Finding Time

"Where do you find the time?"

That's one of the more common questions I'm asked. Probably the best
answer is that I don't watch TV. Oh, we've got one -- great big thing
the kids bought for us, mostly so they could watch the Bowl games when
they come over to visit during the holidays. We watch it too; usually
a rented movie or something like that.

Americans watch a lot of television. Turn the thing off and you will
have 'found' about a thousand hours a year to spend on something
useful.

"What are some of these projects you're always talking about?"

Well... howzabout a landing gear that uses eight wheels instead of
two? Or an ultra-light wing panel that uses banister-rail for spars
instead of aluminum tubing? Or a geodesic fuselage made by winding
1/16" x 3/4" strips of pine in a spiral? Or making 'emergency turn-
buckles' from aluminum extrusion and an AN4 bolt. Or a tail-wheel
'spring' made from the fiberglas handle of a Harbor Freight ax? Or
making pulleys from scraps of 3/8" thick aluminum plate. (Select the
proper diameter and your control-system pulleys only rotate about 90
degrees.)
.....plus a few hundred other things :-)

Right now the hottest thing on the burner is my trying to fabricate a
mock-up of the forward section of the Chugger's fuselage This is
needed so I can make up the engine mount & landing gear legs. But in
the mean time I've had to do some electrical repairs to the house and
replace a broken water pipe. Looming over all is the need to repair
the starter on my 1965 Volkswagen bus. All of this whilst feeding
myself sixty-odd pills a day, a weekly visit to the Vampire Corps and
pretending to enjoy a diet that would make a maggot gag.

Actually, the projects have a lot to do with keeping my spirits up.
They start with an idea then progress to a drawing. Most of them die
right there. But if the drawing sez the idea is possibly it triggers
a search for components: Is it something I can buy? Something I can
make? How much does it weigh? How strong is it? (Determining the
strength of something is always a lot of fun :-)

If the idea survives the initial stages the next step is usually a
model although often times it's more practical to go straight to the
real thing and bolt it to my drop-tester. If it survives that -- and
if it's light enough -- I'll probably write an illustrated article
about it, although most ideas lead you right up to the edge of
success... then let you down for one reason or another. (Some of you
may remember the knee-action landing gear I built. By the time I
found a rubber snubber sufficiently stout to withstand the drop-test
the thing was about ten pounds over weight.)

I don't consider engines to be 'projects' but they do take up a lot of
time. Right now I lack the strength to move them about so my progress
is very limited. But my strength is coming back.

"Man, I don't know where you find the TIME," a visitor said. He
needed a couple of M6 bolts, which I happened to have.

"Turn off your TV," I told him. He gave me a quizzical look then
frowned, as if I'd just told him to murder his wife. Seriously; give
it a try. Virtually all of the stuff on TV is utterly worthless;
someone else's version of reality. (Do you really think it matters
WHO gets elected?)

I prefer my own version of reality :-)

-R.S.Hoover