[ArVeeNiner]

Hi fellow RVists:

As I sit here 5 days into my battle with the flu (I'm winning by the way), I'm going to try my first poll.

I was reading a post about bending the longerons. This is definitely a moment with a high pucker factor but I was thinking back and trying to decide which was the worst. That's a tough one. Was it cutting holes into perfectly good wings to install landing lights? Or maybe locating and drilling holes that simply help HOLD ON YOUR WINGS! And if you screwed either of these up, think of the fix required!!! I'm actually not sure which is the worst but I'd say for me, it's one of these.

Anyway, what has been your biggest butt puckering moment in the build? I brainstormed the biggest that I can remember.

Oh, and if you have yet to get to some of these high pucker factor moments, fear not...we all get through them, usually 100% successfully.

 

[scrollF4]

Landing Lights

Wow! 100% of the respondants agonized over the wing holes for the landing lights!

Oh, I'm the first to respond...looks like I'm the 100%.

Get well, Kelly

 

[Lemmingman]

Haven't done any fuselage work yet. But I would say it was the air pressure test I did on my first fuel tank. I was sure it was going to fail miserably and I would be stuck with a swiss cheese fuel tank and hours of fixing it.

As it turned out everything worked fine and the test held the same amount of air for two days.

Now I'm building the second tank and the anxiety isnt nearly as bad.


Get better soon.

 

[Bob Axsom]

In the natural setting position

The left wing was considerably off of the requires incidence setting and I don't know how many times I remeasured it, slept on it and measured again before I twisted, clamped and drilled the hole to set the incidence. I felt like I must be doing something wrong, it couldn't be that far off - it was.

Bob Axsom

 

[dbaflyer]

The landing lights for sure so far, but I'm just finishing the wings so haven't reached the other items in the list yet.

 

[ppilotmike]

First Flight

Not there yet, myself, but I'd have to say that First Flight must have the greatest pucker factor of anything in any build... Unless, of course you hire a test pilot.

 

[stevemcgirr]

Because of the $ involved

Powering up the panel for the first time

 

[RV8R999]

$$$

writting all the checks to pay for everything...

 

[Bob Axsom]

I didn't find it so

Not there yet, myself, but I'd have to say that First Flight must have the greatest pucker factor of anything in any build... Unless, of course you hire a test pilot.

It either worked or it didn't and I expected it to work. It was exceptionally satisfying the first instant the tires left contact with the runway. When I rolled into a right crosswind turn I knew it was going to fly just fine. When I leveled off in the downwind it was just like my flights with Mike Seager and all that was left was put down the flaps make a safe landing and do the post flight detail inspection. Everything felt exactly the way it should on that first flight.

Bob Axsom

 

[ChiefPilot]

Drilling the rear spar.

Sure, cutting the canopy was a big deal, but if I screwed it up I could simply write a check and get another one. Replacing the parts for the rear spar would have been ... ugly ... on my non-prepunched -6A kit.

 

[Flying Scotsman]

My pucker factor goes up exponentially with how "completed" the parts/subassembly/assembly is that I'm about to drill/cut.

Bending the longerons? Pshaw...could always buy new ones (locally, somewhere, to avoid shipping).

But I agonized for a week about cutting the slot into the side of the fuselage for the canopy handle...because messing it up meant I'd see it forever (because replacing that skin would be nightmarish if not impossible)!

Lots of pucker moments, though...but so far, we've gotten through all of them (knock on wood).

 

[Buggsy2]

Cutting into the leading edge of my QB wing for the Duckworks lights sure gave me pause. I was about to test my skills on several thousand dollars worth of wing. Duckworks supplies great instructions and templates but I measured it a dozen times using different tapes and rulers, taped on the template, then left it overnight, remeasured another half-dozen times the next day, and finally cut.

Getting close to working with the canopy...I'll be d*** careful with that too but don't know it will equal the pucker factor of that first landing-light cut.

 

[rockwoodrv9]

Powering up the panel for the first time

I get nervous powering up almost anything. I built the full size mock up of the B2 bomber for the movie, Broken Arrow. I didn't wire the panel, but when they got everything installed, a guy hooked it up to 120v and fried all the equipment. I was told it was a $140k error.

 

[eddieseve]

Drilling and cracking the canopy