Kim is home maybe I'll get something done

1255 days 1974 hours

Kim came home last night. I should have and could have got more work done. It is only 10:45. I am going to stop at 2 hours. Maybe if I pace myself I will make more progress. One of the things I like about this project is that I only have to spend as I go. Now I thought I was going to be further along and so back in Mar I bought some foam boards called Last-A-Foam. This is what the fiberglass covers to give the substance to the very thin sheets of fiberglass. Well I bought the wrong ones last March. Now we are going back out to CA in 2 weeks so I can pick up the right ones and I might not get to the point where I would have been able to use them, but it is still sad. I make so many mistakes. Tonight I measured a board out and it turns out that for some reason I read 1/2 an inch when it said 1 inch. How do I make a mistake like that? Well I did. So back to measuring and what should have taken 1/2 an hour took two because of my lack of skills. The only bright side is that when I started this project it would have taken me several days. I finished the month out with 24 hours of work. Better than the last 5 months. Next month 60 hours is my goal. That is very ambitious.

Thought I would get more done

1258 days and 1976 hours

I thought was going to get so much done. I was caught up in taking the kids swimming and other family stuff. I did get two hours in. I made the oven and baked the HStab. I think I did it right, but I am not sure about anything I am doing. I used Kim's oven / turkey thermometer and built a box of OSB board. I used the heat lamp and the 105 degree AZ summer. I am pretty sure the temperature got up to 150, but like I said I am never "sure" of anything. And after years of unsureness I will have to fly this thing up in the air. Scary thought. I spent about 2 hours studying the plans and I got stuck. I emailed the plan master Scott Watts and he emailed me right back. That was flattering. I need to watch less Hulu and work on the plane and sleep more. I am a moron.

Kim is gone for a week how many hours will I get in

1260 days and 1978 hours

Kim left yesterday. I could have gotten some work done, but I did not. My inertia exceeds my ambition some times. Tonight I got in 4 hours. I debated whether I should keep sanding and micro'ing the Horizontal. Finally I just decided to go for it. I was about 2 feet short on Bidirectional Fiberglass. I am going to have to order some tonight. I have gone through 20 yards so far and I have so little to show for it. This horizontal is supposed to be a learning and building skill exercise and the truth is I need the skill building and exercise. Kim is gone to her sister's for a week. I have to pick up all the household stuff like making dinner and shuttling kids around, but from 9PM the time is mine. I was actually in the car driving around from 3:30PM until 7PM and then I had a cub scout pack meeting with CK. And I still got 4 hours in. I will have to get up in 3 1/2 hours, but I'll deal with that later.

I bought a light at Lowe's. Yeah more tools. I was not prepared for the heat generated by the light. There is a lot of light in the poorly lit garage, however I had problems moving it in the right spot. I was afraid it might heat up something too much. $10, not much to lose.

Accidents at the gathering

1262 days and 1982 hours

I have not been able to get back in the garage for awhile. I should have gone to bed last night, but I just had to get back in there and do something. All I did was sand the Horizontal. I had put some Micro on the foam and as directed filled in the gaps and edges. I am making a mess of it. There was micro dripping everywhere. I also looked at the micro I had placed in the hole where the door hits the wall and it is starting to crack and wear. Boyd came over Sunday and looked at what I had. He was not impressed. I need to make more progress, be bolder. Kim is going to a wedding out of town for a week. I will have to make lunches and run carpool and stuff, but I think I will have more time for building.

There is a annual gathering of KR builders and enthusiasts. This year there were two accidents. Kim was not happy to hear about them. Both pilots lived. One was an accident because of running out of fuel, which unbelievably is the #1 reason for off airport landings / accidents. Kim was not happy to hear about the accidents.

Exotherm

1269 days and 1983 hours

I thought I would get more time in today, however I was up pretty late last night and after Kim and I go play tennis at 9PM I will definitely head for bed. On Wednesdays when they all go off to church I like to think I can get at least 2 hours in, not this week. I was touching up the Hstab with some micro when I ran into some exotherm. The glue used for laying down the fiberglass is a combination of epoxy resin and a hardening agent. They come in separate containers and they don't do anything until they are mixed together. There are a lot of different kinds and brands. I use this one because that is what the plans say to do and with as much experimenting I am doing there is no need to experiment with everything. Anyway the combining of the epoxy and the hardener and the fiberglass is why it is called composite material. The crazy feature of the epoxy material is that it can exotherm. That is if too much is mixed together it can heat up harden and even catch fire. Tonight I was going to slow and I had a bit of a batch in a container. It got hot to the touch. Then it started to harden very quickly. This stuff is supposed to take 24 hours to completely harden. It got to where I had to throw it away. There have been fires and even people killed. It makes me want to go check the trash can one more time. The stuff was HOT!

More Micro on the Hstab

1270 days and 1984 hours

Here is me working on the Horizontal Stabilizer (Hstab). It is the horizontal tail wing. It looks like I am snarling, but I am just not a very photogenic. It was nice to get some work in. I worked from 1030PM to past midnight and was up at 530AM the next morning. I may be adding too much glue to this as I stumble through this project. The only bad part of adding too much glue is that weight is very important or as some one has said whenever possible add lightness. OF course I could take 30 pounds off the final weight of the plane by exercising more and eating less.

Ken's widow still owns and controls the plans to the KR1 and KR2 planes. Over the years many people have added new ideas and design changes. As far as I know you can still order plans from Rand Robinson Engineering. I happened to be in CA and I went by the address. It was a post office box in a UPS store. The conventional wisdom is that if one wants to buy the plans they should just mail a check and wait. I have not bought plans. I am following the plans of Scott Watts. He has taken all the changes made over the years and building what he is calling the KR Super. He hasn't finished yet. I am following him as he posts the changes online. It is risky building a plane from plans that have not been flight tested, but his plans are so much more detailed that it really is the only option for me.

1272 days 1986 hours

No hours this weekend. I think I did discover that I could get some time in if I worked in the morning before work and came home during lunch. But that requires that I get up at 4AM. In my mind that seemed doable. I even went to bed at 9PM last night thinking I could do it. I barely crawled out of bed at 530AM and now I am well into the morning routine. This last weekend was Kim's birthday so I was not even going to look at the plane parts in the garage. That may make me sound like a good husband so let me counter that with I have actually thought that when she is gone for a week at her nephew's wedding that I would get some great work time in. A really good husband would be sad that she was gone and would not wish that she would stay an extra day or two. It is all about balance.

I have been listening to some pilots talk about flying. Typical of a non-pilot I thought that being able to see other planes was more important than weather, but evidently weather is a big deal. The way they look for other planes right now is that they look out the window. That seems a little archaic, but I guess the sky is really big. There is a new system being developed that will let pilots get more information, but it is still in development.

1275 days 1986 hours

I actually got some time in before work. If I can work a little before work and a little during lunch then it will be easy to get the hours in. The fiberglass I laid down looks pretty good. I read in a book that Boyd gave me about glassing over an edge. It involves putting some tape down and cutting away the excess. I am surprised that as strong as the epoxy/resin glue is that it doesn't stick to some things like Duct tape. So yesterday I was cutting and pulling up the duct tape. The wing still had some waviness to it, which I am assuming that I will have to sand and fix. Today is Friday so I doubt I will get much work done. Saturday is Kim's birthday so there is a chance I won't be able to get much done there either. Certainly having the work in the garage is a lot better than having it at some distant hanger.

When I have flown with Boyd he has asked if I wanted to fly for a little bit. The actually flying is nothing. It feels like nothing. I guess getting used to looking at the instruments and the horizon is something, but I don't feel like it adds to my experience at all. Steering the airplane on the ground (which is done with the feet) is hard. That will take some practice.

1276 days 1987 hours

I got a solid two hours in yesterday. Wednesdays are turning out to be good days to work. Everyone goes to church and I am left alone. I tried the new sander and I even wore the dust mask. The Hstab was still lumpy but I got impatient and decided to lay the glass over it. The first piece of fiberglass I cut out was too short. Arghhh. I didn't look back I just threw it away and cut another piece out. The second layer was the Bidirectional fiberglass (BID) I was introduced cutting on the bias. Kim knew what it was. I guess it is a sewing term. So I had to cut on the bias and that wastes a lot of cloth. After laying the second layer down I was done for the evening.

Boyd asked me if I wanted to fly to Catalina with him. I do want to do it, but his commercially built plane will cost about $250 in fuel to fly there and back. Even though it holds 4 people it is just too expensive to do something like that very often. That is why I attracted to this project. Supposedly the same trip would cost me $50 or less. That makes a trip to SoCal for the weekend very doable.

1277 days 1989 hours

I didn't get time with the plane at all yesterday. I just had too many things going on. I have to be ok with that happening sometimes. I was talking to Boyd, the airplane expert, and he was a bit discouraging of what I was doing. He just thinks that the plane I am planning on building just takes too long. There are a couple of reasons that I don't agree with that argument. First I can't afford to buy a kit for $20,000 even if I could build it a lot faster. This method lets me build slowly. Second going through all of the mistakes I am making I am learning how to work with composites, which is fiberglass and glue. So I am ok moving forward with my current plans. I know it is going to take 3 years, but in the end I will have what I really want and the expertise to work on the plane.

I returned the orbital sander from yesterday and bought a $30 version from Lowe's. I actually had to research on the difference between sanders. I can't believe I own a jigsaw and an orbital saw. I should have a pretty extensive tool collection when this is all done.

1278 days 1989 hours

Even though it was labour day and I had the whole day off I only got in 2 hours of work. I am sanding the Hstab still. I think I have really messed it up. I just keep at it hoping I can get back on track. I was sanding so much that Kim suggested I get a power sander. After awhile I decided to bite the bullet and go buy one. Then I made the same mistake I have made before. I went to Harbor Freight (which is the Walmart of tool supplies) and bought a cheap orbital sander for $10 and like always it was inadequate and at one point one of the clips popped off and dinged a hole in the surface. I am taking it back and going to Home Depot. I will probably have to learn this lesson again and again. It doesn't pay to be cheap sometimes.

1,279 days 1991 hours

I got over four hours of work in on Saturday. Today is Sunday and I don't work on Sundays. Tomorrow is labour day so I should be able to get some more hours in. I am struggling with the final touches on the Horizontal Stabilizer. I am still learning about the uses and epoxy and micro. I have to be patient and keep moving forward without fear. There are so many parts of a plane and terms that are completely new to me. I included a picture of the tail of a plane to show the part I am working on.

Keeping a build log is not just nice, but critical. You have to prove that built at least 50% of the plane in order to qualify as the builder of an experimental aircraft. As a builder you can then work on the plane without having to worry about the all the rules of what is allowed on a plane. It sounds like a good idea to have such control on private planes, but it is crazy strict. If some one wants to add something simple to their plane, for example a larger gas tank, if there isn't one that has been certified they can't do it. Or if they do they will have to remove it to pass a required annual inspection. With an experimental you can do your own annual inspection.

1,281 days 1995 hours

No work tonight. It is Friday night and it is the night that Kim and I always set aside for our date. 17 years of marriage, we have to keep it current. She is so supportive of all the crazy ideas I have. At one point in our marriage I wanted to live on a boat (with 6 kids). She even went to a boat show with me. Tonight I wanted to ride our bikes on our date. First we went out to eat, then to the local high school football game, and then finally to the movies. We rode 11 miles in 100 degree heat in Phoenix. She is so good to me. Some of my dreams never happen. Some do. I want this dream to happen.

I learned after researching about building an airplane that there is a class of airplanes called experimental. There are two big gatherings for experimental aircraft. The biggest is in OshKosh WI. This is not a gathering for those who buy planes. This is a gathering for those who build. This huge (700,000+) gathering of people has existed and I had never even heard about them. It is like finding out suddenly that San Francisco was always there.

1,282 days 1995 hours

I spent way too much time yesterday trying to figure out this blogging. I tried posting a picture and the layout just looked lame. I think I will stick to words for now. This has been a good start. In terms of building I don't know if I am making the right enough progress, but just getting out in the garage and doing something keeps me moving forward. Tonight I did some sanding on some glue and glass bubbles I laid down on some foam board. I sanded for 2 hours. I have heard that there is a lot of sanding. I dreamed of flying to LA for the day. Can you imagine flying 300 miles, which is how far it would be from Phoenix, for a movie. It sounds dreamy. When I first started flying around with Boyd I liked the idea of flying somewhere easily. I had no idea that an individual could land at almost any airport. Then Boyd told me how much it would cost. I think he said it was something like $300. Wow, for that much money I will drive with all the kids and our stuff. When I started checking into these "homebuilts" it turns out that they can actually make the trip for $25. That is when I started getting excited. I am so cheap.

Ken Rand died in a low fuel difficult weather situation. The FAA tracks every incident no matter how minor. The number one reason for problems is running out of fuel. That seems like such and easy problem not to have. I guess I don't know enough about flying to understand why that would be such a common problem.

1,283 days 1997 hours

I went out and started messing with the glue. The ideal temperature for the glue is around 70 degrees. It was at least 95. I would mix some and it would be too thick. I would mix another batch and it would be too thin. I never seem to get it right. I put a bunch on the Horizontal Tail. I am hoping that I can spend time sanding tomorrow and get it looking better. When I first started this project in January of this year I had no tools and no skills. I still don't have much of either. I did buy this Dremel like rotary tool for about $25. It was worth it. I know I will be buying more tools. Kim is hoping that this project will make me more handy. That would definitely be a bonus

I have learned that the FAA really tries to protect the skys, almost to a fault. Every accident is investigated and every part for every plane must be certified. A simple piece of aluminum can cost hundreds of dollars more than it is worth because of the certification. Homebuilts so far have escaped scrutiny. Once I build this plane I can do almost anything to it with out certification or permission.

1,284 days 1998 hours

Phew I finally got out in the garage and did it. I had the podcasts going and I just kept moving. It is 100 degrees in the garage. It is summer in AZ. The weather channel is reporting that it is 95 degrees outside at 11:45 PM. I won't say much about the time in the garage tonight because it is time to go to bed. I am happy just to see the hours move down one notch.

There are many things about the KR that I like, but one of them is that I don't have to have thousands of dollars up front to build it. I can spend a little at a time. If I am short on cash or waiting for supplies or parts there is always something I can do to keep moving forward. Did I mention that I don't really know the first thing about flying. I will have to get my pilot's license eventually.