EAA Workshops Focus on Building Skills

EAA can always find its roots with the homebuilt community. The skills needed to build your own plane, helicopter, or ultralight have been passed on from one generation of EAA'ers to the next. The most basic skills of the homebuilding trade include woodworking, metalworking, composites, and fabrics.

To say the EAA refuses to let such skills die would be a pitiful understatement. On the contrary, just a short walk from Show Center and the Fly Market is found the campus for EAA workshops. As ANN arrives, Eddie Kopf (right) of Las Vegas and Don Aldridge (left) of Virginia, are taking instruction from EAA technical counselor Wayne Petersen on sheet metal shaping.

At the other side of the room, a husband and wife team are deeply focused on their learning exercise, which involves riveting sheet metal and aluminum frame structure together. Don and Lois Bigler of Dayton have been involved with aviation for 35 years. "We don't have anything currently under construction," says Lois, "We're just here for the fun of it." Don took an aluminum forming and gas welding course a day or so prior. "[The instructor] made it look really simple," said Don. "They are great instructors. I worked around welding for years, and the instructors did a marvelous job and taught safety."

"These folks today have been very patient with neophytes," Lois laughs. "I think we both made every mistake in the book." The couple went on to explain that they will take the sample parts back to Dayton for future reference, as they plan to assist friends who are building an RV-8.

Carl Franz is the Biglers' technical counselor, and with 38 years experience in the automotive fabrication business, he knows a thing or two about riveting and metalworking. As Lois and Don practiced their riveting, Franz, who has instructed for seven years, commented on the trade. "If you drive about 200 rivets over a 10-day period, you should be doing safe work," he said. "Riveting is a lot of art. There's some science to it but most of it's art, and there are good days and bad days. Learning the feel of a good riveting day is crucial," Franz said.

Over at another nearby pavilion, instructors are teaching students to cover fabric control surfaces. Paint brushes are used to apply the "dope," which must be evenly applied as a protectant against fuel, oil, and the elements. This class is part of a multi-phase learning process for the students… in prior courses they learned to build the structure of the control surface through metalworking, and in this workshop they do the fabric fitting, stitching, and doping.

EAA actively promotes the workshops, and offers courses for Sheet Metal, Wood Rib Building, Fabric Construction, Gas Welding, TIG Welding, Composites, Engine Assembly, and Aluminum Forming. A couple of catch-all workshops are offered, such as the Aeroplane Factory and Workshop Classroom. In the Aeroplane Factory, skilled volunteers build actual aircraft and manage a myriad of smaller projects.

The Workshop Classroom provides lectures and demonstrations that cover many homebuilding subjects, from weight and balance to electrical and painting.

FMI: www.airventure.org