As mentioned earlier, our EAA chapter is trying to save general aviation by creating a chapter airplane build program. It's not just a "youth project", it's an "old guys, middle aged people, young adults, parents, and youth... all working together" project.
One of the discussions on HBA played a big part in this, when we talked about the fact that the adults have the money for aviation, not the kids. So I figured the old guys (who
you lookin' at?) have the expertise and experience, the young kids are who the foundations and corporations writing grant checks want to help, the parents prevent this from becoming a drop-off day care center, and the middle aged people have spending money and represent potential new pilots, airplane builders, and chapter members.
We approached the Zenith Aircraft Company, and after seeing what our plans are... as of three days ago they have very generously agreed to support us. Because our chapter members have a fairly good range of skills in relevant areas (I'm a grant writer/fundraiser, we've got MBA's, accountants, project managers, aircraft mechanics, etc.) there's a good chance that how we do this project, our documentation, our "how to" notes, our methods of planning and project management... will become a useful template for other chapter and group build programs.
So the first step was to make room in our chapter hangar. Our hangar has a lot of vertical space, so we're building a half-size second floor "mezzanine" 9 feet up. We're using commercial "pallet racks" along the back and side walls of the hangar. This gives us the support for shelves/workbenches at the ground floor level, load beams to support the mezzanine, and even shelves/workbenches on the top floor.
Here's the first few pallet racks going up today, thanks to the extreme generosity and huge commitment of time and effort from Chapter 40 (and HBA) member SteveL:
