EAA Chapter 528 - Meeting the "Local" Builders

 When I first started planning everyone told me to talk to local EAA Chapters.  I joined EAA and the resources online are quite helpful.  I reached out to the local two chapters and came to find one chapter is essentially dead.  All of the top members moved south and no one took over.  Lucky for me, the East End chapter, Chapter 528 is still functioning.  I reached out and got in touch with Rich who is one of the administrators.  He was nice enough to get me in touch with the single RV-10 in my area's owner.  I got to speak with both gentlemen over the course of the winter, but no meetings were on the table due to COVID.  

Luckily, the weather began to warm and both had invited me out to their hangars, located 10 minutes away at KFOK (Gabreski Airport in Westhampton).  Rich has a RV-6 which is beautiful and was his second home built that he completed with his father.  The aircraft was nice but I unfortunately had a short window to visit and didn't have a chance to go up with Rich.  That's still on the agenda one of these days. 

David who owns the RV-10 is actually working on his Instrument Rating like me.  We had chatted a few times already over the phone about our training and the build process.  I eventually was able to find a day where David was heading upstate for his Pitot Static check and wanted a safety pilot so he could fly under the hood.  It made a perfect situation where I could tag along and check out his plane and get to fly in it.  ?Unfortunately, the day came and the airport was fogged in with the morning fog.  We hung around for about 90 minutes and their was no sign of it lifting in sight.  The nice part was David graciously let me check out and see his aircraft and hangar.  I was amazed by the size and beauty of it, and it really reinforced my desire to build myself a 10.  Hopefully I will get to go up at a later date with him.

I continued to wait and hope the weather would improve, and finally NY let up a lot of the Mask and gathering requirements in the middle of May.  Shortly thereafter, Rich sent out a blast about a gathering at his hangar.  I immediately went into planning mode to insure I could make it.  It was a mostly informal gathering where the members BBQ'd and conversed about flying and building.  It was nice to meet other builders as well, many were building or had built Sonex aircraft.  There was another smaller RV builder present who also had a nice aircraft.  I came to realize a bunch of these builders had electrical backgrounds and were willing to help me when I got to that point.  That is probably one of the most worrisome areas of building for me.  If I can save some money by not doing a full service panel build, that would be a home run.  But I have a lot of steps before I get close to that.  It was a great afternoon and made me eager to see some other builds and get to know these guys better.  I am looking forward to the next meeting which may be held in a Sonex builders garage, which would be nice to see a build in progress.  

Back to the garage reorganization and build planning.  Until my next update.

Storage and Lighting

 Well the first prep task has been completed.  I bought some overhead shelving to mount over the garage doors.  I need to clear up the floor space so I can have enough room to build in the garage when I am ready.  The two racks were a bit interesting to put up, especially since the bars that support it are a bit flexible.  But with some persistence and hard work I finally got them up.  I expect this push through work ethic is going to be needed at many points through the project.  Now it's time to clean up the floor and get things up on the rack.

In other news, I have been debating my idea of a 10 and have also looked at the RV-14.  Part of my thinking is it would be easier to do a 2 seater aircraft and move upwards later, but part of me says why bother and just build the plane I want now.  Thoughts?

 Photo of RV-14 Demo plane by Flying Magazine.

On To The Planning Stage.....

Step 1 : Spring Cleaning

 So now that the family is supportive of my plans.  I need to start prepping my "plan of attack".  I already have laid out a few of my needs in the garage.  I just bought a bunch of storage which will help me get everything off of the floor.  Once this is done, I hope to have a mostly clear garage floor.  Can anyone say Spring Cleaning??

Step 2: Research, Research, and Research

So this really is being done at the same time.  I've spent a lot of my free time lately researching everything from common RV mods to Avionics to Engines.  Now I know a lot will change between now and when I get to the Engine or Avionics parts, but I like to have a rough draft in my head.  I think by having a rough idea, it will help me guide myself through the build stages.  Due to space constraints, I am pretty sure I will do the empennage then the fuselage.  This way I can join them together, and do the interior mostly before worrying about wing structures laying around.  Of course this can all change.  I am hoping to have my research done by the summer and have a real plan of attack.

Step 3: Plan Ahead

For those who stay up to date on the RV stuff, the estimates for kits are getting longer and longer due to COVID, higher demand, and longer production.  This has caused the kits to become 6-8 months for most of the standard kits.  So I will definitely plan to order two kits together, the Empennage and One other.  Now I could order the wing kit to keep costs down, but in the end, I'm gonna order them all.  The other question, Do I eventually want to take on a partner in the build as I get further along.  Having a partner would be nice, but that also complicates things as you need to take their opinion into matters.  Maybe I would be better off waiting until complete to do so.  One step at a time :).

So how am I doing these steps?

I am currently reading through lots of Build Blogs and watching tons of You Tube videos for other builders.  Here are some of my favorites:

YouTube: Jason Ellis, BuildFlyGo Channels, 
Instagram: BuildFlyGo and Plane Lady
Build Website/Blogs: Charlie Derk, Mark Ciglia, Damazio Family, RV10 Builder, Good Plane Living, and Tim Huneycutt

Many of these sites have great documentation of the build process, upgrades they have done, and tips for future builders they learned along the way.  Another great resource I have found have been Van's Air Force Forums and the various RV-10 and Van's Builder Groups on Facebook.  There is lots of good information and conversation out there.  I think my next task is going to be to order the plans USB stick from Van's to help me layout things in my head and better understand some of the build specific chatter.

So what are your thoughts and tips?  Anything unique I should preplan for?

Step 1 : Convince the Family

 So the process has begun.  There is no way to embark on this type of long term project without involving the boss, AKA my lovely wife.  My wife has always supported my ideas including running two businesses, taking lots of trips, and doing things at home.  However, building an airplane is a bit of a different project.  The first time I brought it up, I got the deer in headlights look.  Then I got the, “What the hell do you know about building airplanes?”.  So it was a tough start for sure.

 I let the idea sit in the back of her kind and would sporadically bring it up.  She had started to show interest and had a few questions, I mean who wouldn’t?  She asked about how to do it, what’s involved, and even if there’s help for it.  She queried about the required inspections and we discussed the EAA technical advisor and DAA responsibilities. She was happy these things are available and required to check the work.  

The one item we still disagree on, which I can live with, is she prefers I hire someone experienced to do the maiden flight hours.  If this was the stipulation to allow be to build, I think I can handle it.  I mean let’s be honest, this is a long term project, she might have a new viewpoint by then.  

So what did she bargain for you ask?  My wife is now guaranteed the convertible she always wanted once we retire.  I guess that’s a fair trade.  😎

So what now?

So my next plan of attack is to start collecting the tools and setup workshop.  My workshop for this will be our two car garage.  Right now we have a lot of stuff there so I need to get creative to make space.  My goal is to reorganize this space in the spring once it’s a tad bit warmer outside.  Then in the summer I hope to tackle the electric extension, air hoses, and workbenches.  This should set me up for my birthday in June and Christmas to start collecting tools.  

My goal is to buy a tool kit from Isham or Cleaveland Tool.  They both seem to have good reviews and I’ll compare the items a bit more soon.  I have to upgrade to a real tool cheat to make space as well for all of the tools.  It should be an interesting year trying to setup and prepped.  

After I have everything in place, I plan to take part in Synergy Air’s fundamentals at minimum.  A few people have done the empennage build with them as well, but I’m not 100% sold yet.  If I can save 6k and do that slowly myself, that’s money for all the other expensive stuff I’ll need later.  

So for now I will continue to plan and research various elements, then I’ll prep the workshop once the winter ends.