Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/149316
Hangar Debrief Help! I Need Somebody This Beatles hit is my theme song sometimes By Rick Weiss "Help!" Help! I need somebody Help! Not just anybody Help! You know I need someone Help! When I was younger, so much younger than today I never needed anybody's help in any way But now these days are gone, I'm not so self-assured Now I find I've changed my mind, and opened up the doors… If you like music, you probably have sung these opening lines sometime in your life. If you don't know the song, Google the Beatles song Help!, read the lyrics, and listen to the song. After all, it was number one for a long time. Now you're probably asking yourself, why am I reading this and what does it have to do with building an airplane? I repeat: Read the lyrics. Now picture yourself hanging over your project trying to figure out where all the wires are coming from and going to. Help, I need somebody… I'm sure many aircraft builders can relate to this. I have about a dozen wires that I can't figure out what to do with, so rather than do what I would have done "When I was younger, so much younger than today," I spent some quality time on the phone with experts from three or four rather well-known companies in the homebuilt community. I'm sure my experience is not an uncommon one. "Help me if you can, I'm feeling down, And I do appreciate you being 'round." And sure enough every one of the people I talked with were not only technically competent, but also they were patient as I asked a dozen dumb questions about this or that…and then asked them to repeat everything as I tried to write their answers down. Help from wherever it's needed—be it the manufacturers, fellow builders, online forums, Experimenter, EAA Member Services, or EAA chapters—is the true spirit of the homebuilt community: people helping people—fellow builders who have been down that road or experts supporting their company's products—each one passing on information and making sure that not only are the questions answered but also that they are the right questions and answers. Of course, if I built the kit exactly as the designer intended, I probably wouldn't have any questions. Just "read the book" would have been the answer. However, let's be serious; we all want to put our "X" in experimental—a little modification here, a better idea there, all so that you can make the aircraft your own. For those who were fortunate enough to make it to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2013, I hope you looked really hard at each builder's project to see if you could find two alike. Unless the plan was to build two identical experimental amateur-built aircraft (E-AB), I doubt you found any. If you look at any two production aircraft, they should be nearly identical. They're supposed to be. Not so with E-AB aircraft; that's what separates us from the others. We can experiment, tinker, change, add, subtract, and in fact, do nearly anything we like within the rules of the game. I also hope while you were at Oshkosh 2013 that you visited the vendors who not only supply the products but also provide product support, with a smile on your face. These people care; they're out there to do their best and produce products that add value and safety to our planes and our lives. They do their best to get us in the air and "Help me get my feet back on the ground." Go ahead, sing it—you know you want to! What a great E-AB community we have. EAA Experimenter 41