Friday, April 24, 2015
Cleaning Out The Garage
Today I had a day off of work for appts. After the appts, I took the long 2 hr drive to Miami to pick up my son from school for the weekend. He is 15 with a learners permit so he drove the return leg. Getting home at 5pm, there was still plenty of daylight to clean out the garage....ummmm hanger. The garage is loaded with bins of stuff we have trying to sell in garage sales for years. With the admirals help, we loaded the pickup with stuff. My son uhhhh student pilot gladly drove us over to Goodwill to donate the goods. The floor space is almost empty.... One step closer to starting the RV 10 build. Can't wait!! I'm really excited. Back to work tomorrow to save up for the tools purchase soon. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Cleaning Out The Garage
4-21-15
My workshop or my hanger as I like to call it will be the attached 2 car garage. Right now it's about 1/2 full of stuff we have been trying to sell in gargage sales for a couple years. Today I loaded up the trunk of my sedan with stuff without my wife noticing. Then she came into the garage and ask if we can donate some stuff to Goodwill. To my surprise, she filled 6 grocery bags of clothes hanging on a portable rack. YES!!! I smiled and thew them in the back seat. Then she handed me a bunch of other stuff, which I gladly loaded up in the car. She looked at me and said, "is that enough for now? Can we go back to the hotel for our stay-cation?" I said, "Yup, this is a start." And smiled. A quick drive to Goodwill and a tax donation recipt in hand, I knew the hanger is that much closer to build an airplane.
The garage has three windows with blinds and two 4' Florecent fixtures with two bulbs in each at the rear. During daylight hours, it is sufficient. Night, not so much. I'll definitely have to add a few more florecents to brighten the hanger during building time. I'll add the additional lights onto a separate switch.
The belt driven compressor is inside the garage. With 100' of hose, I can do some work outside the hanger out front on the driveway or on the side yard behind the 8' privacy wood fence. I have had this compressor for 5 years now and I find the noise level to be tolerable. The hanger is away from all sleeping areas so late nights won't wake anyone. That is always a plus!
Completed parts will be hung on the walls or ceiling. Small parts will stored on non permanent plastic shelving. Larger parts like spars and skins will be placed on top shelves of a couple plastic non permanent shelves pushed together. Will shall see how this works out as the parts come in.
My workshop or my hanger as I like to call it will be the attached 2 car garage. Right now it's about 1/2 full of stuff we have been trying to sell in gargage sales for a couple years. Today I loaded up the trunk of my sedan with stuff without my wife noticing. Then she came into the garage and ask if we can donate some stuff to Goodwill. To my surprise, she filled 6 grocery bags of clothes hanging on a portable rack. YES!!! I smiled and thew them in the back seat. Then she handed me a bunch of other stuff, which I gladly loaded up in the car. She looked at me and said, "is that enough for now? Can we go back to the hotel for our stay-cation?" I said, "Yup, this is a start." And smiled. A quick drive to Goodwill and a tax donation recipt in hand, I knew the hanger is that much closer to build an airplane.
The garage has three windows with blinds and two 4' Florecent fixtures with two bulbs in each at the rear. During daylight hours, it is sufficient. Night, not so much. I'll definitely have to add a few more florecents to brighten the hanger during building time. I'll add the additional lights onto a separate switch.
The belt driven compressor is inside the garage. With 100' of hose, I can do some work outside the hanger out front on the driveway or on the side yard behind the 8' privacy wood fence. I have had this compressor for 5 years now and I find the noise level to be tolerable. The hanger is away from all sleeping areas so late nights won't wake anyone. That is always a plus!
Completed parts will be hung on the walls or ceiling. Small parts will stored on non permanent plastic shelving. Larger parts like spars and skins will be placed on top shelves of a couple plastic non permanent shelves pushed together. Will shall see how this works out as the parts come in.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Why I Chose To Build an Experimental Airplane?
I chose to build an airplane for several reasons.
A big one is because new certified aircraft are ridiculously expensive. The M20 Mooney would be upwards of 4-500K or more, new! CRAZY! Since I'm not rich and don't have endless cash, buying new certified is not happening in my lifetime unless we hit the lotto. Ok, so new will require top dollar. Fine, lets look at used. A 10 year old Mooney M20, today, is $225K! 10 YEARS OLD!!! I have kept one car for that long, a Honda Civic. It had some 160K flawless miles out of the engine. But it was showing it's age the last couple of years I owned it. Building an airplane for less than used is not hard, and it will be NEW.
Next, I like to tinker with stuff. Nowadays with the internet, if there is something that needs to be fixed that I haven't done before, I research it online. After some searching, reading, and watching videos, 9 out of 10 times, I can fix it too. I enjoy it. I enjoy working with my hands. Whether it's my truck, car, house, yard, aquaponics, farming, etc, I do it. I'm a DO-IT-YOURSELFER. LOVE IT.
Building an airplane with the latest and newest avionics of my choosing is the next reason. When buying certified, your essentially stuck with what you got unless you have VERY DEEP pockets. Certified avionics are triple the price because of all the red government tape, and your buying OLD technology. In the experimental realm, getting the latest for a lot less is a much more attractive option.
Building an airplane over the coarse of many years, will spread the cost. Debt is the enemy in this country. Remember, I'm not rich. There isn't a big pile cash sitting in the basement. This project will be funded without a loan, free and clear.
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