Signs

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

I'm not a particularly (organized) religious person. I relate to the George Burns "God" ("I don't worry about the little things, kid"). but every now and again there are "signs" that help me. Maybe just coincidence. But I choose to take them as signs.

A couple of weeks ago on a ferry ride to Madeline Island, one of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior, I was thinking about all the work I needed to do on the RV, when an RV-6 appeared over the ferry and buzzed a few times.

Yesterday morning, just before Doug Weiler took a look at the project as part of a tech counselor visit, I was similarly overwhelmed looking at all the work I need to do (I'd like to thank Doug's hangar-buddy, an RV-7A builder who proclaimed a couple of weeks ago, "boy you have a long way to go." Thanks, I needed that. ), when I decided to go for a walk instead.

I headed over to the terminal building at KSGS for a little air conditioning. And what do you know, a transient RV-9A was parked right outside the door. I looked it over for awhile and it gave me enough inspiration to get back at it.

So, thanks, John McCoy of Independence, Oregon. I looked up your N number. I don't know what you were doing a long way from home, but it provided a nice sign to keep at it.

[Bob Axsom]

I have wanted to sit in on the Prairie Home Companion show ever since I heard it broadcast in Los Angeles before I retired in 2004. Is your airport a good one for transient aircraft? If so you may see a dark blue RV-6A with a red modern abstract bird outlined in white paint scheme there one day. N710BJ.

Bob Axsom

[mannanj]

Originally Posted by Bob Axsom

I have wanted to sit in on the Prairie Home Companion show ever since I heard it broadcast in Los Angeles before I retired in 2004. Is your airport a good one for transient aircraft? If so you may see a dark blue RV-6A with a red modern abstract bird outlined in white paint scheme there one day. N710BJ.

Bob Axsom

OH NO!

Not another Public Radio Listener! Just kidding Bob! One of my favorites too. If you see a shiny RV-8 in WW II livery there, check to see if it's mine.

Bob C.----Perseverance is the key. Do something every day, even if it's just looking at the prints or the Aircraft $pruce Catalog. It'll be finished before you know it and you "ain't gonnna believe" how proud you are and it'll be weeks before they can wipe that grin off your face!

[N941WR]

Originally Posted by Bob Collins

...Yesterday morning, just before Doug Weiler took a look at the project as part of a tech counselor visit, I was similarly overwhelmed looking at all the work I need to do (I'd like to thank Doug's hangar-buddy, an RV-7A builder who proclaimed a couple of weeks ago, "boy you have a long way to go." Thanks, I needed that. ), when I decided to go for a walk instead...

Bob,

Don't let this get to you. When I thought I was six months away a friend stopped by, looked over the project, and said, "Looks like you'll be flying in about a year." You could have heard a pin drop when he told me that.

As it turned out, I didn't fly for another 14 months. What I did was to focus on each item and made sure I didn't get serious case of "get it it flying-itus" and do a hack job on the final tasks.

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

My good RV building friend David Maib stopped by the hangar tonight. I took that as a sign, too, that this hobby of our is also about meeting good people who become good friends. He and Mary are building an RV-10 across the field that's pretty close to flying (it's in at Wipaire for interior paint). So we sat and chatted as the sun went down. I love those moments even if I'm not building during them.

I remember when David stopped by the garage to see my project. He was thinking of building an RV. That was probably three years ago. And now he's about to join a no-longer-exclusive club -- people who started well after me and who'll be flying well before me. For RV7ers, that's anyone with a builder number higher than 70240 (my buddy Rich Emery has 70238 and he's still building, too. I wonder who 70239 is?)

When David, who is the chief pilot for Target Corp -- at least until October -- and Mary are done, they're flying that thing out of here...and on to a new life in Florida. I'll miss 'em both.

I notice a lot of people on my hangar row don't open their hangar doors. They crack 'em slightly to let the air in, but that's it. They probably get a lot more work done on their planes than I do.

Anyway, armed with advice from Pete Howell, I filled some more space around the canopy fairing, and then sanded it today and added some Super Fil and I'll sand that off tomorrow. Three more layers, perhaps, of fabric and I'll be closer. And I've got all winter to sand and fill.

There's a long way to go. But sometimes -- like when friends stop by to sit a spell -- it seems like a good
journey.

Still, I wish I weren't in the middle of working the day job for 19 straight days, including 7 in Denver.

[Bob Brown]

John McCoy is one of my neighbors. He flies the wheels off that plane and will get a chuckle out of this. Sorry I missed you at OSH this year...I have another plane under construction

[Bob Axsom]

It took me eight years to build my RV-6A quick build kit. I kept telling folks that asked that I should fly it next year. I really believed it each and every time even though that answer was given for probably the last five years of the build process. I had a four hour commute to work every day in Pasadena from Laguna Hills but I built in my garage at home. When I had a free moment I would walk into the garage and be working immediately, no distractions. I hand wrote my builder logs and that added something. The pages are in a bound journal (two now as my modifications continue and the original build and modification hours - no maintenance entries - are now well over 5,000) so everything that goes in is there forever as originally written. For me it created order and a bond between me and my work with no electronic protocol distraction. There are many milestones that builders don't necessarily talk about but they are big deals and everyone knows when they reach one. When someone makes a post in this forum that they did something big and you have already done the same thing, you know exactly how they feel. Building an airplane, especially one of the quality of an RV, is a major accomplishment that once started you do not want to give up on.

When I was a young 19 year-old Airman radio Mechanic at K-2AB in Korea my Maintenance Officer, Major Woods, took me into our supply room and showed me a couple of BC-610 transmitters that had been cannibalized over a period of years for parts to keep our facilities on the air. He ask me if I thought I could go through them in my off duty time and itemize what it would take to replace all of the missing parts (this was way before plug in modules with subassembly part numbers, etc. - all discrete components and point to point wiring). I said yes and started out on the what I knew would be a long task. I never finished it because it was too hard and I just let it die. Now 52 years later that is the one job I still have regrets about because I didn't try hard enough to organize the work and get it done.

Bob Axsom

[CraigC]

Now 52 years later that is the one job I still have regrets about because I didn't try hard enough to organize the work and get it done.

There is a reason we are 19. We don't know everything. I would not beat yourself up to hard. You learned from it. You are better for it. If you had not learned from it you could beat yourself up then. But you would not know why!