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I Took the Plunge!

A

asw20c

Well Known Member
After seven years of thinking about it I finally took the plunge! I am now officially a builder, kit number 140313. Over the past week and a half I built most of my empennage at Synergy Air in Oregon (a great bunch of guys in case any one is curious).
I wasn't sure if I was going to like the "building thing" but as it turns out I love it. It was really cool to see a bunch of light bits and pieces turn into airplane parts. I'm also amazed at how careful one must be since it is so easy to make mistakes. One bad rivet and you spend the same time drilling it out and starting over that it would have taken to squeeze the next 20 rivets.
This will probably also be my most expensive year of my life since I am building a new workshop as I type this to have the space to build my 14 (see attached photo of the construction as of yesterday-assuming I did the link correctly). Buy the first kit, pay for travel and taking the Synergy class, build the workshop, equip the workshop, renovate master bathroom to keep the wife happy, etc... I can't wait to keep the project going!
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I made arrangements with a shipping company recommended by Synergy Air. They will pick up the finished pieces as well as the tailcone parts next week and deliver them a few weeks later. I'm ok with the timeline since you can see my shop isn't ready yet anyway. By the time the kit gets here my shop should be ready.
 
Welcome to the madness...

As far as the most expensive year, that would be the year you purchase the engine, prop, avionics, interior and paint.
 
I bought a Cessna 180 about 7 years ago and sold my ASW-20C shortly after because I was no longer flying it. The same thing will probably happen to my 180 when I finish my RV14.
 
Seven years of thinking about it? You could have been done by now! Hahaha

Welcome to a whole new way of looking at airplanes!

;) CJ
 
That's going to be a solid workshop. Must get very windy in your area (tornados?). Same size building down here would be much lighter construction. Just curious.
 
The whole shop is a bit over-designed on purpose. The slab is 10" thick and I put in two mats of number 4 rebar on 1-foot centers, both ways, with stirrups at every intersection. There is number 6 rebar in the footers, and every column has 18" anchors including the porch. The 4000 psi concrete is air-entrained and has fiber just for good measure. I had the building designed with a 30' wide by 10' high opening just so that I could roll out a fully assembled airplane without doing a pirouette if I wanted to. I could put the column with the highest design load anywhere on the slab and there would be enough steel to resist the moment and shear. Yup, over-designed (and expensive) but that's what I wanted. Other states have earthquakes, floods, mudslides, hurricanes, and tornadoes, but here in New Mexico our primary natural disasters are high winds and fire. The building is designed for 90mph winds and snow loads. The 30' opening will also have a 10' porch and be my backup location for cigar-night when it is too windy or cold to sit around the fire pit. It will be my man-cave when it's done.
 
Interesting. Our design winds here are similar, typically 45 m/sec or about 101 mph. No chance of snow here though. Further north where we can get category 5 cyclones, design wind speeds can reach more than double that with four times the wind pressure. Anyway, with a heavily reinforced 10" slab and enough structural steel to take a gantry crane, I don't think there's any risk of your workshop going anywhere. Good luck with the 14 build. There are a few under way in Australia too, with at least one flying so far. :)
 
Dream shop

Wow that's quite a palace your building , keep the up the good work , are you going to live in there too? hope your wife hasn't given you the boot already ? Lol
 
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