TANSTAAFL

I started out in aviation building plastic, then radio controlled model airplanes. Several years ago I got back into RC model building, and to my delight discovered Performance RC Hobbies, a local hobby shop run by Craig and Suzy. Big hearted people, they always had a moment for a hello, hug, or How's the project going, Steve? Whenever I stop by I never hurry, and half the fun of model building is the pleasure of the company of people at the store. 

Being part Irish, I do have a temper, but over the years I've gotten better at keeping it in check. I do admit though, I have a hard time when people stop by the store with projects they bought cheaper from an on-line outfit, and expect Craig or Suzy to drop what they're doing and give unlimited free advice. When it happens and I get the urge to charge in as a knight in shining armor to tell the person to buy local, I’ve usually gotten a Look that tells me to stay out of it, and I’ve reluctantly gotten back on my high horse and ridden away. 

As we started lacing the wire bundles together this afternoon, the work gave me pause. Being a pilot I’m a bit of a nickle nose*, and instead of buying everything through Jim and paying him to help me do my harness, once in a while I think that with advice from internet aircraft building forums I probably could have made up my own wiring plan, could have gotten a few parts a little cheaper from other sources, and collected more credit card rewards points if I had bought my equipment from Aircraft Spruce. I could have saved a bundle of money doing it myself.

But what about when I run into problems? I've learned the hard way that just because someone can post on the internet, it doesn't necessarily mean they know what they're talking about, and when I checked the ACS website I couldn't find a tech support phone number for self-built electrical systems. The GhostBusters don't work on airplanes, conventional A&Ps are often reluctant to work on homebuilt/experimental aircraft, and when they do they have to spend time (and money) learning how something was designed and built before they can even begin to troubleshoot a problem. The great SF writer Robert Heinlein used the term TANSTAAFL in his books, There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, there's always a price to pay.
 
OspRey is more than the sum of her parts, she's a product of and her heart comes from the years of experience and, yes, love of the people helping build her, and sharing their knowledge for her future.

Some things, like the experience of the people helping you, are worth paying for.

OCD, it works for me...

So... it turns out Jim wasn't upset when I told him about thinking the dimmer knob just didn't look right. Fortunately, he has a machine shop that makes me drool.

He was supervised by an interested observer....

Before and after. It doesn't look like much in the pics, but in real life it's a huge difference.

Thanks, Jim, I can sleep tonight. (but now will have to find something else to be OCD about.) 



In the meantime, the first wrapping of the harness is complete,

which means it's time to start attaching terminal ends to the wires, and hooking them into the ACI electrical bus.

Fifty Shades of Wire Binding

We finished running wire this morning,

And began lacing the wires together using special wax cord.

Jim headed home at the end of the day, and since it was no-brain repetitive work I kept slogging on. 

Gradually the mess of wires shaped into order. 

Jim's going to kill me, but the knob I found for the panel dimmer just doesn't look right, it sticks out further than and the barrel is out of proportion to the switches. I'll keep looking for a better one, maybe try turning my own on a lathe.

*How was copper wire invented? Two pilots fighting over a penny. How did England come up with the half-pence? Two British Airways pilots fighting over a pence.

Teflon coated spaghetti

Down getting in Jim's way again, this time to learn how to make a wiring harness. Things are going pretty well, and it looks like we'll have the dash and harness back home in mid-June.

 Each wire has been written down,

entered into a spreadsheet as it's cut,

and heat shrink labels are printed and slid on before being put into place.

This was half full at the beginning of the day.

 

Only a few more wires to cut, then we start wrapping the bundles tomorrow morning.

Recreational Mobility

I'm being mentored (and my wiring harness is being built by) Jim Ratte of Recreational Mobility. Legendary pilot/author Richard Bach adopted his SeaRey "Puff" from Jim, and speaks very highly of Jim in "Travels with Puff".


Jim is now on Facebook, if you have any SeaRey questions I can't recommend him highly enough.

Fun in the sun

Courtesy of Dan Nickens, Giuliana got her first SeaRey flight at the Garner's Landing fly-in

And she won a prize in the drawing, a PFD donated by the SPA. 

Then we went to work at Sun n Fun in Air Ops. I was able to share a few words with The Man

Sparky got her yellow "rookie" Air Ops hat

and was recruited by Greg Koonz to help in the ribbon cutting part of his act. 

In the meantime, Jim was hard at work, and kindly sent some pictures of the hardware mounted on the support trays. A center support will be added later.

Rack it up

The panel made it safely to Jim's and it's now in the wiring jig, where it will remain for the next few months.

With (a lot of) help from my friends...

One coat of natural stain, 3 coats of spar varnish later...

Now it's off to Jim's to take the air out of those holes.