WurlyBird
Well-Known Member
When your job is to sit around for 14 hours a day and wait for something to happen so you can take off and respond you end up with a fair amount of free time. This is my job so I decided I should start building airplane parts. We have civilians here that brought a few mil-vans full of shop tools which is invaluable. I decided that building a glider based on Mike S's Goat would be a good first project, plus I really want to get back to soaring. So I printed the drawings, made a few orders and waited. All my aluminum tubing and AN hardware came in so I was out there today getting started. I was surprised at how quick some of the parts came together, especially this being my first time working with metal. I managed to finish one rudder pedal and all the brackets to make the second in just a few hours. I used diamond plate for the pedals because I decided the 1/2 lb extra was worth the "cool points", you just can't beat the look of it. Anyway, it is nothing high tech or beautiful, but it made me feel great today to "just start building parts", of course everyone here is now CONVINCED that I am nuts. Jake reminded me of how unique it is to get to do things like this here in Afghanistan so I thought I would post about it. So here is a picture of my first airplane part built from scratch. If there is interest I will keep you all up to date on what kind of government time and resources I am wasting on this project. The plan is to build as many parts as I can that will fit into normal sized mail packages, primarily brackets but I have to build pedals and the control stick so if nothing else I can fly a chair. Here is a picture of my pedal, I know you won't get the enjoyment out of looking at it that I got out of making it but oh well, build your own parts.:gig:
James
James