While I may have some background in automotive mechanics, and I do know the basics of how airplanes are constructed and operate, I am a 100% noob when it comes to many of the aspects of building an RV... including arguably the most important skill required: riveting and working with aluminum in general. Knowing that we would both need to learn some new skills prior to embarking on the build, we signed up for the EAA SportAir workshop to be held at KOSH in late January 2014. Sarah signed up for the composites course, and I took the sheet metal course.
Although we would have loved to fly up there, the winter weather dictated that a 4-hour drive would be necessary instead. OSH has become like a second home for us, and every time we go there (during Airventure or not) we seem to come home with at least one great story. This time, an incredible snow storm hit us both on the way up and then again on the way back home. That didn't matter though, we made it to EAA headquarters anyway!
This is the main meeting room, where everyone met up and all the big presentations took place. We took the "What's Involved in Kit Building" course here also, where we learned a ton of information about all the necessary steps needed to successfully build and fly an experimental aircraft here in the US.
In the sheet metal class, I got to put this little project together under the watchful eye of a top-notch, experienced, and extremely knowledgeable instructor-- very appropriately named Buck. It only seemed logical that I would learn how to buck rivets from someone with that name!
The finished product: A small airfoil-shaped piece that has a hinged trim tab and an inspection plate on the bottom. Building this part, along with absorbing as much information as I could will prove to be worth its weight in gold when it comes to tackling building the real thing!
While I was in a pretty standard workshop-type classroom, Sarah was meanwhile attending the fiberglass workshop, which just so happened to be sharing a hangar with EAA's B-17 "Aluminum Overcast" while it was undergoing some routine maintenance. Talk about in-class distractions!
Some of the materials used in the fiberglass workshop.
Sarah's completed fiberglass parts! We're hoping that these acquired skills will help with the limited but important composite portions of the -10 build, including a complete custom interior and panel.
You can't sit 20ft away from a B-17 for two days straight without climbing inside to sit in the left seat for a minute!
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