Mission Endure 46: The Art of Building Gyrocopters and Getting Back to the Basics
Growing up I was always amazed at the different repairs my GrandPa, Dad, Uncles, and friends could make around the house. They were very handy and would try to fix almost anything that broke. It almost seemed as if they thrived on the learning process of fixing broken items at home. An article I recently read on this made a statement that there are several benefits to being a Do It Yourselfer (DIYer). The article summarized that the main benefits are:
It will save you a lot of money. As you shift the repair to someone you hire the cost goes up.
You will get a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. Some people function better by keeping their creative juices flowing
Your health will improve as you stop focusing on the problems you might face in life and concentrate more on completing an important project
I considered one of my Uncles to be the ultimate home repair person. He is no longer with us, but his time on earth was spent working at his primary job as a FireFighter and his time at home was spent working on project after project. He was amazing and would not hesitate to take on the most complex and tough repair jobs. His sense of desire to tackle projects led him to complete a lot of construction work on his own house. I remember one summer watching him in his backyard driving a bulldozer around leveling off his property in preparation for him to add on an addition that included 2 stories containing a wonderful master bedroom and a custom basement. In the following years he added on a 5-Bay garage with an apartment above it. He even ventured into building his own gyrocopters and airplanes; welding and fabricating parts and using rebuilt Volkswagen engines as propulsion for the gyrocopters. He was a pretty amazing man. The below photo isn’t of my Uncle, but it is a similar type of homebuilt gyrocopter to the ones he would fly out on the dry lakes of interior southern California.
I believe that as a society we have lost most of these type of people. There aren’t many of them around any longer. Even worse is that the numbers of people enrolling in trade schools is way down. We aren’t cultivating a young group of DIYers that can function on their own. We have reached a point where people would rather pay for the services of a repairman or a building contractor to repair items or build things for them. We have moved from being a society full of producers to a society full of those watching others produce for them. We have become a service oriented society, preferring to have someone do the tough work for us, which I think this is very dangerous. When we started the MissionEndure website a few years back our goal was to be able to focus on living more sustainably and simply and enduring till the return of Christ. I believe, collectively, we are slipping farther and farther from that goal. I thought I would provide a few thoughts on how we can make our lives more simple and more sustainable by offering a few ideas on what we can do around the house to keep our repair skills honed sharp.
To start with there are a few questions we need to ask ourselves before taking on any project
Are you going to need any permit or license to undertake your project? Some States require that you have a permit or license to undertake plumbing, electrical, and fencing replacement projects etc. – so make sure you have all the right papers.
What is the worst thing that could happen if you undertake that project yourself? Undertaking a project you don’t understand can end sideways, causing you to pay much more than what you could have paid a professional to do the same work.
How urgent is your project? Some DIYers love procrastinating, which can lead to the problem becoming bigger than it should be.
DIY is a very broad topic. Doing everything yourself is merely impossible, which means you must focus on a niche to begin with. Find those projects that interest you, and stick to them. Leave the rest to the pros. Here are the three different types of DIY personality types that exist.
The Beginner: The handy person who never quite gets started with his project, or that one that starts, but has trouble finishing a project. I am very guilty of this!
What to do: Start working the smallest and easiest projects like cleaning the gutters or painting your doghouse etc., and gain confidence from there.
The Weekend Fanatic: The handy person who usually does handy work only on weekends or holidays.
What to do: Keep increasing the level of your DIY skills so that you can fix any problem as it arises to avoid further damage if left during the week.
The Professional: This handy person is not really a “professional”. He or she is that handy person that tackles handy work as it arises to avoid further damages.
What to do: Keep up the hard work. It is now time to advance your skills. Start tackling much more complex handy work like replacing the septic tank or doing electricity replacements etc.
One of the more frustrating things for a handy person is having to stop a project because you don’t have the proper tools. Here are five tools that every DIYer must have:
Drill: A drill is one of my most useful tools
A Screwdriver Set: Replacing batteries for some alarms and remotes needs a screwdriver. If you have a set, you will get the job done easily.
A Measuring Tape: To get most things done in the DIY world, you are going to need to get the measurement right – no guesswork. A measuring tape fulfill that job for you.
A Ladder: You need a ladder to cut trees, clean the gutter or replace a light bulb – without it you will have to climb some unstable stuff.
Level: A level helps you place something accurately upright. To screw a frame to the wall without it slanting a bit you will need a level. To replace your toilet you are going to need a level.
A Wheelbarrow: This is a necessity for outdoor projects
Lets move forward and start tackling home repairs and other projects and not be so reliant on others to fix our problems for us. As we begin to cross items off of our fixit list our confidence to handle more and more complex project will continue to grow and we will become more self sustaining.