Why the car is on the driveway

It’s a Belmont tendency: leaving a car in the driveway rather than in the garage. But Andy does it for the best of reasons. He’s using his garage to build a plane. No, not a model plane. Nor a microlight. A real plane.

To be precise a Vans Aircraft RV9A side-by-side double seater with a 28 ft wingspan and an aluminium monocoque. Surely the average Belmont garage could hardly be expected to accommodate all that? Luckily Andy’s garage is a double, which is just as well since apart from the plane he’s also had to find space for a spray booth where component surfaces are treated.

Building a plane is not an impulse thing. The first parts of the kit arrived two years ago from the US manufacturer. The empennage (tail unit to the uninformed) is now assembled, and the main parts of the two wings, which include the fuel tanks, are close to completion. After that it will be the fuselage, finishing kit, engine and instruments.

How long a job?
There seems to be some disagreement between Andy and Tony McVeigh of Eaton Bishop, helping with the work, as to how long this will take. Tony says 2000 – 2500 man-hours, Andy cites a much larger figure. Say four to five years.

And the cost? Andy opts for even greater vagueness. Say about the price of a mid-range BMW.

Why build a plane, anyway? Between 1983 and 1990 Andy served in the RAF as an avionics specialist. Flying attracted him but the days of getting the RAF to finance the instruction are long gone. Paying for his own lessons, he tried gliding first, then switched to power. Finally he got a licence to fly single-engine planes. Then his technical background tempted him into a DIY build.

After a lot of Internet research he decided on Vans Aircraft. “They’ve got a good reputation and they’ve sold the most plane kits in the world.” He also wanted a metal plane since he envisages it may well be parked outside. About 4000 Vans planes are presently flying and the number is growing all the time. In 2002 he and Tony went to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual fly-in and there’s a photograph of Andy taxying an RV9A there.

Radio 4 vital
But isn’t plane assembly a demanding job? Andy says not. “You don’t have to be an engineer.” Attention to detail is a key requirement. “And a radio tuned to Radio 4,” says Tony. Andy admits that some of the work is utterly tedious and repetitive. The wings, for instance, are assembled, then disassembled before final assembly. But when some defined task is complete, he “never stops gloating”

Another reason why plane-building is not a casual activity is that each finished component has to be inspected by an engineer from the Popular Flying Association. Sadly Andy himself will not be at the controls for the initial flight. That will require a pilot with many more flying hours, “a sort of test pilot”.

Interviewing Andy brought up a lot of fascinating technical detail which, alas, had to be omitted in an article for general consumption. However, he's willing to fill in any gaps for interested readers. Contact him through the website's email address contribs@belmontrural.co.uk.

UPDATE, JULY 9, 2006. The wings have been taken as far as they can prior to inspection. A healthy length of fuselage has been assembled and when BRwesbite visited, Andy was at work on the separate cockpit unit.

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