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First Mistake, probably won't be my last

Things were going great on my HS, match drilled, deburred, dimpled, cleaned and primed.

Rear Spar riveted, feeling pretty good about myself if I do say. This is going too easy. Lets knock out that front spar.

Guessing a few of you know where this is going. Yep, I counter sunk the wrong sides of 810 and 814.

New parts ordered. Cheap lesson I tell myself.
 
I dimpled the entire left side aft panel of the fuselage the wrong way. Luckily Vans sent me a new one within a week.
 
Yep, you're right. It sucks, but that's all part of the "joys and frustrations of building" that Van's talks about. I think most everyone has messed up something on the tail. I know I did. The good news is it's relatively simple and inexpensive to replace those individual components.

Lesson to be learned: check and double check to make sure you're doing the right holes and the right side before countersinking or dimpling every part. Put blue tape over holes to prevent you from making mistakes, and/or write notes on the parts with a Sharpie. Your friends and family may giggle when they see notes written on your project, but it'll prevent a lot of uh-ohs and frustrations over the build.
 
I think I spent more time studying the plans than I did actually building. My first big project was building a catamaran sailboat back when I was in high school. I ordered plans from Popular Science and starting building the first hull. All went well until I started building the second hull at which point I realized the hulls were asymmetrical. The plans had a small footnote directing the builder to construct the second hull as the mirror image of the first. Uggh! It made me learn an important lesson- know before you go! Don't be too rough on yourself...this is a learning experience.
 
Oh yea, 5% of my build was overnight Saturday shipping because no matter what I would always mess up a part on Friday and it would be a show stopper for the weekend. Mistakes are part of it :D
 
As a rule for me, when I found myself to be on a roll and getting comfortable of doing something with the build, I usually screwed up something really badly.
 
Your friends and family may giggle when they see notes written on your project, but it'll prevent a lot of uh-ohs and frustrations over the build.
After doing almost exactly what you did I now write a novel on parts - top, bottom, left, right, rivet sizes, etc. Looks kinda stupid but I have to think it's prevented some mistakes. The messed up parts are mostly in the plane in a modified, repurposed form now, so it's not really a great loss. Additionally, I don't drill anything at the end of the day - I can drill it in the wrong place tomorrow... :cool:
 
I've come to terms with the fact that I'm going to screw things up (hate making mistakes!) and that's just part of the process. Those mistakes cost time and money which is the drawback. But in the end, you should hopefully learn something from each goof up and in the end it will make you a better builder.
Thank heavens that most mistakes are just a matter of getting online and ordering new parts.

+1 on using tape and labeling the heck out of parts to help avoid mistakes.

BTW, don't ask me why I have 5 elevator counterweights......
 
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