I first learned to fly at the Base Aero Club when I was a Medic stationed at Torrejon AFB, Madrid, Spain. The club owned two Cherokee 140's. My intro flight included an introduction to aerobatics by doing barrell rolls in a Cherokee 140.
I got an "early out" to go to college where I used my G.I. Bill benefits to get my Commercial, Instrument, Multi-Engine, CFI, and CFII ratings. I tried to make a living as a CFI but when the babies started coming and the Vietnam War created a sudden glut of experienced jet pilots my aviation career ended for almost 30 years. I had 700 hours of flight time.
Da Vinci had it right about once you've tasted flight and during the past 40 years I never stopped looking at every airplane that flew over and I always knew where all of the local airports were within a 100 miles of wherever I was. About 10 years ago my new son-in-law talked me into getting current and doing some flying and I did for about 6 hours and then I didn't fly again until February 2013 when I got my CFI reinstated. Last year year I flew 200 hours of flight instruction and I still do some part time flight instructing.
When I first started looking into building an airplane I was desparate to get back in the air and I thought that building might be the cheapest and fastest way to be able to regularly fly. The fact that I get to fly almost every week I think that my motivation to build to fly was not well thought out.
I've seriously looked at building the past few years and most of that motivation has been "cheap affordable flying". After attending EAA's Airventure 2013 in Oshkosh I was really bitten with the "need to build". I wanted to build one of those magnificant flying machines!
I've looked at doing wood, composite, sheet metal, and steel tubing. I've looked at building from scratch to the new "Quick Build" kits. I've been around and around between Sonex, Zenith, Rans, Vans, and Fisher. You name it and I've probably wanted to build it. I love them all! I've bought a half dozen plans and a couple of rudder kits. But I always run into the same problem - getting started is hard because I don't know what the heck I'm doing and I don't understand what I'm looking at. (Did I tell you that mechanical skills are my lowest apptitude skill?)
I don't remember what exactly I was reading but it went something like the FAA approves of home-building for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES! That is what I was missing. Building an airplane is supposed to be an educational experience. It is something that you have to learn how to do that you don't know how to do today! I realized I was looking at all the different aircraft with the wrong motive. I then realized I needed to look at each aircraft in terms of - how are they going to educate me?
I soon discovered HomebuiltHELP.com These guys are all about educating builders. I realized that I needed the easist kit that these guys could help me build. I discovered they had videos to show me how to build an entire airplane - the Zenith CH7250 Cruzer. And that is the aircraft I have picked to learn how to build an airplane. Their videos are awesome!!!!! In my opinion the key is the educational value of the building videos.
I've bought the HomebuiltHELP.com videos and started watching them. I then ordered the Zenith Ch750 Cruzer rudder kit. The videos are so awesome that I discovered the the manual that Zenith sent with the rudder was incomplete. Wow! I've learned a lot and I haven't even put in my first cleco!
I'm started. The rest of this blog will be the educational journey of building an airplane.
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