What sometimes isn’t realised on build threads is the amount of paperwork involved.
Paperwork that is required from both builder, the FAA and the DAR. There are numerous forms to be filled, facts to be confirmed, and accuracy in the conforming with the multitude of requirements.
I have seen it said that if parents were confronted ahead of time with exactly what expense, frustration, pain, anxiety sweat and tears it takes to raise a child, the human race might well have been extinct by now.
The pure joy, fulfilment, and pleasure they can bring however, seems to have been more than reward enough to have ensured we are around, and thriving.
It certainly takes time and effort, and for some, paperwork not the most enjoyable part. The gyro niche in aviation is a small one, and for many years the build has been a big part of that, and as time went by and regulation crept is more of it became paperwork along with the build.
The new factory builds can take over both the building and paperwork involved, mostly two seaters, and by golly they are expensive. Not many factory singles, but some new ones have come, so mainly still home builds. The build assist has seen a boom and probably helped the movement expand, but build assist singles exist though even a single can become a substantial investment cash wise, quite apart from time spent building, designing, testing, the mistakes and wasted material...and that paperwork.
All of us are different, and while we can excel at some aspects we can also be pretty awful at others. I have friends who have spent pretty much all their time building, and even when the machine was built, very little time flying, but endless hours of tweaking polishing changing, testing, a flight or two, perhaps a bit more training, before back to happily going back to working on their much loved projects. I sometimes wish I was a bit more like that. Others who are magicians at the build, phobic about the paper aspect, and lots more who simply want to fly and to heck with the rest.
It takes all sorts and by golly we are a bunch of all sorts, but then I guess that what life is all about. A mixed bag of experience that we all get involved with as each day comes.
And if I can’t build, play with it, or even be near it I can still write about it.