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 difficulty of maintaining motivation and productivity in long, solitary projects, using the author's personal experience with jogging and homebuilt aircraft construction as examples.
First Light Aviation Group (FLAG) was created to solve these challenges by providing a collaborative facility where homebuilders can rent individual bays with shared tools, 24/7 access, on-site supplies, and peer support to accelerate project completion.
Beyond construction, FLAG also supports builders through the critical initial flight testing phase by offering flight training devices, rental aircraft, and access to experienced pilots.

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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.