ORIGINAL: ArcticCatRider
Very few ARFs take longer than a couple of hours to build.
While waiting for glue to dry, work on something else....they're easy to pound out.
Also, putting together an ARF is not $30/hour type of work. I know many folks believe that working at a punch press, or sweeping floors in a steel mill are $30/hour...or putting together pre-fabbed model airplanes...but, I'm sorry...it's not worth that kind of money.
Putting together ARFs is not hard work. It requires a little focus, and that's really it. It's not like you're welding up a 3'' pipe balanced on a ladder in a 120 degree room. It's not like you're pulling 2 gauge wire through 800 miles of conduit. It's not like you have to travel, and put on a presentation in some other city. It's working with balsa, and lite-ply...and 2-56 or 4-40 pushrods.
If someone came to me and told me ''build this, '' I'd do it for 10-15 an hour. You can drink while you're building it..you can watch TV, talk on the phone, jack around on the internet..etc. etc. It isn't exactly a real job.
When I'm not at work, my time off is
my time. If someone wants me to perform a service during
my time then they are going to pay what I feel that time is worth. $20-$30/hour I feel is reasonable for
my time that I could be flying or building one of the two dozen kits that I own. If you don't like that price, then build it yourself and use up
your time. Life is short, I don't want to spend time working for other people and not be compensated for it, that's like working over-time for free.
-Frank