Ch 3 Education

Date:  11-11-2009

Number of Hours:  10

Manual Reference:  4-1

Its hard to believe that years before I started building I was considering it seriously. It took a while for good reason.

The plans had me foxed.

So I build a mini version of the front seat to try and understand the construction of the very first part you build. This had full side corners and thickness but only 7″ square.

I needed quite a lot of help with this but eventually got it done. ..and did a nice job.

 

 

It then took another TWO YEARS to commit to building a plane from scratch.

I had a chance meeting with a gliding legend at the Nullabour motel on the way back from W.A. He was flying a very fast Lancair that he had built and thought I was young and should get into it. It was some encouragement. It still took a while after that.

It is no small thing building an aeroplane from an old set of plans and nothing else…..except the help of generous friends around me and those on the net who I hope to meet one day.

Date:  04-01-2009

Number of Hours:  10

Manual Reference:  3-17,18,19

I think is was some time in 2009. I don’t really remember.

I’d flown my bought 1987 Long-EZ for a while and wanted to learn about fibreglass construction. Later I did the Education Chapter from the plans that came with the plane.

This was a flat layup with several layers, that worked out OK. Then a so called confidence piece to prove how tough and strong composites can be. Finally a bookend which was complex and used many of the basic techniques needed for plane building.

Here’s that piece which is just very weak foam buried in several layers of fiberglass. It is amazingly strong and you can hardly even flex it.

I did them all and learned a lot. After finishing the bookend, I did such a poor job that I decided NOT to build a plane or EVEN consider it.

 

I was being encouraged by a couple of local builders to get into building. I thought they were crazy and the plans were far too hard for me to understand and it is a HUGE task of many years better left for talented people.

So the book end …ended up being…a book end. And that was the end of it except I was able to do a few small jobs on my flying plane… really small jobs.

oh… and I put a photo of my old 17 meter glider on that bookend. A great aircraft.

Book end done Not the worlds best…. and it was hardly a ‘confidence piece’.