How do I fit in the time

1,285 days 2,000 hours to go.

I logged no build time today. Obviously my hours stayed at 2,000. It is hard with life happening all around me. I got up at 4AM to start the day with a little exercise. After gathering the family for breakfast and getting ready for work it was 6AM before I headed off to work. I got home a little after 4PM and was immediately accosted with pleas for help with the piano and homework and the evening just slipped away. It is now 10PM and I have some church work to do before I head to bed. I am hoping that this blog holds me to the task.

Ken Rand built the first KR in 1972. He and Stu Robinson sold plans under the business Rand Robinson Engineering. They both worked at Douglas Avionics. Stu sold his interest in the business in 1979 and Ken died in a KR2 crash shortly afterwards. His wife Jeannette continued to sell the plans and run the business. I want to follow Ken into the air. He had very little flight time when he test piloted the first KR, about 80 hours. I will probably have less. I do not want to follow him to death, but the reality is that the first time I fly this plane it will be the most dangerous thing I ever do.

What is that a go kart?

What I want to do is build my own airplane and fly from AZ to CA. I am going to give myself 3 years and 2,000 hours. I hope to strap myself in and fly to CA before I turn 50. Before I moved to Chandler I never even knew that people really did things like this. My only experience with airplanes was LAX. When we moved to Chandler we found out there was a small airstrip in our neighborhood. When I say in our neighborhood, I really mean in our neighborhood. A couple of people we go to church with have planes in their garages (they call them hangers). They can start up their plane, drive out of their garage over to the airstrip and take off. I had heard and seen small planes, but this was something new.

Wanting friends I got to know Boyd. He is a cop in Phoenix. He has a plane parked on the airstrip. He invited me to go on a couple of flights with him. It was interesting, but I could tell there was some strange addiction to flying that he and others had. I did not have that, nor do I have it now.

On one of our flights we went to a hanger across town. I was so new to flying was still trying to understand what all of the things were that made a plane fly. Obviously there were the wings and the engine, but there were so many other things that were completely new to me. In the hanger were sitting a couple of partially built KR2's. I had no idea what they were. I thought they were go karts. Boyd told me what they were and that the guy who had been building them intended to fly them. I was incredulous. Later that evening I got on the internet and found a website dedicated to the building of KR's.

The original KR was designed and built by Ken Rand. Could I do this? Would I drive Kim crazy before I was done?

Julie and Julia

I just went and saw the movie Julie and Julia. I don't know anything about the real Julie Powell or the real Julia Childs. If I ever refer to them it will be the fictionalized version of them and in my head and looking like Amy Adams (Julie) and Meryl Streep (Julia). But the movie inspired me for many reasons. Unlike Julie I am old. (46 already? How did that happen?) And unlike Julie I have 6 kids and a so called middle age life. Similarly I work in a cubicle for Bank of America. I have a sense that others have figured things out and I am still waiting for something. And I need a deadline too. So here it is my derivative of a derivative, Kurt and Kim and Ken. And my goal is 2,000 hours in 3 years. 2,000 hours doing what? You may ask. That will be the topic of my next post. It is nearly 3AM and I have to be at church with kids dressed and ready in 7 hours.