Howdy. Also, garage space!

Hi folks,

I'm currently ramping up excitement towards building my own RV-14A (ok, I have tons of excitement. I'm trying to work out logistics and finances, now, and learn everything I can about the process). Have been lurking on VAF for a while, figured it was time to register and say hello

Biggest challenge right now is deciding whether or not I can build in my current home, a small townhouse with a small attached 1-car garage (which normally has my car in it...), about 18' x 9.5', with a 3' x 6' alcove at the deep end. Based on all the threads I found with a quick forum search the answer is "Where there's a will, there's a way" and I can probably make it work... somehow... even if it means parking outside for a couple years (poor car, sniff, sniff...) It probably also is too small to attach the tailcone until I move to a hangar. And the whole "wing fitting" thing may be frustrating, there is no space outside my garage to roll the plane out to do this without blocking in my neighbors

So, I'm also looking at "where am I going to find a hangar" and "should I maybe just move to a place with a workshop or bigger garage, and be nearer to an airport anyway" for the eventual project completion (my hope is "less than 2 years", as a single guy with time on his hands, assuming Van's releases the fuselage and finishing kits in time, but obviously it could be much longer). From where I live, it's only a ~20 minute drive to Boeing field, but there's no way I can get a hangar there... and its ~40 minutes to any other airfield where I could *maybe* get a hangar -- probably not a good choice for building.

Anyone who has actually built in a smaller-than-average one-car garage before... would you do it again? If so, any tips? If not, how much effort would you expend to avoid it? (buying new house, or commuting to workshop/hangar, etc?)

Also, any other advice or must-read threads around here for the new guy?

Cheers,
-Logan

Welcome to VAF!

Vorynn said:

Hi folks,

Have been lurking on VAF for a while, figured it was time to register and say hello


Cheers,
-Logan

Click to expand...

Logan, welcome to the good ship VAF

Many folks have built in small places-------a single car garage would have seemed like a palace to Vlad

I am building in a 2 car garage, but with laundry, yard equipment, boat stuff, etc, it's almost like building in a 1-car. My emepennage is currently stored in the guest bedroom, to the horror of my girlfirend and when I finished the wings I plan to move them and the empennage into a storage facility until needed. Then I will have enough room to work on the fueselage probably up until the point that the tail or prop/spinner needs to go on. I also don't have a good spot to fit the wings, but if I need to do that at some point before moving on, I could always bring the wings and fueselage somewhere else, fit wings, then remove and go back to the garage. At some point of course I will have no choice but to move to the hangar, but I think I can put that off till the last year or so of the build.

People have literally built these planes (or most of them) in one bedroom apartments, so I think you'll be just fine!

Chris

When I was in the Navy, I had a friend who was building a -4 empennage in a rented stall at the auto hobby shop. He had airplane parts in his room in the barracks. Room inspections were sometimes interesting.

Thanks, guys. I've just about convinced myself to order the empennage and start building in the garage here Small part of me still wants to look into selling the place and buying a cheaper place with a shop or bigger garage, closer to an airport, but of course I can always do that later if the space feels too cramped. For now I can probably manage to build the empennage without even parking my car outside (I hope). Might even be able to do the wings by parking outside during construction, then sliding the wings up against the walls at night to park back inside!

Most important thing is to get started, then keep making steady progress. If I can do that, I'll have an airplane (eventually)!

Hey Vorynn,

I had the pleasure of seeing the rollout of the RV14 at Oshkosh in 2012. I keep "wanting" to start building but keep putting it off in case I move. I had a similar question to yours and came across your post. Just thought I would check to see how things are going? I have a tandem 2-car garage (but have a lot of stuff stored in there). If I do some cleaning and organizing, I would have about 10x30' of working space (if I pull my car out). I'm currently renting and will either be moving for work (possibly across the country) or purchasing a home in the next 6-18 months (a 2-3 car garage will be a definite must-have feature

I feel that even if I don't get a lot of progress made, getting started and making some progress is better than nothing. I don't anticipate that I would be past the empennage & wings portion at the point that I need to move so I would hope it wouldn't be too difficult to pack them in a moving van?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

With regards to small spaces, I am building on one side of a two car garage. Besides my wife's car in the other side, I have columns in the center of the garage so that does limit layout choices even if I were to have taken both sides.

As others have mentioned, it should be manageable and so far is. I am starting with the wings, but have both the wing and tail kits.

It is tight building the wings in this space, but my plan is to build the wings completely, and then transport them out of the garage to one of my family member's garages for storage while I work on the tail and fuse. By doing that I should be able to build all the way until final assembly.

In my case the lack of space has led me to be more organized and clean up a lot more while setting up for the next set of steps. Knowing me, if I had a two or three car garage, the temptation for sprawl would be greater.

I'd think that starting, getting some sections done and then moving would be a major pain, with parts or tools "missing" and misfiled. If it were me, I'd insist on enough room to start.

That said, after finishing the empennage, I completely reconfigured the shop for the wings. And I anticipate doing that again for the fuselage. Those times would be acceptable times to move. Of course I have a hangar to store unbuilt or finished parts. But since it's half an hour away, I don't build there.

Dave
RV-3B

David,
Not sure if that was aimed at my situation, but for me to be clear it will be finishing the wings and all control surfaces related to them before moving anything. Put them in wing racks, transport, and move on. No need for them again until final assembly. I agree if you had to move things after each small portion of a build it would be difficult.

JDBoston said:

It is tight building the wings in this space, but my plan is to build the wings completely, and then transport them out of the garage to one of my family member's garages for storage while I work on the tail and fuse. By doing that I should be able to build all the way until final assembly.

Click to expand...

I'm building a -7 in a one-car garage that also has to store three bikes and my car and wood tools, and some lumber too. It's tight. Things get moved to the driveway every time I go out to work on it. My plan for the wings is the same; close them off to critters and store them at my boss's garage (lucky guy has a hangar-sized garage and shop in his back yard... it's a shame he doesn't have enough land for a runway).

I don't know yet where I'll be finishing and flying from initially, but it may be 45 minutes away from the house, so I'll be trying to do as much as physically possible at home. I'd even do engine runs here if I could get away with it.

Man, seeing the date on my previous post now makes me sad at my slow progress...

After a long winter busy at work, finally I have my workbenches and wing and tail kits ready to go in my 1-car garage. After doing an RV builders class last month and seeing the in-progress builds they had in the hanger, I think I've got enough space in my garage that I'm comfortable building the wings and tail there, so normally I would have started working on it immediately.

Unfortunately that builder's class also made me decide to prime the inside of my plane, and I don't have the space or ventilation for a paint booth. So I've put my condo up on the market a couple weeks ago and am intending to move ASAP.

I do wonder if maybe I should just suck it up, convert a wooden crate and some fans and hoses into a paint booth as many have done, and start building before the move, but I have crazy worries about moving an in-progress build. As a few posters have already mentioned, it seems fine to move a completed wing or tail, but to move while in the middle of building the tail seems like a recipe for losing items and getting disorganized. Would rather move the still-mostly-packed subkits before spreading loose parts all over the place.

TL;DR: 1-car seems fine for building. Not fine for building AND priming/painting. [or maybe it is, and my brain is just playing tricks on me because it's scared of starting to build ]

I would suggest a re-think of how you are going about this process. The ONLY way a project like this gets completed is if you are constantly thinking of ways TO GET IT DONE, instead of thinking of how or why you should not do it. A single car garage is plenty of room. My wings never even touched the fuselage prior to about 6 weeks before first flight. Sure, you can do it earlier but there is no need to. You can build the empennage, then wings, then fuselage, electrical, hang the engine, prop, cowl, canopy....everything before you need to assemble it into an airplane shape. All of that easily happens in a one car garage.

Stop talking yourself out of everything, and get on with it. It's not that complicated. Not that difficult. Not something to fret over. Its just an airplane. You can fold a piece of paper and make it fly....order the kit and get moving. You can spray primer out of a rattle can with no booth, as many a flying RV has done...including mine.

Are you still sitting there? Order the kit already.