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Your RV may be the key to a happy marriage!

dwmillsap

Member
I've been happily married for close to 30 years. And, to the same woman all that time! Building airplanes is rough on marriages, but Lori has been with me through the gestation of an RV-6A, a slow build RV-10 and more recently an RV-12. So, what's the secret of a happy RV marriage? Well, she indulges my passion, so I indulge hers. People say that I'm plane crazy and I don't deny that. But, my bride is a quilting whackjob, I mean that in the most loving way. She is completely loopy about her hobby; sewing is her life.

So, about a year ago I started looking for an antique Singer Featherweight sewing machine. These little jewels are all the rage in the quilting circles right now. I've been stalking around Craigslist and I finally found a 1955 model that looked to be in great shape at a great price. Turns out it was an hour and a half drive one way to go look at this thing. Ughhh, I hate driving! But, when I started looking at a map, I realized it was only 3 miles from the Harnett Regional Jetport, Hmmmm... Can an RV-12 land at a Jetport? Why, yes it can!

We jumped in the plane and 45 minutes later we were checking out a courtesy car and eating delicious hot cookies in a beautifully maintained terminal building. The folks at HRJ are absolutely amazing; they bent over backwards to help us out. Within ten minutes we had found our Craigslist contact, made a deal, and were headed back to HRJ happy as can be.

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It helps a story have a happy ending when there's a tailwind coming home. So men, here's the lesson, fan the flames of her crazy obsession and she's more likely to do the same! Go fly!!!

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Dennis W. Millsap, Repeat Offender, A&P
 
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My lovely bride also has a passion. I support her a thousand percent every day and happily take part in it with her every day. It so nice to be able to share her joy too!


Happily for me her passion is cooking! She's the executive chef at a wedding venue and is always trying out new ideas for dishes. So this stays RV related, we do fly different places looking for really good restaurants..

I would say something chauvinistic like "If she ain't happy, you ain't happy", but I'm to politically correct to do that?
 
It's great having a life partner - continued happiness to you both !

I've tracked down two featherweights in recent years. One for my mother and the other for me. They are incredible little work horses ... of course, the same can be said of the RV-12 !
 
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Great story.

The Singer Featherweight is a work of art, my mother had one when I was growing up.
Several are involved in restoration and rebuilding of these old machines.



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I make it a rule

-to make any shop upgrades to her side first: lighting, air, pegboard, storage, utility sink - anything.
-to gift her the first three EAA workbenches I ever made, for her stuff. If I ever do a fourth bench for the RV-10 next spring, that one will be mine, but only if she doesn't need more by then.
-to point out the use she will get from "my" new band saw, belt sander, brad guns, miter saw, chest full of clamps, spray guns, etc as she indulges her passion for making primitive decor and furniture.
-to spend every bit as much time cobbling together barn wood tables, benches, headboards and primitive toilet paper holders as I do hogging aluminum panel blanks and running wire for the glass panel upgrade in the -6A.
-to come to bed on time and not too tired, and to drop everything for dinner when the bell sounds.
-to respect her utter disdain for aluminum slivers in the carpet and the sheets.

-Good stuff, Dennis.

Check your p.m.'s more often. "Work with me, here..." ;)
 
Wow, my wife and I have been sewing on one of these for years (like 35) not knowing that they were so valuable....:eek:

Great story.

The Singer Featherweight is a work of art, my mother had one when I was growing up.
Several are involved in restoration and rebuilding of these old machines.



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you should have no problem finding quilt shops to fly to, ask me how i know. one of the best ones in the north east is laconia airport. grab the courtesy car and off you go. :)
 
Requests = Requirements

When we were mapping out our needs as we selected our airframe, Kelli had a few "requests":

- She loves seat heat, so I installed heater pads in the seat bottom and back cushions.

- No yellow, because she hates the color. No problem.

- She told me, "Sid, you have flown the F-4 for 2000 hours, but I will not be your backseat WIZZO. I'm sitting beside you, not behind you." That makes it a 7 (can't do aero in a 9).

- Finally, she wants no surprises. Hmmmmm, what is a surprise? Kelli explained: As much as possible, she wants me to build out anything that might cause me to say, "Oh ****!" while we're airborne. That was a useful bit of guidance...I mean 'request'. Based on that, I selected the RV-7A because a ground loop (however unlikely) counts as a surprise.

I figured her "requests" count as "requirements" (happy wife=happy life, right?). We should be able to test our preplanning later this spring.
 
- Finally, she wants no surprises. Hmmmmm, what is a surprise? Kelli explained: As much as possible, she wants me to build out anything that might cause me to say, "Oh ****!" while we're airborne. That was a useful bit of guidance...I mean 'request'. Based on that, I selected the RV-7A because a ground loop (however unlikely) counts as a surprise.

I figured her "requests" count as "requirements" (happy wife=happy life, right?). We should be able to test our preplanning later this spring.

Keep in mind that Austin has gotten Xavion to the point where it will demonstrably fly a single hands-off to the flare without power, if there is a runway within gliding distance. Might want to keep the door open for an installation of whatever that hardware will look like by the time you're ready for avionics.
 
-to respect her utter disdain for aluminum slivers in the carpet and the sheets.

I've only been this marriage thing for 14-years and this is one that drives her nuts. My wife's hobby is riveting (I think) so I try to support her the best I can. She's so dedicated to helping me she had to have surgery on her elbow from all the clecos she's set and rivets shes pounded.

+1 what Scroll said, too. My wife was going to have no part of starring at the back of my head.
 
- She told me, "Sid, you have flown the F-4 for 2000 hours, but I will not be your backseat WIZZO. I'm sitting beside you, not behind you." That makes it a 7 (can't do aero in a 9).

Real fighter pilots don't fly side-by-side airplanes.

I was told that when I went from the F-4 to the A-37.

Patiently waiting for an RV-8.
 
- She told me, "Sid, you have flown the F-4 for 2000 hours, but I will not be your backseat WIZZO.
I'm sitting beside you, not behind you." That makes it a 7 (can't do aero in a 9).

Real fighter pilots don't fly side-by-side airplanes.

I was told that when I went from the F-4 to the A-37.

Patiently waiting for an RV-8.

The choice here and the decision to make is quite simple: Happy fighter pilot, or happy husband with happy wife. My wife, too, said "I'm not sitting in the back seat". So I'm building an RV-7A, and we both win! :)
 
The choice here and the decision to make is quite simple: Happy fighter pilot, or happy husband with happy wife. My wife, too, said "I'm not sitting in the back seat". So I'm building an RV-7A, and we both win! :)

It's not what you fly, but how you fly it. I'm a happy, happily married, fighter pilot.

Winner winner chicken dinner. :cool:
 
Marilyn is both a quilter and a pilot. I 'infected' her with flying. We got a C-172 and she began climbing the ratings.
So I built an RV-8 while all this was happening. She gave me the usual about not wanting to ride in the back, I told her about the joys of centerline seating and I built on.
When N89SE got close to flying, I saw she was ready to move up another notch, so when she made that back seat comment, I suggested she get an RV-4 and fly in the front.
She DID!
Oh, and she is great with a rivet gun too!
 
Diceman, you fool! Have you considered that perhaps Lori wanted a Featherweight because she is planning to run away?
 
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