Deems Davis
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 925
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 Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:56 am Post subject: Kits and Family - My story |
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Matt, since you asked, Here's my input:
1st a couple of reference setting items.
A. My family is one of my highest priorities, and ranks above my love of
aviation.
B. I'm actively involved in my church to which I willingly dedicate
additional time and this also ranks above my aviation addiction.
C. My personality/nature is somewhat compulsive, I am more than just a
little passionate about the things I undertake. I can't stand to
see/leave something unfinished.
D. I was, at that time, equally obsessive in my career pursuits
With that said, after two kitbuild starts, (without a finish! ) I found
that when I was totally honest with myself it would be impossible to
balance my family/church/work/airplane building activities. After too
may 2-3am sessions in the garage/shop I came to the realization that my
family was suffering from my obsession, and that my compulsive nature
would NEVER allow me to throttle-back and take the 10+ years it would
have taken to completed the project in harmony with the other
'heavy-lifters'. So the Lancair got sold to someone locally, who
finished it, got it on the front page of Kitplanes, and took me for a
ride shortly after his Stage 1 completed. I accepted that 'building'
would be something that would have to wait until retirement.
Now the good news: I didn't give up aviation, instead, I first bought
into a partnership (valuable learning experience), then ultimately
bought a 5 seat V35 Bonanza (worked great while the youngest was still
an infant) eventually traded up to a Baron w/6 seats, which worked well
with the family at all sizes, as the oldest began to grow bigger and
wasn't always interested in going on the 'trips' the 6 seats saw us
through raising 5 children. We used the planes strictly for personal
pleasure. 80% of the hours were spent on family vacations, or visiting
family. My children know their aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents
like their best friends. Judy would plan the vacations. With 2 weekends
and the week in between, it's amazing how much we packed into those
trips. And Oh, yeah, I squeezed 4-5 trips to OSH in between and took Dad
and my son. I've never regretted those decisions.
Now, I am retired, the work obsession, provided some modest resources
to once again launch on my dream of building and flying my own aircraft,
My children are mostly raised and are beginning to identify and shape
the directions and courses their own lives will take them. I'm still
obsessive about leaving things unfinished, building this plane is the
single biggest personal project I've undertaken in my life. I get close
to burn-out from time to time, but the memories of the fun we have had
as a family and the dreams of using the plane for Judy and I to visit
parents, children, and (someday) grandchildren, as well as the extended
family that's I'm acquiring through this process carry me on.
My story is just that, - my story - there are an infinite number of
ways to tackle it, it's just what worked for me. I am in awe of the
younger working families that successfully accomplish this dream earlier
in their lives. I've always been a bit of a 'late-bloomer'
Deems Davis # 406
Finishing - ( A Misnomer ! )
http://deemsrv10.com/
mgeans(at)provide.net wrote:
| Quote: |
All,
I don't know if this subject has come up but here goes.
My wife (if we're allowed to bring them up in the list) was
interestingly peering over my shoulder when her rubber
stamping chat room threads turned to ugly divorces, single
moms, the coming holidays and the wickedness of the male
species. She said that my RV-10 list had to be less
depressing than hers as she and I are very happily married.
She did bring up a good point. Has there ever been a
string about the affects of such a project on the family?
In the year+ of lurking I had to admit that I had not.
Building a plane is a huge family commitment and takes
hundreds/thousands of hours from family.
I am 35 married and our latest child came a month ago which
makes 2 under 2 years old. I'm leaning toward building but
am currently in the midst of a career change that will
better allow me funding to build where my position I'm
exiting would have taken some time. I still have the
build/buy question in my head though. We may expand to 3
kids which will make the -10 difficult and my flop to the
Murphy line to get 4+2 seating from their recently released
Yukon which shares the Moose fuselage (thus seating) with
different powerplant and increased wing sq/ft. Does anyone
have a larger family than the -10 can hold. (Deems here's
where your input would equal E.F. Hutton's back in the day)
We would be interested in responses on affects on family
and maybe what was done to incorporate the building process
into family life/involvement.
I would also like anyone who is on the other side of the
build/buy decision to add thier $.02.
As an exiting business owner working ~65 hrs/wk it seems
difficult to fit in a kit. But my career change hopefully
will afford me more time as it will money.
Just fishing here; if anyone has or knows of someone who
has expirience with international employment and what one
should be wary of when approaching such an opportunty I
would be very interested in some offline dialog.
Thank you,
Matt Geans
Builder Wanna-be
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