dynon moving map display coming out next year, so I put the panel design on hold. At the rate I am building now, it is going to be a while.
 
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