Eating the Elephant

Part 1: Where Do We Begin?

2
This is what we mean by a repeat offender. Here’s Paul Dye contemplating his RV-8, which he completed in 2005. Since then, he’s finished four more airplanes. He is not insane.

It is common for a pilot new to the homebuilding world to come onto an internet forum and ask something like, “I really like those RV-7s, and I’d love to have one, but I am trying to decide if I should build a new one or buy one already built. Can anyone help me with that decision?”

That’s an incredibly easy question for experienced builders to answer. Without a doubt, the person should start shopping for a completed airplane. Because building an airplane is not a hobby. It’s not something that you pick up casually to do in your spare time between household chores, fishing trips, time with the family at the cabin or vacations.

Building an airplane is a commitment to spending literally thousands of hours in the workshop (and preparing to be in the workshop), time that you will never have to do any of those other things. Building an airplane has to be an all-consuming passion, something that you simply have to do—and maybe don’t know why. If it’s not, then you are unlikely to be successful. Or you may end up hating the process by the time you’re done. So: If you have to ask if you should build, you probably shouldn’t.

Your project will have hundreds (perhaps thousands) of small repetitive tasks before it even begins to take shape.

Insert an Idiom Here

One of the common analogies experienced builders use forms the title for this series because it’s like eating an elephant. One person can’t imagine eating a whole elephant. It’s simply impossible. But the answer to the idiomatic question remains: one bite at a time!

And that’s how you build an airplane—by putting the thoughts of flying away in your new airplane completely out of your mind and turning back to the workbench to deburr the new rivet holes in that elevator rib. One bite, one part, at a time.

Each task has several subtasks to be completed and, by the end, you’ll be good at all of them. Even deburring (left). Spousal assistance (and permission) is critical to a happy build. Louise Hose, Paul’s better half, understands this absolutely and steps in to help, cajole and commiserate as needed (right).

Sure, you need to keep the finish line in mind as you build, as you fabricate, as you assemble. But you have to recognize that the goal is a long way off, well over the horizon. Scan as much as you want, but it’s something you can’t see clearly when you begin. It’s just too far away.

But it is something that you can envision in the future. It’s a long journey, one with many traps and pitfalls along the way. Like the American settlers of the mid-1800s setting out from Missouri for the promised lands of California, you have to put one foot in front of the other and have faith that there is water and good land beyond the distant mountains.

Yes, you will spend lots of time staring, thinking, wondering—not necessarily doing.

The Ebb and Flow

Your journey to an airplane will have many pitfalls and traps along the way. You might find that you have taken a wrong turn and have to give up ground, return back across territory you didn’t like in the first place and will hate more the second—but if you want to get to the goal, it’s a necessary setback. You will be confused, you will be lost. You will clearly want to give up. And in those moments, you have to remember that you are not “going to California,” you are just moving west. Every step west takes you farther from the east.

This series is not necessarily about how to drill holes, set rivets, crimp wires or build an instrument panel—though those processes are inevitably part of the journey. It is not designed to teach you how to do fiberglass or assemble landing gear. Yes, you might learn about some of those things along the way. But the real lessons are about the process of building an airplane—mechanically and psychologically.

The articles that make up this series are centered on the building of an F1 Rocket­­—my fifth build­—from a quickbuild kit. You’ll see the Rocket take shape and maybe learn a little bit about things that a multiple offender does when building. But I’ll try to explore more deeply the thought processes of deciding how to do things and how these thought processes create momentum or inhibit progress along the way.

You learn as you go, work as you go. Stop staring at the completed airplane in the background—or even your mind’s eye version of your project—and focus on the task literally at hand.

Remember, building an airplane may seem impossible. But a person can build airplane parts—and if they build enough of them, assemble them into what eventually becomes a flying machine. Just like eating the elephant, you can take steps toward the end goal each day. At some shining moment, you’ll realize that all you have left to do is pour gas in (hopefully not on) your creation and take it into the air.

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Paul Dye
Paul Dye, KITPLANES® Editor at Large, retired as a Lead Flight Director for NASA’s Human Space Flight program, with 50 years of aerospace experience on everything from Cubs to the Space Shuttle. An avid homebuilder, he began flying and working on airplanes as a teen and has experience with a wide range of construction techniques and materials. He flies an RV-8 and SubSonex jet that he built, an RV-3 that he built with his pilot wife, as well as a Dream Tundra and an electric Xenos motorglider they completed. Currently, they are building an F1 Rocket. A commercially licensed pilot, he has logged over 6000 hours in many different types of aircraft and is an A&P, FAA DAR, EAA Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor; he was formerly a member of the Homebuilder’s Council. He consults and collaborates in aerospace operations and flight-testing projects across the country.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Paul, this is probably the overall best article of what building an aircraft actually is. Two things I especially liked: 1) “this is not a hobby”, and 2) the pic and comments of you staring into the partially complete fuselage – man did that bring back memories!

  2. Paul,
    I just finished my RV-7A (first build) after 10 1/2 years and your article just resonated with me. Like Randy I don’t how to measure all of the time I spent just “thinking”- all of the research on “how to do something” that I didn’t know how to do. Many times I would wake up at 2:00 am and a solution would present itself.

    The key to finishing is “not quitting” – at least for no more than a month or so!

    Great article!!

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