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Comment by AWildC182 | Hacker News Reader

Don't let the "kit" part put you off. It still requires a ton of effort and skill. You aren't getting an Ikea plane in a box, you're getting a bunch of rough cut aluminum and some plans. You still have to trim and debur the parts to their final specifications, align everything, and rivet it together all without damaging things.

Source: currently working on an RV-8 in my garage.

For those interested in what you have to do, here's another builder's blog (not mine) https://www.rv8-hangar.com/latest-progress-2/

The contents of a typical kit: https://www.vansaircraft.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/rv-7...

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For anyone interested in a very different aircraft that might meet more people's idea of homemade, I'm building a 1930s Pou-du-Ciel from scratch according to plans I translated from French. It's a wood-and-fabric tandem-wing design that was the start of European homebuilt aviation. My build log is at http://pou-du-ciel.net.

Now that is really cool!

That's an awesome project!

For those following, there is an entire range of home-built options out there. The most complete being quickbuild aluminum and steel tube aircraft like the kitfox, followed by aluminum parts kit aircraft like my RV-8 and the Sling from the article, and plans aircraft like the Rutan series, most notably the Long-EZ (now Open-EZ) which can still be built in a time period comparable to the aluminum kits but all you get is some plans. Then on the far end of the spectrum is crazy people like JasonFruit here who have historical and one-off designs and therefore have to do a lot of the engineering work without the huge communities built around the other designs :)

I can see the appeal of the Vans family too — they are some sweet-looking aircraft with excellent performance, and I hear they fly nicer than they look!

And for those that wonder what a more "modern" scratchbuilt plane is like, check out the Cozy Mk IV: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozy_MK_IV. Made from fiberglass and foam cut to templates that came with a set of plans (with a handful of pre-fab parts).

A typical builder's log: http://www.cozy.simpex.com/

source: I, too, am building a plane in my garage. https://twitter.com/acozyplane

The Cozy is a beaut too. I love it when we come out of the woodwork like this!

I know a couple people who built the Cozy Mk IV. They're sweet airplanes!

Using Twitter as a build log is frankly genius. It would have saved hours of work on my website.

I have always wanted to build an RV, but I have a car that's sitting to be remodeled, so I know that I shouldn't undertake the plane. How long have you been working on yours? What's your progress rate?

If the car is taking forever the plane won't go any faster. I'm about a year in with the tail mostly done and waiting on the fuselage to get in (QB wings).

My personal progress rate has been fairly slow since I work full time but others in my situation have gone a lot faster.

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