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You might be an RV builder if.....

I understand Ken and his situation. I moved from Wichita, KS to Springfield MO in 2004. Drove 257 miles each way every other weekend and every three day weekend to keep building at a fabulous location (heated/air conditioned/A&P on site with tools!). Then in 2008 the company I worked for got bought by a Houston, TX firm and two weeks later, I was in Houston, 600 miles away from the airplane. Between 2008 and April 29, 2013 I drove the great circle of 1200 miles once a month and every three day weekend, throw in a week vacation each year until it was certified by MIDO. My 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee gave up the ghost at 277,778 miles shortly after N942PT was certified. Now that Phase I is flown off, it is time to find a hanger in the greater Houston area and fly it home.

I would think that I qualify as a RV (repeat offender) Builder.

Pat Garboden
Katy, TX
RV9A N942PT Flying
 
If you follow VAF enough that you notice that the VAF calendar near the bottom of every day's front page has the day circled in red even though it is a black lead pencil being used. :rolleyes:
 
..if you can tell when a rivet is properly bucked just by:
1) sound
2) number of thumps
3) blind feel of the tail
 
... you have a nice collection of rivets in the expansion joint between your garage floor and the driveway...
 
**You visit the neighbor kids and bring them a different sized/type rivet each time you go. And secretly hoping in a year or two one of them still has the collection :)

**You forget which room of the house your rudder is in, because its been there so long :)

** you make a mistake on one side of the airplane, and after a long talk with Vans, because its purely cosmetic, you intentionally make the same mistake on the other side of the airplane, to make it symmetrical....

** your wife asks you to buy a second set of tool X so that she can help you at the same time (thanks god she likes deburring holes)
 
if - - -

You have to reinventory all your parts so you know what you have and don't,
not to mention being able to find them :)

I liked the one about "do you know where YOUR rudder is?
 
longranger said:
... you have a nice collection of rivets in the expansion joint between your garage floor and the driveway...
Click to expand...

That one made me laugh. Just dug a bunch out of the hangar floor the other day though I don't think they were all mine. I haven't been building long enough to have as large a collection as I dug out.

As for my own. Showing fellow builders the bandage covering the hole you just drilled in your finger and all of them laughing at you with the knowing smile.
 
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xblueh2o said:
As for my own. Showing fellow builders the bandage covering the hole you just drilled in your finger and all of them laughing at you with the knowing smile.
Click to expand...
Ha!! Been there, done that, got the fingernail almost healed. You know, I really thought it would hurt more than it did.
 
If

If you forgot to turn on ear piece blue tooth cause there's no way I'm stopping to answer the phone and stop this process RIGHT NOW!!!!
"I'm on a roll, please leave me be"
 
Your wife is pissed because she has a airline companion pass from you spending so much on airplane parts but you will not go anywhere because you gotta work on the plane!

You get up at 5 am on work days to go to work but 4 am on days off to work on the plane!
 
Here's a couple

Your wife finds you bent over the kitchen sink holding pressure on your scalp, blood dripping off your elbow - because moments earlier in the garage you stood up under the end of the wing spar in the goal-post jig and "found" one of the wing attach bolts with your noggin. :eek: Thirteen stitches from my colleague in the ED. circa 1996.

Fast forward to tonight: you plan to unpack the GRT Mini-X the UPS man just delivered and wire up tempo cigarette lighter power to it, so you can play with it in the car and make airplane noises on tomorrow's family trip - while the wife does driving duties. Hey, it's a shake-down flight; she's essential crew.

-Stormy
 
xblueh2o said:
... Showing fellow builders the bandage covering the hole you just drilled in your finger and all of them laughing at you with the knowing smile.
Click to expand...

Or... you grab the camera for a photo BEFORE you go for first aid...
FP09042012A0004V.jpg
 
You might be an RV builder if...

...you tell everyone who looks at the various wing, tail and fuselage assemblies that "It will look like an airplane, some day."

...the employees at the airport, who have been checking your progress for the past several years, refer to you as "That poor guy."

...your new wife takes one look at your "airplane" and bursts into tears.

...you seem to spend more time drilling out bad rivets and removing poorly installed sheet metal than you do driving rivets and installing new sheet metal.

...you found a good deal on a completed tail kit and an unbuilt wing kit, so you now have an RV6 and 2/3.

...it is 25 degrees outside with blowing snow, but you go to your unheated hangar to work on the airplane anyway, because you will probably have at least an hour before you can't feel your fingers or toes anymore.

Unfortunately, all of the above is true.
 
Regarding drilled fingers

I definitely have not drilled one of my fingers as an "Amateur building an airplane."

I drilled my finger on a much loftier scale as a "Professional technician building spacecraft."

Finger drilling in the previous century not included.
 
If....

... when you hand your late 1980's japanese car alternator to the guy at the automotive alternator repair shop, asking for a rebuild, and he asks you "what's this off?", you look him straight in the eye and calmly reply -- knowing full well he'd never touch it if you told him it goes on an airplane -- "not sure what it came off, but I'm using it on a custom off-road vehicle."
 
If...

your friend no longer leaves the top down and the doors unlocked on his Porsche after you mention that his very comfortable red leather seats measure just 19-1/2 inches wide.
 
If...

You are carefully wrapping the Christmas turkey with aluminum foil and your wife asks if you need some clecos.
 
You get really upset when putting together a new grill because there isn't a full thread showing on some of the nuts. Bonus points if you call the Weber 'mothership' for advice.

Chris
 
You hyperventilate when you randomly check the VAF classified between rivets and see a new post for a like new 430W for $2500.00 or best offer..... and you miss it by seconds....
 
Jesse said:
You're sitting in your easy chair on Christmas morning reading this thread!
Click to expand...

ijustwannafly said:
Guilty as charged!
Click to expand...

Yep, I laughed the minute it was posted!

Is I stand in front of the group, the circle of like mind, it must be said, at first with a slightly bowed head, then held high with a big grin, "Hi, My name is Bill, and I am an RV Builder " The response - - "Welcome Bill".
 
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