Fabric training testimonial

Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 9:42 AM 
Subject: Re: Aeronca project- "taking a bite of the elephant"

I just returned from 3 weeks in Lower Delaware where I have begun to rebuild wings from a 7AC that failed the spar AD inspection. I decided to do the work at Tony Markl's shop to take advantage of his knowledge and expertise. The wings and I are from central North Carolina. So why truck them to DE? I had met Tony and his wife Pat last summer when he passed through Durham hauling a J-3 project. They spent the night and I flew with Tony in my Champ. I liked them both and reckoned that we would be compatible. I knew if I was away from home, the day-to-day pressures could be avoided while I worked on the wings. I am retired and have control over my schedule. Knowing that Tony loves to fly and teach, I knew this would be a chance to improve my airmanship. And most important, I have an understanding wife.

I arrived at Tony's with a truck load of wing parts and no experience in airframe work. Tony's approach was to give me space to work, minimal guidance, and lots of time to self teach. Whenever I hit a point where I was stymied, either he or one of his local buddies bailed me out with good advice. Pat kept my spirits up with her good humor, encouragement and excellent lunches.

After three weeks I had almost all of the internal parts of both wings cleaned and prepped with epoxy primer a dirty and time-consuming job. One wing is assembled but the tramming and nailing are not yet done.

So far, I've learned some valuable lessons:
* Every task takes longer than expected.
* Don't try this alone. Get as much advice as possible and then go forward cautiously. There are too many ways to do something stupid and several stupid things that cannot be undone.
* You learn best from mistakes as long as they are not catastrophic.
* At some point, expert advice is going to be conflicting or inconsistent. At this point you just have to do what makes sense to you and learn from the experience.
* The earliest work is the most depressing and tedious and seems to never end.
* As the job progresses and the wings take shape, the job begins to be fun.
* Don't put yourself on a schedule and expect to make every milestone. The job will take as long as it takes and delays are to be expected.
* If you can find a place to work where rebuilding Aeroncas and other old tube and fabric planes is common, you are in luck. For example, Tony has tools and hardware I could borrow and an old parts inventory that was an invaluable source of parts I needed. I thought I had all the stuff I needed to assemble the wings. Not so.
* The info and resources on the f-AA list are invaluable.
* Taking on an Aeronca project is like getting married. It seems to be a good idea at the time. Once you decide to do it everyone has an opinion about how. It's a lot harder than it you think it should be. It requires a high level of commitment. It may or may not work out as expected. It may or may not last forever but in either case it seems to last forever.

Dan VanderMeer
Durham, NC

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