Message-ID: <00ce01c2d899$178b0d60$053b3690@dell>
From: "Rob Logan" <Rob@Logan.com>
To: "Lancair Mailing List" <lml@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Low hanging fruit
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 23:32:34 -0500
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Ah, I'm so glad the Lancair community isn't burdened
by the "cookbook mentality". Lancair's manuals include
a parts list and the parts look sort of like sections
of an airplane.. with alittle work that wingtip will
even attach onto the end of the wing..

I hope our group keeps innovating and leading rather
than getting bogged down in over exacting detail
like a photo of how to organize nutplates prior to drilling
the aligning hole. Leave that to the RV people, we are
a different kinda fruit.

[ sorry, saw this post on another mailing list 
and I haven't approved a post all day, so I
thought I'd open an old wound  -Rob  ]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sam Buchanan" <sbuc@hiwaay.net>
To: <aeroelectric-list@matronics.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 10:29 PM
Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Milestone in history of the 'Connection

"Robert L. Nuckolls, III" wrote:
> 
> --> AeroElectric-List message posted by: "Robert L. Nuckolls, III" <bob.nuckolls@cox.net>
> 
> Got a book back from a gentleman who asked for his money
> back. Couldn't find where I'd sold it too him. He must
> have picked it up from one of the dealers. It had a stained
> front cover which he confessed happened when he left
> a sandwich laying on it . . . but the interior was still
> okay.
> 
> He wrote, "I'm tired of learning how. I know to properly
> understand something you should know how. But things
> keep changing, what's the use? I am tired of learning
> how. Just show me and I will do it. Why it is, is no
> concern."
> 
> For the first time in 17 years of publication and
> something on the order of 10,000 books sold,
> his was the first instance where an amateur airplane
> builder said they have no interest knowing how their
> airplane works . . . truly a milestone in my aviation
> career.
> 
> I cut him a check and put it in the mail with a note
> hoping that his experiences with his airplane were
> "enjoyable and stress free." I've put his letter on the
> bulletin board over my desk. It's a "keeper". . .
> 
>       Bob . . .


Bob, the attitude of your reader is one that I have personally been
confronted with by a few readers of my website, "The RV Journal". One of
the most enjoyable aspects of a fly-in, major or minor, is the
opportunity for me to meet builders who express their appreciation for
the effort I expended on documenting the construction of my RV-6. 

However, I have been discouraged to find that there is a segment of
builders who really have no interest in "doing their homework" as most
of us find necessary and challenging; they just want somebody to "tell
them what to do". This attitude concerns me because I have questioned a
few builders about the choices they made during construction and the
reply was "I just did it because that is what I read on your website".
The fact that their mission profile or flight experience was different
from mine, or the possibility that my reasoning may have been flawed
(!?!) was apparently not a factor in their decision to parrot what they
found on a builder's website. What is especially discouraging is that a
very few builders have seemed to take exception to my suggestion that
they need to research certain areas of construction to make sure the
plane is best suited to their needs. 

Fortunately, I am describing a very small segment of the builders I have
met. However, as more and more folk enter the world of custom-built
aircraft, a world many of them would have never considered a few years
ago, I suspect the segment of builders who wish to replace personal
education with a "cookbook mentality" will become larger. It may very
well be an extension of our society's wish to achieve instant
gratification, but the construction and safe operation of an airplane is
not a good endeavor to pursue by blindly following other people's ideas
without understanding the rational of engineering factors.

Thanks again for your continued efforts to bring us up to speed on
electrical theory and practice; and especially thank you for encouraging
innovative thought outside the conventional box! :-)

Sam Buchanan
http://thervjournal.com

--