By John Wyman, EAA 462533, Chapter 266, Montreal
Fixing airplanes can’t be rushed. It takes time to fix them and do quality work. I had high hopes to have my most recent projects up and running after four months of work. I’m now into the fifth month and they still aren’t flying. I suppose that’s life. I started rebuilding two damaged wings and a rudder (almost simultaneously) last November when a close friend offered me the use of his heated shop out in the countryside. It’s a bit of a commute, but heck, for once in my life I’d be working in a well-lit and warm shop. My body needed the break after last winter’s shenanigans repairing my car outside, and I couldn’t fathom attempting wood repairs in an open, but covered, hangar. I’d alternate working on one wood wing to the other aluminum one, in a different building, also in a heated shop, if the snow and ice didn’t prevent my car from reaching the house. That was wishful thinking (it still dumped!) — nonetheless, I did get a few weeks of work in on the aluminum one before the snow came.
Once I put that wing on hold, I got into the nitty gritty of fixing the wooden glider wing in my friend’s shop. The progress has been steady, but there have been moments when it was hard to envision it completed. It has been a rewarding learning experience. I am revisiting the work I did with my dad over many years. That’s been really gratifying. I am nearing the end, and the point of this rambling is to highlight how it’s very easy to underestimate the time it’ll take to get airplanes fixed! They take up a lot of space. It’s difficult to move around them and move them around — and so on. I recognize I am slow, but also understand that it’s really important to focus on getting it right over doing it quickly. The tortoise always wins. You get the idea.
Keeping that front and center is not always evident. It all takes time, and we spend a lot of it just looking at a part or jig and thinking, “If I do this or that, then maybe, this is the best way to go?” Only to realize later on, that that decision wasn’t the right one and you’re straight back at the drawing board. I was recently working on the damaged rudder’s skin and felt the pressure coming on to get another glue-up done as it nears being repaired; falling to the urge to use a staple gun to hold the grafted skins in place (instead of clamps or, if necessary, nails and strips) while the glue dried. My blood sugar level had fallen, and I was rushing. That mistake, which almost cost me all the previous repair work, was to underestimate the force with which the gun splintered the older/drier wood to which some new wooden members were attached. You’ve got to plan every part of gluing parts together before the glue is mixed. It seems obvious enough, but sometimes it’s just easier to mix it up and then put the parts together because they are going to slide around anyway. It’s a bit of a balancing act. I should have known, this far into the job, that using staples was risky, but for a fraction of a moment, I was distracted by the thought of it coming together quickly, and that if I wasn’t acting “fast enough” I’d mess up the joints by the time the glue set. At that point, I should have stepped back and re-evaluated how to glue said parts together. It’s easier to wipe some glue off and then try again versus wrecking what you’ve already done. The hardest of lessons to learn is to always take your time and forget about that subtle but strong force which has you striving to get it over and done with.
As I revisit fabric work, I note that Jon Goldenbaum’s guide on everything related to it (Aircraft Covering Process — Procedure Manual 101), sums up how you should calculate the time required to do the work. This, by the way, is a must-read for anyone contemplating fabric work. It completely de-mystifies fabric covering. As homebuilders, we tend to overestimate how much we can get done in a day’s work. About midway through it, he painstakingly points out that you shouldn’t try more than two applications of butyrate dope per day, shooting (with a spray gun) one in the morning and one in the afternoon and then let it dry at least overnight before shooting again the next day. The same is true for wood repairs. Take your time and don’t try to glue up everything at once. It takes time for the glue to set, and if you don’t let it cure then you stand the chance of ruining your joints by disturbing what you’ve already rigged to set. It’s a subtle bit of advice from Jon on attaching fabric, but I think any mechanic can take that to heart and apply it anywhere when fixing stuff. Take your time and don’t try to do too much in a day.
I have noticed that my nearsightedness in the past few years has degraded — a lot! It is not what it used to be. I’ve tried bifocals and progressive lenses but can’t get accustomed to them over just alternating between putting on my regular glasses and taking them off for close-up work. As a result, I am struggling a lot with just finding tools and small parts. That eats a lot into the amount of time it takes me to get the work done and I’ve had to adjust how long it’ll take to finish some jobs. I used to say that two times whatever my best guess was would do it. I now feel that even if all goes according to plan, the stars align, and the gods aren’t too hard on you, then you might as well up that estimate two and then add some.
Author’s note: Obviously it helps to only focus on one project at a time. But, if you’re anything like me and have a penchant for taking on too much, then you have to tackle everything at once. That’s easy to say but much harder to do when you’re in the thick of it!
John Wyman, EAA 462533, Chapter 266 Montreal, is a passionate aviator. When he isn’t in the saddle at the airline, he can be found out at the airfield doing any number of things. He likes to fly gliders, practice aerobatics, work on airplanes, and fix stuff.