Hello everyone,
Now that my first official post on the board was a plea for help regarding fuselage instructions, my second post is a formal introduction of myself and the RV-12 build project that my son (Collin, 13) and I have become heavily involved with since August.
My name is Jason Burton and I am a Private Pilot and one of the lead mentors for a teen RV-12 build project that is taking place at Brighton Airport (45G), in Brighton, MI.
We have approximately 12 boys ages 13-17 who work on the project twice per week with between 3 and 9 adult mentors. Admittedly, this is my first time building and airplane, but I grew up in the Tool & Die trade, and my career involves engineering and manufacturing of tools for stamping, molds, medical, etc..., so I consider myself to be mechanically inclined, and love working with my hands. Most of our mentors, including myself, are members of EAA Chapter 384, which is based at 45G, and are either experienced pilots, builders, or both. In face, one of our main sponsors completed a beautiful RV-6A several years ago, which he still owns.
We have completed the empennage and wing kits (including the lights options), and are currently working on the fuselage kit. Everything is coming along quite well, but we are unsure if we will make Oshkosh in 2016...we're certainly trying.
We were lucky enough to have an article written about our project on our local paper, which then was picked up by several other news outlets nationally.
http://experience.usatoday.com/stor.../10/04/teens-build-airplane-scratch/73347956/
Our website can be found here:
https://sites.google.com/site/brightonbuildaplane/home
...and we have a Flickr page that is updated regularly here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/137118601@N05/albums
Anyway, I'm sure that I'll be posting more questions as we move along. The entire group would really appreciate it if you followed along and encouraged kids as I try to keep the board updated as often as I can.
Thanks for reading!
Now that my first official post on the board was a plea for help regarding fuselage instructions, my second post is a formal introduction of myself and the RV-12 build project that my son (Collin, 13) and I have become heavily involved with since August.
My name is Jason Burton and I am a Private Pilot and one of the lead mentors for a teen RV-12 build project that is taking place at Brighton Airport (45G), in Brighton, MI.
We have approximately 12 boys ages 13-17 who work on the project twice per week with between 3 and 9 adult mentors. Admittedly, this is my first time building and airplane, but I grew up in the Tool & Die trade, and my career involves engineering and manufacturing of tools for stamping, molds, medical, etc..., so I consider myself to be mechanically inclined, and love working with my hands. Most of our mentors, including myself, are members of EAA Chapter 384, which is based at 45G, and are either experienced pilots, builders, or both. In face, one of our main sponsors completed a beautiful RV-6A several years ago, which he still owns.
We have completed the empennage and wing kits (including the lights options), and are currently working on the fuselage kit. Everything is coming along quite well, but we are unsure if we will make Oshkosh in 2016...we're certainly trying.
We were lucky enough to have an article written about our project on our local paper, which then was picked up by several other news outlets nationally.
http://experience.usatoday.com/stor.../10/04/teens-build-airplane-scratch/73347956/
Our website can be found here:
https://sites.google.com/site/brightonbuildaplane/home
...and we have a Flickr page that is updated regularly here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/137118601@N05/albums
Anyway, I'm sure that I'll be posting more questions as we move along. The entire group would really appreciate it if you followed along and encouraged kids as I try to keep the board updated as often as I can.
Thanks for reading!