Flying Lessons: Building Buddies

Friday, February 19, 2010 at 01:28 AM ET

Verified

** First Light Aviation Group rents space
to individual builders where they can
get access to machinery, assistance,
parts and a more social environment.** Rick Lindstrom

Key Takeaways:

The article highlights the significant challenges and high rate of abandonment for long-term, solitary projects like homebuilt aircraft construction, emphasizing the need for support and community.
Rick Lindstrom established First Light Aviation Group (FLAG) to address this by providing a collaborative workspace with individual bays, shared tools, on-site supplies, and a supportive community for builders.
FLAG extends its support beyond construction by offering flight training devices, rental aircraft, and access to experienced pilots to assist builders with the crucial and potentially hazardous initial flight testing phase of their new aircraft.
The piece ultimately argues that a collaborative environment or "buddy" system, mirroring the author's own experience with a running partner, is vital for motivation and successful completion of demanding, multi-stage endeavors.

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When I was 24, I decided to try to get in shape by jogging. There was a 7K road race coming up in Louisville, Kentucky, where I was living at the time, so my friend Kirk and I decided we’d set ourselves the goal of getting in shape for the run. Kirk was a pharmaceutical sales rep — which is to say, persuasive and relentless. Which turned out to be a good thing, because for all my good intentions, sticking to a training schedule proved really tough.

I wanted to be in shape, of course, but getting there was a chore involving monotonous pounding of feet on pavement, mile after mile after mile. None of which sounded all that appealing after a long workday and commute. And the shining end goal was still far enough off in the distance to be of little comfort.