Building Skils and Age of Builders
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Jim Rodrian
I'm taking the time to respond because of the statement "the younger set
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does not have any skills to build an aircraft." I started my Defiant project in 1984. I'm currently 57 years old and within a year of flying the Defiant, after 22 years of building. It has taken this long because my family (wife and 3 children) came first and the pay back has been significant. My oldest son, in particular, can do a fiberglass wet lay up or vacuum bagged pre-preg lay up better than anyone I know. He designed and built an RC aerobatic aircraft with a 1.5 (2.0?) meter wing span, while a Senior at Purdue. The aircraft was flown, in competition, by the Central America RC aerobatic champion. He also designed and machined the molds to make the vacuum bagged, graphite fuselage and wing panels. Currently he is working for a small aerospace company. His responsibilities include morphing wing structural design. His design recently performed very well in wind tunnel tests at Langley. Some of the younger set is interested in building aircraft if we "older guys" take the time to give them the opportunity to experience the satisfaction of building an aircraft, or go cart, or . . . . Jim Rodrian Grafton, WI
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From: canard-aviators@yahoogroups.com [mailto:canard-aviators@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Byers, Walt Sent: Friday, December 09, 2005 9:14 AM To: Kenneth Miller; Greg Retkowski; Bulent Aliev Cc: yahoogroups@thinkingdevices.com; canard-aviators@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [c-a] Frequent Flier Miles Pay For Space Flight? Ken/All: Guess I've put my data into this. I started my Varieze with the buying of plans in 1976 at 24 years old. Got my 'kit' from Aircraft Spruce in 1976. I had my first FAA inspection in 1977. I noticed back then that most builders were 'older' and even today most builders are over 40 years, I guess something to do with time and money. If the younger set is interested in aviation, they are not interested in building, just flying with all the electronic marvels and getting from point A to point B. I've also noticed that the younger set do not have any skills to build an aircraft. Really sad, most do not even know the difference between a screwdriver and pliers. I can say the same thing about our recent engineering hires, especially the newer graduates, they know nothing about hardware or how to work on anything (except putting cards into computers). W. Dean Byers, Varieze N290DB Fox Airport, Lancaster, Calif (down the highway from Scaled) -----Original Message----- From: canard-aviators@yahoogroups.com [mailto:canard-aviators@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Kenneth Miller Sent: Friday, December 09, 2005 4:29 AM To: Greg Retkowski; Bulent Aliev Cc: yahoogroups@thinkingdevices.com; canard-aviators@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [c-a] Frequent Flier Miles Pay For Space Flight? Greg, If you were to look around at Rough River, you would wonder why there aren't more handicapped aircraft parking spaces! Most all of the Long-EZ and Cozy III builders I know are over 50 and some over 60 and even 70. I do notice that some of the Cozy IV guys are still in diapers, though. As a side note, I started building my first Long-EZ in 1980 when I was 29, still in diapers. I am slated soon to go back into them ;-). Ken Miller, A&P EAA Tech and Flight Advisor Wright Bros. Award Winning Long-EZ/XP N6KD HWV Long Island, NY Long Island, NY http://www.long-ez.com/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Greg Retkowski To: Bulent Aliev Cc: yahoogroups@thinkingdevices.com ; canard-aviators@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, December 09, 2005 3:41 AM Subject: Re: [c-a] Frequent Flier Miles Pay For Space Flight? Just out of curiosity, what is the age breakdown of our canard community? I'm probably younger than typical but I'm hoping that the even younger generation is enthused with aviation to get involved with experimental aircraft and such. Although I can understand the apathy of my generation for aviation my generation has when we are riding in the same 747's our granadparents flew in and our government tells us that if we sacrafice and work hard for the next 15 years that we'll have the same capability to land on the moon that we did in 1969. -- Greg
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