wulf190
Posts: 1566
Score: 105
Joined: 3/31/2002
Last Login: 5/23/2013
From: chicago,
IL, USA
Status: offline
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Bob, I'm using the thin aluminum as I bought the wing already framed and it already had the cutouts for the wheel well into the sheeting, making it tough to get a piece of fiberglass formed to the shape of the airfoil. I think that the thin aluminum is a little tougher too and think it'll hold up on the hinges a little better until they get ripped off on a bad landing. 
Randy, I am both sorry to read about your work related issues and extremely interested in hearing about it as I am about halfway through Tom Friedman's "The World is Flat" where he talks at length, seriously at length about not only your EXACT profession and how this outsourcing the "grunt" work is affecting people and businesses now, but how it will dictate and manage other industries or professions in a manner to equalize the pool of resource talent with the economy of the respective job. The book is fantastic, and makes you think a lot about this. Is it all bad? Is it good? What's bad and beneficial about the process? Who benefits, who loses, what does it mean for our workers and the world?
I recall him bringing this up last night. It used to be that your mom or dad said, "Eat everything on your plate, there are people in India starving". Now the saying should be, "Make sure you're doing everything you can to become able to eat, because they are people in India starving for your job." There will be a great leveling (the world is flat) as a result of this phenomenon. However, it's his belief (and mine too) that through all of it, those countries that are leaders in techno and innovation will continue to be this way as the last product to be invented has not been made yet, and there will be a continual stream of jobs, and technological improvements to dictate a change or specialization to professions. Look at the graphic artists of the world. Used to be you drew sketches and pencil drawings to turn in to papers or magazines, now you do computer design, perhaps only an outline, and send the rest of the stuff outsourced to India to do everything from the small fill in work to the larger tasks of creation. Accountants, same way. The potential for these systems has been in place for a longer time. The ability of the system to function is a more recent development, depending on band width, computer development, infrastructure building, country's workforce, etc.
Even down to me building planes for other guys. Things are changing. 10 years ago, I couldn't have had a market for this type of work with the network of folks that I knew in the hobby. With the advent of computer sites, and increasing savvy on my part, and an energy to figure out all of the smaller issues to learn the computer, upload pictures, improve building talents, participate in online forums, etc. All of this takes time to shake out and provide opportunity of a different sort. Our secret lies in our ability to adapt to our surroundings at a pace that will be much faster than in recent times due to the lack of more than 3 billion workers (read China and India) and the technology to ship our ingenuity overseas. Good thing though, is that the competition should bring competitors all up to a higher level (while some individuals get eaten in the shuffle) rather than sinking everyone to the lowest. It's scary, but their is still opportunity for those who have invested themselves into learning and adapting to our new ways of living. Sorry for the book here, but The World is Flat is a great book and can provide some perspective to your situation a bit.
I used to be a fitness trainer in Chicago, working beyond what I even thought possible in terms of hours and earning potential. After much time dedicated to it, I hung it up, wishing for the simpler life of a teacher and sacrificing the money and time involved with the first so that I could fly more and live a better life. I worked one year as a teacher in an awful schoool district and now I'm a sub, working only a few days a week while I watch our education progress dwindle and laugh at the "shortage" of Science teachers and the direction that Science seems to be going in our nations schools. The direction is the scary part. I felt more secure with my self-employed fitness training job, as it catered to the secure wealthy customers, and didn't involve a bunch of nonsensical administrators or politicians going back more than 250 years to forget all of the scientific advances we've made during this era to teach in the classroom....sorry to the creationists.....It's just that training for a new profession, and securing experience has made me a more marketable worker in terms of all my abilities, including building models for other guys. Technology sure keeps the race moving fast. I'll try to keep in check the political views and keep the thread back to building my Corsair, just got me thinking about larger issues in a personal sort of way. Thanks for sharing.
Mike
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All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> RC Warbirds and Warplanes >> RE: GROUP BUILD - Top Flite Giant Scale F4U Corsair 
RE: GROUP BUILD - Top Flite Giant Scale F4U Corsair - 
its nice to be working with wood.. 
