Yeah, this is a good topic
because of that damn hindsight
thing!
I already listed the one thing
about the overhead crane or engine
hoist, but on another more practical
note. I got my airplane in the air
in 3 years from knowing nothing
about airplanes to choosing a kit,
building (not a quickbuild),
designing and building an
alternative engine FWF to first
flight, then learning to fly.
It was all great fun at home
in my shop where I could work on it
every spare minute. There was many
very late nights where the
creativity was coming fast and
furious and lots of times I'd wake
up in the middle of the night with a
great idea and head to the shop.
Then I was in a hurry to move
it to the airport. I hated working
on it out there. I could go on with
a long list of reasons why, but it
was hard to continue experimenting
with it out there and I started
regretting doing some things that I
was otherwise glad that I tried. I
tried to deny this to myself and
stay excited and positive about it
all.
By the time that I took it
home 2 years later, I was not really
interested in dealing with it. And
since we had just bought the land
across the road, I had a new shop to
build, barns to build, a kid to
raise and a thousand other
distractions, so that it took till
now to get interested again.
Fortunately, my wife only once
made mention of selling it, but from
my reaction never mentioned it
again, but I can see how so many
projects get abandoned at this
point.
So from that, what would I do
differently? Hard to be sure since I
didn't have the flight experience to
make some different choices, but
even an extra year in the shop going
at a little slower pace wouldn't
have hurt. That old saying about if
you don't have time to do it right
the first time, then when are you
going to find time to do it the
second time, is even harder when you
are no longer in your well equipped
shop while doing it the second time.
Now it's not like the workmanship is
bad, when I say about doing it
right, but rather if some of our
design choices are constrained by
the amount of work involved. Now I
would rather do an almost
unreasonable amount of work in the
comfort of my shop than almost
anything in the field. I really
enjoy building at home, but when
it's not at home I just want to fly
it.
Previously I would cling to
questionable half-baked ideas
because of the time and money that
I'd invested in it. That's not to
say that half-baked ideas are all
bad, but now I'll be far more likely
to move on and try something else
regardless of time and money
investment if I don't feel good
about something.
So when you're considering
something like relocating a cooler
and are certain that it would
improve performance but don't want
to to do the work involved, just do
it when you're still in a well
equipped and convenient work space.
And all you lucky SOB's that
have an airstrip and hangar at home,
you can disregard this advice.
I could fill several more posts
about more specific items that I'd
do differently but this was really
the big picture and once again it
may seem obvious to many but that
has been my experience.
Todd Bartrim
RV9 13Bturbo
Ps. I often get asked about
how many hours are involved in
building this plane. I just
laugh and say I don't know or
care. It doesn't matter.
George started us on a
good topic. Building an
airplane is an expensive
and labor intensive
process. I've made many
decisions where I didn't
really like something,
but liked the prospect
of the time and expense
to change it even less.
Those things don't tend
to get as much coverage
in discussions as what
was actually done, even
though there is a real
lesson in what the
person who just did
something wishes they'd
done differently.
This thread could be
renamed "What I'd done
differently"
Another good one would
be "What I'd do again"