Do I Need Therapy?

Builders,
Have any of you done this?
The other night around 2 AM, I awakened from a dream that was so real that I was soaked in sweat. I had dreamed that I had installed the wing root fairing nutplates on the wrong side of the fuel tank. I had that sick feeling in my stomach and knew that I was going to have to rebuild the fuel tank for my stupidity. I remained in the bed trying to sort through what I might have done, and finally ended up going outside to my shop and taking a look. You can probably imagine the relief that I experienced once I saw that it was only a dream... (Nightmare)
I need a break!
Tinman
RV-8 Finishing Kit after five years and six weeks of building...

Hang in there

Hang in there troop, you're almost home. Think of the worry and sweat as a good thing. If it were easy every master of mechanical engineering would build one of these.

Bob Axsom

(AM) Time will tell.

tinman said:

Have any of you done this?..........2 AM, I awakened ...... soaked in sweat. I had dreamed.....that sick feeling in my stomach and knew........only a dream.....

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I have little doubt your RV will be counted among those on the "COMPLETED AND FLOWN" side of the ledger. Sometimes codified as "blood, sweat, and tears," not only because you have given over your hard earned time and money to pursue the goal of flight fashioned by personal hand, but your sub-conscious is jostling to be heard and is letting the other side of you know it too has an emotional investment in that most noble of dreams! Embrace it.

Rick Galati RV-6A "Darla"

The subconscious mind never sleeps. You are literally building your plane in your sleep.

Relax and go with it.

tinman said:

Do I Need Therapy?

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Probably. But I thought building the RV was therapy.

Another nightmare

Several months ago I loaned a torque wrench to a friend on the field to torque his prop. He wasn't there so we slid the wrench under his hangar door, loaded our plane and left for OSH. We returned a few days later and stopped by his hangar while leaving the airport and he asked if that was the same torque wrench we used on our prop... because it was an IN/LB wrench! The nightmares that woke me that night were of my wife and I cruising back from OSH at 10.5, hitting some turbulance, and the prop coming off because it was torqued to 60 IN/LB instead of FT/LB! Since I was already up I got ready for work early and went to the hangar at 4 am to check the torque of the prop bolts. It was a simple mistake of just giving him the wrong wrench so thankfully 1) our prop was correctly torqued and 2) Phil caught it before he torqued his prop with that wrench.

Continually question what you are doing as you build, especially at the beginning when you're new to aircraft construction and at the end when you're in a hurry to finish the project. If something doesn't make sense, chances are you misread something or the instructions could be wrong. I should have known that if for some reason I tried using the in/lb wrench initially, I would have caught the error immediately and would have been able to sleep that night. Sometimes it's good to get scared... it humbles you and makes you much more careful.

I had a dream the other night that I drove to the airport to test fly our new RV, but when I got there I realized I'd forgotten to study the test cards and was naked.

Remember what Freud said...."Sometimes a control stick is just a control stick..."

The big kahuna of nightmares

Yesterday while taking care of small bits and pieces on my 4 I looked through the bubble from the left side towards the right side and suddenly saw the worst possible thing: a crack about 3 inches long coming up at an angle from between the side skirt and plexi. It was very thin with a slight bend in it. It looked like it started right where you'd expect, at one of the holes. I reached in to feel it and it moved! Huh? It turned out to be a cut off end of a small black zip tie that had gotten stuck in the crevice between skirt and bubble. Turned with its edge toward me it looked so much like a crack you wouldn't believe it. I swear it felt exactly like when you wake up from some horrible nightmare.

Steve Zicree
RV4 finishing

Wing root platenuts

No dream this time......Reality! Just finished mounting wings, all bolts in and torqued down. Rear Spar drilled, and life is good. Last week....great progress.....
NOPE ! Just noticed that I forgot to put platenuts on the roots to be able to screw down bottom fuselage skin, to the bottom wing skins. Will be taking the wings off soon, as soon as I stop seisuring....