Time: 12 hours
Date Complete: March 25, 2023
Building the Ailerons was a challenge.
Who would have thought that preparing for the private pilot license would have prepared me for building an airplane. In your training, you will often learn acronyms that help you remember important checklists. One of them is the IMSAFE checklist, which can help you determine whether or not you're fit to fly an airplane. The acronym stands for the following:
- Illness (Are you sick? If so, you probably shouldn't fly)
- Medication (Have you taken any kind of Meds that could affect your ability to fly?)
- Stress (Any life experiences that have left you stressed out or compromise your ability to make sound decisions?)
- Alcohol (8 hours from bottle to throttle)
- Fatigue (Did you get a good night's sleep?)
- Eating/Emotions (don't fly if you're hungry or feeling overwhelmed emotionally)
I came home from work early one day, took some meds, and basically went straight to bed. I woke up the next day and tried to build an aileron. I failed. Miserably.
Had I done the IMSAFE checklist, I would have decided to build another day and saved myself several hundred dollars in replacement parts.
I actually enjoyed building these Aileron End Cap Ribs.