What Keeps You Up At Night?

Capflyer · #1 10-15-2008, 09:26 AM

What scares you to the point that you are afraid to start? I'm a curious guy and as a salesman in real life always ask lots of questions to fill my thirst for knowledge no matter how trivial.

Being the first RV and one of very few homebuilts to grace my busy airport, lots of my flying buddies are enjoying flying again when they go up for a ride. It's like a whole new world for them and the questions always come up about how hard it was to build it. There were lots of things along the way that all of us have or will experience that had us wondering "how the **** am I going to do that?" I now have my canned lines and pick what seems the best at the moment but the reality for me was that the two things that had me in total wonderment of how I was going to accomplish the tasks were the fiberglass work and the physical aspects of wiring the plane up.

I had no problem reading schematics but my fear was making good connections that wouldn't fail. For the fiberglass work the fear came from many years ago (ok, it was only 29 years ago) when I tried bonding a spoiler on my Camaro and failed miserably.

So, what raises your blood pressure and keeps you up at night and for the vets what did this for you?

Bugsy · #2 10-15-2008, 10:02 AM

Seeing my 401K turn into a 201K!

airguy · #3 10-15-2008, 10:03 AM

The thing that had me scared early on was Proseal - simply because of all the horror stories associated with it. But once I got into it, it's not that bad - just messy and smelly. Glove up, use a respirator, and use LOTS of MEK on everything to keep it clean, and it's really not so bad.

Now what has me worried is the painting - I'm a painting idiot (Krylon is my friend) and I'm thinking I'll likely end up writing a check for that part.

Other than that, there's really not much to be scared of. There are kids barely out of high school making $12/hr building spam cans. If they can do that, surely we can too.

John Courte · #4 10-15-2008, 12:23 PM

Having to drill/cut/form something irreplaceable. Maybe my 'duh' is showing, but I get real nervous when I have to alter pieces of the QB fuselage that are buried deep in the structure, like, say, the main longerons, which you gotta drill holes in for the pedal bearing blocks. That engine keeps me up at night too. I still haven't found a Los-Angeles-based A&P who makes house calls, so I still haven't pulled a jug off to get a look at the innards. I also worry about getting the finished product to the airport and pranging it on the first flight.

But I just keep doing the microtasks and try not to think about it too much, and stop just short of OCD on my pre-cutting/drilling measurements.

JDRhodes · #5 10-15-2008, 12:51 PM

My recreational interests and by profession both rely heavily on general aviation. Dangers to the continued enjoyment of our airplanes keeps me up at night. Fuel prices, regulatory creep, economic factors etc.

One of the resons I come here is to reassure myself that people are still passionate about these machines and that the market is, indeed, healthy.

Thanks DR and VAF!

rv9aviator · #6 10-15-2008, 04:58 PM

Everything I haven't done yet! First it was bucking rivets without damaging skins, then it was proseal. My finish kit will be delivered tomorrow morning so now what is keeping me up is fiberglass, and canopy installation.

Sticky1 · #7 10-15-2008, 06:37 PM

My woman snoring...!!

Capflyer · #8 10-16-2008, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sticky1

My woman snoring...!!

Brutal!

flyvans.com · #9 10-16-2008, 03:24 PM

hi mike,

i'd say the biggies are everything fiberglass... not that it's super complicated, but just a lot of annoying work...

what i found most challenging for planning so far was getting a slightly non-standard firewall forward setup going. where to start, what to order and in what succession. what are minimum separations between parts, how to make / acquire control cable brackets that actually fit etc...

rgds, bernie

Robert M · #10 10-16-2008, 04:03 PM

I'm gonna have to go with the Pro Seal also. I was so convinced that I was in for the biggest challenge of my entire life that I prolonged the tanks for months. Once I got into it, I got so mad at me for putting it off.

For all of you just starting out and building your first airplane - This Ain't Rocket Surgery Guys!!! Just build the plane. Now my biggest concern is getting that helper over to help me when I'm ready to rivet!