Best advice you got from another builder?

[Ironflight]

Try never to do any riveting at the end of a build session. If you have an assembly all ready to rivet - drilled, demurred, clecoed together....quit for the night, and come back to do a sanity check at the START of the next session before driving, squeezing, or pulling those rivets. It will save you lots of do-overs if you give yourself time to think about what you are doing.

[gasman]

I go by this.... KISS.... Keep It Simple Stupid.

This makes it very easy to alter and maintain. And very easy to find problems.

[bruceh]

Know when to stop for the day (or night). Tomorrow is another day.

[Captain Avgas]

My best guess is that the quality of an amateur-built aircraft is established even before the first rivet is driven. Some people have the patience and inherent disposition to build quality and others do not.

And you can tell which tribe they come from simply by the building advice they give to others. Here are some examples:

Build on
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good
Perfection is the enemy of completion
Build to go, not to show

or the diametrically opposing view

Compromise is the enemy of quality
Time spent equals quality (T=Q)

I'll leave it to you to guess who's building the better quality aircraft.

[WAustin]

The best advice I got was:

Build it light, build it simple. Buy the parts and take the advice from Vans. Don't try and make your plane anything but the simplest you can. If it's available from Vans get it there and it will work.

[rgmwa]

"I think you should do it". Wife's advice, so who was I to argue?

[rv8guy]

Keep a picture for future focus, but work on the piece at hand, a little a day

[David-aviator]

If you love to fly sooner than later, build according to plan.

If you love to experiment, waste a lot of money, be chronic test pilot, go with an auto engine.

[YellowJacket RV9]

Originally Posted by Captain Avgas

My best guess is that the quality of an amateur-built aircraft is established even before the first rivet is driven. Some people have the patience and inherent disposition to build quality and others do not.

And you can tell which tribe they come from simply by the building advice they give to others. Here are some examples:

Build on
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good
Perfection is the enemy of completion
Build to go, not to show

or the diametrically opposing view

Compromise is the enemy of quality
Time spent equals quality (T=Q)

I'll leave it to you to guess who's building the better quality aircraft.

Oh good grief. There is nothing wrong with building a show-plane OR a go-plane. Just decide which you want and don't compromise on airworthiness items. But don't tell new builders they HAVE to build a perfect show-plane, or most of us would have never finished and given up in frustration. I'd love to do it on my SECOND plane. But I can tell you I have just as much or more fun in my unpainted plane with a small smiley on the vertical stabilizer than any of the Lindy winners. We need to be encouraging new builders, not telling them that they have to rebuild every part with a minor superficial flaw - it's admirable, but certainly not necessary.

Chris

[painless]

Originally Posted by YellowJacket RV9

Oh good grief. There is nothing wrong with building a show-plane OR a go-plane. Just decide which you want and don't compromise on airworthiness items. But don't tell new builders they HAVE to build a perfect show-plane, or most of us would have never finished and given up in frustration. I'd love to do it on my SECOND plane. But I can tell you I have just as much or more fun in my unpainted plane with a small smiley on the vertical stabilizer than any of the Lindy winners. We need to be encouraging new builders, not telling them that they have to rebuild every part with a minor superficial flaw - it's admirable, but certainly not necessary.

Chris

I couldn't have said it better.


Advice I give is the way you eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

Also, the dang thing isn't going to build itself. Dive in.