…for what we have here.
I got the news Friday on Sonex closing their doors (https://www.sonexaircraft.com/), and like a lot of people, immediately thought of all the folks that are affected by it. It just hurts.
Over the timespan of 5 minutes or so the emotion turned to ‘that could have been us’. I was texting a friend this yesterday evening, and his response was along the lines of how VAF would then be more important than ever ‘if it was us’. He’s right, I think.
Susie teaches a free online yoga class via Zoom Saturday mornings from our living room for folks dealing with cancer (www.YogaBridge.org), so I usually scoot out the door and find something to do to keep the house quiet. Didn’t fly today as it was gusting 19 ninety degrees off centerline and OVC low, and I’m a big baby. No fun when you’re spending a dollar a minute to do it, so laptop to Whataburger to jot these thoughts down over breakfast.
Over the past 12 hours I’ve visited SonexPilots.org, AvBrief.com (Paul wrote a nice piece at https://avbrief.com/the-realities-of-the-kit-industry/) and POA to follow along with the folks hurt by this, then a thread inevitably popped up on VAF. In the midst of all this I started to wonder where VAF currently stands in the online world with EAB and the other EAB online communities. These things change over time, so I jumped off to Grok and asked. I was a little taken aback, and somewhat embarrassed.
Then grateful. Profoundly grateful.
Two screen grabs:
Grateful for the folks that make this site shine. Grateful for the vibe. I spend about 95% of my time behind the scenes dealing with the stuff nobody sees (bad actors, day to day admin duties, accounting, etc), so I’m most often down in the weeds trying to stay in business. Seeing folks rally around the idea of continuing, and using their boards as a place to solve problems and find parts gives me comfort that VAF would do the same. Saturday morning the SonexPilots.org board created a new sub-forum called ‘Parts Sources’. They’re adapting in real time.
Like everyone, I’m trying to diversify my skill set to keep me financially afloat in uncertain times (in my case with part time sim work and occasional contract flying). As Paul’s article stated, it’s hard for small businesses to make a living in the homebuilt world. Very hard. As a 1-person homebuilt company myself, I agree wholeheartedly.
I’m grateful for bkervaski (Bill). He spearheaded moving this site to the VERY stable environment it exists on these days. He’s a rock star in the RV community and I’m his biggest fan.
There were eight older folks in the booths near me Saturday at Whataburger, and they had to be pilots. Sounded like retired airline. I take comfort in that. Even on a cloudy, bumpy morning they were out there solving the world’s aviation problems over breakfast taquitos.
Life goes on and we find a way to cope if we can, but some of it still sucks.
I wanted to go fly the RV today. Instead I’ll browse VAF and hang out virtually with the online friends I’m lucky enough to have in my life.
With gratitude to all who make this place what it is, and those who help keep it afloat.
v/r,dr
I got the news Friday on Sonex closing their doors (https://www.sonexaircraft.com/), and like a lot of people, immediately thought of all the folks that are affected by it. It just hurts.
Over the timespan of 5 minutes or so the emotion turned to ‘that could have been us’. I was texting a friend this yesterday evening, and his response was along the lines of how VAF would then be more important than ever ‘if it was us’. He’s right, I think.
Susie teaches a free online yoga class via Zoom Saturday mornings from our living room for folks dealing with cancer (www.YogaBridge.org), so I usually scoot out the door and find something to do to keep the house quiet. Didn’t fly today as it was gusting 19 ninety degrees off centerline and OVC low, and I’m a big baby. No fun when you’re spending a dollar a minute to do it, so laptop to Whataburger to jot these thoughts down over breakfast.
Over the past 12 hours I’ve visited SonexPilots.org, AvBrief.com (Paul wrote a nice piece at https://avbrief.com/the-realities-of-the-kit-industry/) and POA to follow along with the folks hurt by this, then a thread inevitably popped up on VAF. In the midst of all this I started to wonder where VAF currently stands in the online world with EAB and the other EAB online communities. These things change over time, so I jumped off to Grok and asked. I was a little taken aback, and somewhat embarrassed.
Then grateful. Profoundly grateful.
Two screen grabs:
Grateful for the folks that make this site shine. Grateful for the vibe. I spend about 95% of my time behind the scenes dealing with the stuff nobody sees (bad actors, day to day admin duties, accounting, etc), so I’m most often down in the weeds trying to stay in business. Seeing folks rally around the idea of continuing, and using their boards as a place to solve problems and find parts gives me comfort that VAF would do the same. Saturday morning the SonexPilots.org board created a new sub-forum called ‘Parts Sources’. They’re adapting in real time.
Like everyone, I’m trying to diversify my skill set to keep me financially afloat in uncertain times (in my case with part time sim work and occasional contract flying). As Paul’s article stated, it’s hard for small businesses to make a living in the homebuilt world. Very hard. As a 1-person homebuilt company myself, I agree wholeheartedly.
I’m grateful for bkervaski (Bill). He spearheaded moving this site to the VERY stable environment it exists on these days. He’s a rock star in the RV community and I’m his biggest fan.
There were eight older folks in the booths near me Saturday at Whataburger, and they had to be pilots. Sounded like retired airline. I take comfort in that. Even on a cloudy, bumpy morning they were out there solving the world’s aviation problems over breakfast taquitos.
Life goes on and we find a way to cope if we can, but some of it still sucks.
I wanted to go fly the RV today. Instead I’ll browse VAF and hang out virtually with the online friends I’m lucky enough to have in my life.
With gratitude to all who make this place what it is, and those who help keep it afloat.
v/r,dr
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When I started building SuzieQ, back when we had to forge our own rivets...... OK....maybe not but the kits back in those days were mostly just an assemblage of aluminum pieces with some critical things like bulkheads, ribs etc preformed. Pre-punched was far in the distant and unthought of future. There were not that many builders around, but it seemed we all knew each other. My main mentor Bill Amos was almost always available to answer questions and, also who gave me my first RV-4 ride. (RIP, Bill!) The build was slow because there really weren't a whole lot of people to ask. A neighbor was building a Steene Skybolt, which was not a whole lot of help. I joke that 30% of my time was spent staring at the plans (paper blue prints....!) trying to figure out what they were attempting to tell me. 30% looking for parts and tools, and finally 30% building. All 13,000 rivets had to be drilled, deburred, counter sunk and driven! No small task! There were days I would go out to the hangar, stop and stare, and come back inside, having done nothing. There were days that I looked up to notice it was, somehow, 2 am and I was still out there working! And everything in between. Eventually, over 6.5 years and a lot of life changes later, she came together and became a flying aircraft!
But still an RV! And now, for crying out loud, there is a HIGH WING RV!! Who would have thought that? 
)
