One Week Wonder Inspires New Homebuilders

July 26, 2018 - Robert Gaynor, EAA 1114038, of Boca Raton, Florida, already pulled a rivet on the One Week Wonder, but he is still stopping by the pavilion every day to see how far the build on the Van’s RV-12iS has come in 24 hours.

The One Week Wonder plane build started at 8 a.m. Monday. The team-effort build is constructing an aircraft in seven days at EAA’s Four Corners, located at the intersection of Knapp Street and Celebration Way.

“I’m thinking about building … the same one they’re building,” Robert said. “It was very simple to pull a rivet. Before, I was worried if I wouldn’t be able to (build one), but I feel much more like I could now. Of course, it will take me way longer than a week to build,” he said, laughing.

EAA member Scott Jiang, of China, also stops by the One Week Wonder daily. Although he works for Cirrus in China, he is doing his best to promote homebuilt aircraft in China. He said he has been telling other Chinese attendees to visit the pavilion and pull a rivet. He’s even taking video of the daily progress and posting it online to bring the concept to China. “I want Chinese people to know that building a plane is not impossible,” he said. “This is experimental and China needs this.”

Charlie Becker, EAA’s director of chapters and communities & homebuilt community manager, said lots of people have been coming by daily to work on the airplane or watch its progress. By Thursday morning, they were “close to being on track” to finishing the Van’s homebuilt kit by the start of Sunday’s air show.

“There is a constant stream of people and the wings are out and being riveted by anyone who comes by,” Charlie said. “The forward fuselage and aft is almost done, and today we should be able to join the two so it will start looking like an airplane.”

They are also getting a lot of questions from people stopping by. “It goes the gamut,” he said. “Some people didn’t even realize you can build your own plane. A lot have never pulled a rivet before and most are surprised at how easy it is.”

Becker was looking forward to briefing the FAA administrator on the project when he stopped by the One Week Wonder pavilion Wednesday afternoon. “This is a good educational tool for our government staff and it demonstrates the knowledge of our volunteers and the quality of kits,” he said. “AirVenture is the largest, most successful lobbying effort. We get the politicians out of their offices and into the field where they see the quality of homebuilt aircraft, and stuff that sounds crazy to them when they’re sitting in an office in Washington suddenly makes sense when they’re in Oshkosh.”

Charlie encouraged people to stop by the pavilion and help build the plane 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on Sunday. “We’re having a great time, and everyone is having fun,” he said.