Shifting gears

You know you're nearly done with airframe construction when:

So it's time to start shifting gears from building an airplane-like sculpture to building an actual airplane. There are two extremes to gear shifts: the silky smooth, less than a thousandth of a second shifts of a modern Formula 1 car, and the coffee-grinder abuse of a school bus gearbox perpetrated by a seventy-five year old spinster taking her lifetime's worth of frustrations out on an innocent collection of gears. If I had to select one of these as a metaphor for my transition from wing kit to finishing kit, well... call me Granny.

It's a problem of real estate, you see. Only partially in the "location, location, location" sense, though. That particular aspect arose when I went to the hangar this morning to retrieve the spars for the flaperons that I had hoped to assemble in the subterranean Schmetterling construction bunker. Nothing doing; they're way too long to fit into my tiny Subaru. I sure wish I had determined that before packing up and lugging home all of the tools!

But no, my primary real estate problem is that I haven't enough of it. I've mentioned before that it's getting uncomfortably intimate in the hangar and it is now time to do something about it. The first step is to use this rainy, blustery Saturday to build a wing rack, hopefully with help from Co-builder Egg. With the wings stored on something movable, I will be able to adjust my limited worked area as needed until such time as I can free up the space inhabited by the RV-6.

Oh, about that:

RV-6 • $56,500 • FOR SALE • Beautiful and eye-catching low time RV-6 must go to make room for RV-12. 400 TT. Lyc. O-320 A2D 150 hp 400 TTS Factory Reman., Sensenich FP prop 400 since new. Garmin 396 GPS, Dynon D-6, ICOM A200, Intercom, KLN-89B GPS, strobes, nav lights, sump pre-heat, electric flaps. Nice interior. Always hangared. Annuals performed by a trusted A&P. This is a simple, reliable, low-maintenance RV-6 built in the spirit Van intended. Emails preferred. • Contact Dave Gamble, Owner - located Grove City, OH USA • Telephone: 614 277-1269 • Posted March 4, 2011 • Show all Ads posted by this Advertiser •Recommend This Ad to a Friend • Email Advertiser • Save to Watchlist • Report This Ad • View Larger Pictures •Finance

I'm very torn on this. The sooner it sells, the sooner I can spread out my work. The down side of it selling quickly is so obvious that it doesn't bear mentioning.

Something is going to have to happen soon, though. The finishing kit is here, sitting in my garage. This too presents something of a real estate quandary. I'd like to haul all of that stuff down to the bunker, but 1) the rain is relentless, and 2) I'm going to build a wing rack down there. Hmmm. Or not. I think I'll just cut and prep the wood down there, but nail it all together at the hangar. Otherwise I run the very real risk of not being able to move the finished rack to the hangar.

Tiny Subaru, remember?

"Do Not Roll!" That will be good advice when the plane is done, too. The RV-12 cannot be flown quite as robustly as the RV-6 has been.

The pre-built fuel tank is a thing of beauty. Mine would not have looked nearly as good, and would probably have added injury to insult by leaking.

It fits right in!