Path: darkstar!agate!bionet!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!cs.uoregon.edu!milton!uw-beaver!fluke!ssc-vax!prang From: prang@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ron Wanttaja) Newsgroups: rec.aviation Subject: _Kitplane Construction_: The Whole Sordid Story (long) Keywords: Homebuilts, kits, book Message-ID: <3741@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> Date: 22 Mar 91 07:41:13 GMT Organization: Boeing Aerospace & Electronics, Seattle WA Lines: 169 OK, it's officially out: _Kitplane Construction_, from the TAB division of McGraw Hill. My original title described the book better: _Kitplane Construction for the First-Time Builder_. It helps the newcomer in selecting right kit and presents the basic construction methods at a level suitable to those unfamiliar with homebuilding. In it, I tried to answer most of the basic questions a prospective builder might have. Some typical questions about the book: 1. How does it differ from Bingelis' books? Tony Bingelis's books are the best references on homebuilt construction on the market. However, one has to remember that Bingelis' articles are mostly pitched towards builders well along on their respective projects... the ones who don't need the basics covered. This isn't to say he doesn't cover basic construction... he does it quite well. But most of his articles are pitched towards solving particular problems. I wrote from the point of view of the rank beginner. 2. Why are ABC's airplanes more pictured than XYZ's? Interesting story about that. When I signed the contract with TAB, I sent out a letter to about thirty kit companies. It explained my project, and that I'd really appreciate some action photo prints of their aircraft/products for inclusion in the book. I offered to pay for the photos and materials. The reaction was underwhelming. I received replies from about half the companies. Most just sent standard brochures... which I couldn't use the pictures from; TAB needed actual photo prints. But about six of the companies sent thick packets of nice shots (one billed me $32... which I paid). The reps of two companies... mentioned in the acknoledgments page, BTW... called me up. "What do you need? What can we get for you?" They gave me the names of local builders/representatives, invited me to tour their plants, and generally made my job just a bit easier. Now let's look at it again... I was offering thirty companies scads of free publicity. All I needed was some photos of their products, and maybe a spec sheet or two. The two companies above are in head-to-head competition with two other companies producing similar aircraft. Yet I heard not a peep from these competitors. In the interests of fairness, I followed up with phone calls. I got a little material... but very weak stuff, compared to the reams the others made available. I called one company three times; each time they promised to send some stuff. They never did. Surprisingly, I never got any response from Wheeler Aircraft (this was before the first prototype crashed). And they're based fifteen miles from me! 3. What net references are in the book? The net's mentioned in the Acknoledgements. Bret Marquis' Venture is refered to in chapter three. My Nieuport is used in several examples in various chapters. And the hummin' Lil' Grumman (ex-Robert Grove, ex-MargarEt Puckette, currently owned by another netter) is pictured in Chapter 10. Robert Grove piloting, by the way. There are *no* pictures of the Fly Baby in the book. Nor of me, other than a hairy back-of-hand or two. But if you look on the back cover, you'll see a picture of me sitting in the 'Baby's cockpit. Plus I managed to slip my name into the glossary... I utilized a number of the suggestions passed on by builders on the net. Thanks, gang. And, thanks to several aviatrixes challenging excessive use of masculine pronouns in rec.aviation, I tried to make the book as gender-neutral as possible. So you'll read about "spouses" helping, rather than "wives". 4. What errors are in the book? I was hoping y'all would tell *ME* :-). There are a few... not so much on the construction details, but by me being a little too clever in trying to anticipate future events. For instance, I refer to the need for an annual flight review for those pilots with less than 400 hours... and of course, the FAA has postponed implementation. I mention the fact that the Rotax 503 and 532 are single-ignition engines, while at the beginning of this year Rotax added dual mags and discontinued the single-mag versions. The big one is related to the cost of operation tables in Chapter 3. When I wrote this chapter, autogas was about 90 cents/gal. Three months after submitting the book to TAB, Saddam invaded Kuwait. Gas prices shot up. Last September, some of the artwork had to be redone, so I recalculated the tables based on $1.40 a gallon. I felt pretty smug. And now, of course, gas is down to .95/gal again.... There are others, of course. I'd appreciate all input, including typos. 5. A chronology? I thought you'd never ask... April 1989: Received letter from TAB, asking if I'd be interested in writing a book on kitplanes May 1989: Submitted proposal to TAB. They operate a bit differently... instead of requesting some sample chapters, they have a formal proposal format. September 1989: Go-ahead approved. Contract calls for submission of the first two chapters by November 15th, the rest of the book by 15 May 1991. Contact called for 256 book pages, including 110 illustrations. We had informally agreed that the book would be about 100,000 words, plus 110 pieces of art. I took the "110" as being 110 equivalent pages of art; i.e., 220 half-page images. The deadline required I crank out about 3,500 finished and edited words a week... with my 10,000 word chapters, that was about a chapter every three weeks. Some chapters took far less. After an extremely educational session in a local RV builder's shop, I cranked out chapter 7 in ten days. [100,000 words, total... HA! I *post* that much in a month :-) ] November 10, 1989: Shipped first two chapters. December, 1989: Received letter from TAB, announcing buyout by another publishing firm. No change to my operations, except the book, when published, sports the McGraw-Hill logo. May 11, 1990: Book shipped to TAB by UPS second-day air. Final tally= 117,000 words, 240 pictures and illustrations. 550 manuscript pages, the art, captions, legal releases for borrowed photos and artwork, and a disk box with 3 disks manage to fill an oil case for shipment. August-November 1990: Working with the editor, cleaning and clarifying. Seven photos had to be redone. Reprinting was sufficient for several, but a couple had to be reshot. The paper the book's printed on doesn't reproduce as well as photograpic paper, so proper exposure and contrast are vital. A few of the photos turned out a bit dark, even so. Updated sections were sent via hard-copy and disk. Speaking of disks, all you computer crazies out there might be interested in this: The entire book was written on a Commodore 128! The text were converted to IBM format for shipment to TAB, using a program called "Big Blue Reader". I was going to buy a PC-clone in the 1990 tax year, but by that time I had over half the book written and didn't like to switch in midstream. The illustrations were done on MacIntosh SEs rented at the local copy store. Nowadays, the Classic is cheap enough that I could practically buy one with what I paid in rent... December 12, 1990: Received Page Proofs for final proofreading. Shipped about 80 pages back with minor markups. February 6, 1991: Book officially released. Final length is *400* pages! And so it's finally done. I have, of course, been a nervous wreck for the last two months, waiting to see what the final product looks like. I'm never satisfied... but in this case, I'm pretty well pleased. It's been a pretty long row; not one I'd want to try again anytime soon. Where can you get it? It will eventually be available at most major bookstores, including B. Dalton and Waldenbooks. A couple of locals have ordered copies from Daltons, and they've arrived within days. Some aviation bookstores already stock it, Sporty's and whatnot may already have them on-hand. If all else fails, you can order it direct from TAB by dialing 1-800-822-8158. Price is $19.95 Thanks again for all your support and advice. Now I'll shut up about the book :-). Ron Wanttaja (ssc-bee!prang)