Sequoia Aircraft Corporation F.8L Falco, Construction Manual

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F.8L Falco Construction Manual 1–2 Revision 4, March 1, 2002
from the project will become a problem, and your family will come to resent the thing that keeps
you from them.
What to Make?
One of your early decisions will be which kits to buy and which parts to make. For most builders,
the decision is whether to make the wood parts or to buy them. We would like to offer some
advice.
Except for the main wing spar, making all of the wood parts is fairly easy; however, they take a lot
of time. It is difficult to understand from looking at the plans how such parts could take so much
time, but they do! In fact, building all of your own wood parts can nearly double the building
time.
On the average, builders take from nine months to a year and a half to make the wood parts. This
is the average— some have taken over three years. You should not underestimate the length of
time that it takes to make these parts.
A funny thing happens to builders who build all of the wood parts. At first, they send us lively
letters about how easy it was to do. Later the letters slow down. Some builders stick with it and
go on to finish the airplane, but a lot just burn out.
Many builders are tempted to build all wood parts because they arrive at the conclusion that the
kits are too expensive. While we hear this from potential builders and from those just embarking
on the construction of the wood parts, we have yet to hear it from someone who has actually
made the Falco wood components. In fact, we have heard many such builders confess that they
find the prices of the wood parts very fair, now that they know what it takes to build the parts.
Most builders report that they save about $1.00 to $1.50 per hour by making their own wood
parts.
There are, however, those builders who should make their own wood parts. If you simply do not
have the money, then the only way that you can build a Falco is to make as much as you can. If
you just
want to make all the parts, then do it. Some builders find woodwork extremely
pleasurable. If you find pleasure in working with wood, you will have plenty of pleasure just
assembling the aircraft, even if you purchase all of the wood kits.
Our advice is to not worry too much about all of this. Take things one step at a time. Start with
the tail group. Our experience is that builders who purchase the tail group kit never revert to
making their own wood parts. The project takes shape much faster. On the other hand, we
notice that the longer builders work on the Falco, the more kits they buy. It seems to be easy to
get tired of making things.
We remember the Falco builder who decided to make his own tail group. Nine months later, all
of the parts were finished and ready for assembly. The builder has since purchased all of the
remaining wood kits. In the same length of time, we have seen kit builders complete the entire
wood structure of the Falco.
Setting Standards
Before you begin your Falco, it is a good idea to make a resolution on the quality of the
workmanship to go into your airplane. You cannot build a perfect airplane—there are bound to
be little errors—but you should set your standards early. We suggest that you set them very high.