Steps in Learning
Nice repair -and I also wouldn?t hesitate to use it. Mount the new one on the wall as a trophy.
Here?s the thing - the reason that we start building with simple things like tail feathers is to develop our building skills before we get to expensive, large assemblies. And a very important part of those building skills is repairing damage caused by mistakes or accidents. When you get to those big, expensive pieces, you need to be able to know how to salvage work that might have gone wrong. As an extreme example, what will you do if your wings are essentially finished, and you slip up installing a tip? Will you throw away the wing and start over? Or remove lots of skin ( introducing enlarged rivet holes or other damage) in order to replace a tip rib or skin panel?
If someone slips with a drill on the final panel of a 737 wing, Boeing doesn?t scrap the wing, they come up with a fix. And you need to develop - and practice -the ability to do the repairs as well. Yes, sometimes parts are beyond salvage, and in learning repair techniques, you will learn where the limits are. Learning to determine when parts are salvageable, and when they aren?t is far more important than buying two (or three) of anything.
Call this a successful learning experience that will prepare you to evaluate future mistakes and choose the right path in each case.
__________________
Paul F. Dye
Editor at Large - KITPLANES Magazine
RV-8 - N188PD - "Valkyrie"
RV-6 (By Marriage) - N164MS - "Mikey"
RV-3B - N13PL - "Tsamsiyu"
A&P, EAA Tech Counselor/Flight Advisor
Dayton Valley Airpark (A34)
http://Ironflight.com
|