I’m Back, Baby

Good lord.  Somehow a short break from the plane factory turned into a year hiatus.  How did that happen, one might ask.  I know I sure did (ask, that is).

At first I thought that I’d lost my mojo.  But that wasn’t it.  I still had the itch to get out and build all year, I just couldn’t organize or motivate to get out to do it.  Next, I blamed my work.  But while it is true that this was an incredibly busy year for me, there were still down times that I did not take advantage of.

So, when I leveraged my early-year productivity into a one-month vacation (all of October), I resolved to figure out what was keeping me from the Factory.  The first two weeks+ were spent out of state with the family, but now the kids are back in day care and the wife is back to work.  So I went back out to the shop, dusted off my tools and parts, and re-read the plans from front to back.  Then I went over each step to make sure that it had been done (I purposely did not review this blog beforehand, to keep me from making assumptions).  That help me remember not only what I had accomplished, but also how I had done it.

I realized that I had just gotten overwhelmed with work, family, a huge mess o’ ribs staring me in the face, and an overly complex and environmentally questionable anti-corrosion scheme (specifically, the alodine).

So I took some time to reassess what I’m doing, primer-wise.  I have time at the moment, so I could power through my original plan, at least with the rest of the wing.  But I’ll be back to work before I know it and I don’t want to just get myself back in this same position next month (or next year, or whenever).  I need to build a plane that I’m comfortable with, but if I’m not building the damn thing my comfort level with it is irrelevant.

On the other hand, I’m not willing to ignore the safety, time, and money issues posed by corrosion.  So I will be priming all mating surfaces (as recommended by Van’s) using (for the moment) rattle-can Napa 7220 self-etching primer.  I will also prep and shoot any area which has lost its Alclad via mishap, deburring, scratches, or whatever.

This is also the time for me to leverage the power of EAA.  Redlands has an EAA chapter, and I’m just down the road from the very capable folks at EAA Ch.1 at Flabob in Riverside.  I am committed to join my local chapters and get their expertise into my arsenal.

It’s time to get this show back on the road.

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