I'm in the process of building an affordaplane. I bought the plans and the homebuilt help video series. I've never built anything from aluminum before and also have never built an aircraft before. I am mechanically inclined but I have no fabrication skills to fall back on at all. I found the homebuilt help series to be critical to getting going on this project. The plans expect you to have a little more fabrication knowledge then I did at the start. Anyways, the plans are pretty good, but there are some weak spots. There is a problem with one of the full size gussett drawings and the cockpit drawing leaves a lot of questions, but it's good when you figure he just went out and built one and tried to document it. And the price is awesome!
If anyone else is thinking about this, there is one item that I think is a safety issue that needs to be addressed. Aluminum is very toxic and you will make a LOT of very fine AL powded/dust with the scotchbrite wheel. I was doing this in my shop and it's getting in to other rooms and really everywhere. I looked like the tin man when I went to wash my hands. I did wear a respirator with a dust filter (not the vapor paint filter that comes with them), but really this needs to be done outside the building. (and not near your garden.) or you need dust collection of some type. That said, my next one will be wood or steel tube.
I'll post some pictures soon and if anyone has any tips or questions please let me know. If you just want to tell me that you dont like the design and you think it will be overweight, that is probably not super helpful. I'm building this one to learn how to build not because I expect it to be 100% perfect. I'm keeping a log and if it its solidly overweight and I can't slim it down, I'll most likely register it as I'm already a pilot.
If anyone else is thinking about this, there is one item that I think is a safety issue that needs to be addressed. Aluminum is very toxic and you will make a LOT of very fine AL powded/dust with the scotchbrite wheel. I was doing this in my shop and it's getting in to other rooms and really everywhere. I looked like the tin man when I went to wash my hands. I did wear a respirator with a dust filter (not the vapor paint filter that comes with them), but really this needs to be done outside the building. (and not near your garden.) or you need dust collection of some type. That said, my next one will be wood or steel tube.
I'll post some pictures soon and if anyone has any tips or questions please let me know. If you just want to tell me that you dont like the design and you think it will be overweight, that is probably not super helpful. I'm building this one to learn how to build not because I expect it to be 100% perfect. I'm keeping a log and if it its solidly overweight and I can't slim it down, I'll most likely register it as I'm already a pilot.
