Yeah, I suppose it all depends on the career direction you want to go. I don't feel that there is much for me to gain as an A&P, and I have too hard a time doing things conventionally. I guess I'm just a bit addicted to the experimental part of experimental. To be honest, I have the same problem in my occupation, too, which really hurt in the short run but payed dividends in the long.asa wrote:I’m watching this with interest. I fly for a living and I’ve discovered that I actually enjoy tinkering and working on my airplane in my free time about as much as I like flying it (in the lower 48 at least).
I’ve always wanted to build and heavily considered a new experimental build, but I also want my A&P and you can’t get that building experimental. So I decided to take on a massive maule project. Let’s me build hours towards A&P, I have a local expert willing to sign off on the project and give assistance when needed, and I’ll come out ahead financially (hopefully). I actually received my new fuselage today and will start covering it soon while my old fuselage,wings, etc are still flying. This will either be a great project or a horrendous one. Time will tell. I was given some courage/confidence because the IA who signed up to help me and sign off on it just rebuilt his M6 in the exact fashion I am so I learned a lot from that.
The other option I was considering was a building a QB bearhawk which serves the exact same mission profile as my unicorn Maule, with the same engine, same cargo doors, etc etc. I may still build one one day, they look cool and experimental has its perks.
I'm looking forward to seeing your progress on the Maule. I might stop in, if you don't mind, when you get to the Oratex part just to see how it's done.
