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About to Throw in the Towel

I'm feeling you. I just destoyed most of my VS. Parts ordered and moving forward. At least I get to change my primer to something I like more. Plus, thanks to the practice, this thing will be perfect. I'm sure I will mess up something else down the line. Best wishes on your project. You've got this!
 
Folks who love their shop time are tired of seeing this thread.

Bad parts and do-overs are part of the learning curve. And they suggest the builder is exercising good judgement in recognizing poor work. So stop whining. Learning is the reality. Time and work is what it takes. If you don't find joy in it, quit...throw in that towel and go do something else.
 
It is question of priority. You can spend four or five years watching TV or surfing the net about how to build an RV, or you can just get to work and do it.
10,589 RVs flying so far.......
 
Kintsugi.

I have an extra rivet in the rudder I should paint gold.

My ruined elevator donated scrap for wiring brackets and avionics mounts.

The first and second elevator trim tab made the third one perfect.
 
I have been working on my slow-build wings for almost 2 1/2 years. About 8 months of that time I was making little to no progress because of two back to back problems I encountered (with my pitot system and bottom skins), but eventually I overcame both and had been very happy with the quality of my build. Today I finished building my flaps after about 2 months of effort (they're beautiful, by the way) only to realize that they are both junk. I misinterpreted the plans and ended up getting the rod-end subassemblies mirrored and installed backwards. In other words, the left subassembly was assembled in the right flap, and the right in the left flap. They fit fine. And it is completely irrecoverable. It kept nagging at me that the location of the nutplate didn't seem right, but I was sure I had followed the plans correctly.
There is no way to fix this problem except to buy all new parts and hardware and start over. I'm so frustrated and angry about losing this much time on the project after having just gotten past the difficulty of the bottom skins that I'm tempted to walk away from the project. It seems I'm doomed to keep working on these **** wings in perpetuity. It's that or admit defeat and lose all the time and expense of this project so far.

Did you finish it? Your post created some great responses that I'll have to keep in mind when I reach a spots that test me.
 
Did you finish it? Your post created some great responses that I'll have to keep in mind when I reach a spots that test me.

Building a plane is like baseball - 90% is mental, the other half is physical.


It doesn't matter he finishes it, someone will.
 
Building a plane is like baseball - 90% is mental, the other half is physical.


It doesn't matter he finishes it, someone will.

I couldn't agree more...I did the 2 practice kits mainly to see if I could stay focused and be meticulous enough to do it right.
I now have to see if I can duplicate that x1000...I actually found it peaceful and therapeutic.
 
Yes, I did finish the wings, and the second time building the flaps went more quickly and easily too. I'm just about to finish the fuselage kit (would have been done by now if the roll bar parts weren't defective). My finishing kit is expected to arrive in September, my prop has already arrived, my firewall forward kit is on order, as is my engine. I expect to have first flight completed sometime in 2022. Building the wings was really tedious. The fuselage has been far more rewarding, and now that I'm in my 5th year of building I'm finding I am enjoying it more now than in the early years. My build quality keeps improving too.

Oh, and I recently also just replaced the RG-400 coax cable I installed in the fuselage and wing. I discovered that if you want to put the transponder antenna in the tailcone (Garmin's preferred location) rather than the baggage area, that the attenuation loss is almost 3db, and unacceptable to me, so I replaced it with LMR400. And since I was in the tailcone anyway, I replaced the ELT coax cable with the LMR400 as well. Then I replaced the RG-400 I put in the wing for the VOR/ILS antenna with LMR240. There is less loss at the VOR/ILS frequencies, but now that I'm smarter about these things I thought I would go the trouble and expense of making sure my antennas work as well as they possibly can by using better coax.
 
Time lines ???

OK Lets see I bought my RV-6 kit in 1990 and picked it up in May of 1991. We were in a recession and not supposed to have any work for a while. WRONG I contracted a bunch of houses to build.
Made an agreement that I would not work on it till I had a bunch of time to do the job right. Remember this was an old school you jig it, drill it, bend it , cut it and do it again plane.
Didn't get to start work on it till 2000. Spent two winters and 1005 hours building most parts till I hung motor and fit the cowl.
Work got in the way for another two years, built on it for another 120 hours and work/life got in the way again. People just kept shoving money my way.
Fast forward to today and I just started back working on it again last week.
My other plane "RV-6A" is in the avionics shop getting an new panel of glass. With a couple weeks to go. I'm having RV withdrawals.
Yes I had another plane to fly in the mean time.
So, am I discouraged about the lack of progress on my dust bunny. Ya I supposed I am.
Oh ya I built just over 300 custom houses while not working on my dust bunny and put money in the bank
But now I am retired with a conditioned hanger and lovin it.
My three cents worth enjoy the ride Art
 
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