Reliability
How does that saying go, only build it because you "get to", not because you "have to"? I think that is pretty good advice, but it isn't how I did it.
I knew I wanted an RV real bad and knew I didn't want to build one and wasn't the type that should build one. I didn't rebuild engines or cars as a teenager and never really developed very good mechanical skills. Also, I didn't have a suitable place to build.
So, I shopped. I had a Piper Pacer at the time so was able to fly around some to look at airplanes for sale. I looked at quite a few 4s and 6s and just couldn't find the airplane. During this time the quickbuild 6 had been introduced, but only in the slider version, which I wasn't interested in.
At this point Van's introduced the QB RV-6 tip-up, and that pushed me over the edge. I thought maybe I could do the QB if I could find a place to build. I have a buddy that had a television repair shop in his back yard. It was the size of a two-car garage, plus some. He also had an air compressor and some tools. We made a deal where I would rent some space.
So I started in on the airplane, relying on the builders manual mostly with some reliance on the reference books. When I see now, on this forum, how I should have built the airplane (reaming every hole for instance) I see I did pretty much everything substandard. I did get it flying after about 27 months though, and what an airplane. I couldn't get over the responsiveness and feeling of total control. In fact it took me a couple of years to settle down and realize I need to be careful because the airplane was making me feel overconfident. Despite my iffy building techniques the airplane performed at least as well as Van's specs and I was walking on clouds.
I made a bunch of long trips, without trouble. What a feeling flying from Missoula, Montana to Carlsbad with one stop, at 17,500, running 200 knots plus groundspeed at 7 GPH or so. Wow!
Well the airplane is around 10 years old now and reliability is an issue. When compared to my two Japanese designed cars that just go and go with never a problem, there is a huge contrast.
Despite my lack of building skills, most of the problems have not been much related to anything I did.
The early teething problems were mostly with cowl fastening and exhaust hangars. The exhaust hangar problems were never resolved until I recently changed to Larry's newer parts. The original cowl fastener hinges were replaced in most areas with low-tech screws, which have been absolutely reliable but are a pain when removing the cowl.
The last few years haven't been as good. Repeatedly I have had pretty serious problems, or at least problems that seemed potentially serious. I have had an electrical failure, structural crack in the gear mounting structure and low oil pressure indication. Recently I went to the hangar to fly to find that a full fuel tank had lost ALL of its fuel. Today I found that fuel is dripping from under the cowling for about 30 seconds after I shut down, this is after I had the cowl off just last week, for an oil change.
So I'm not very good, but of all these problems, the only one I think I had anything to do with was the electrical system problem, which was an alternator connection that had become loose. Now I know that a smart mechanic or someone who likes to tinker, may have headed off a few of these things, but when I look at the factory planes around me, and the one I owned, it seems typical to have lots of little problems.
These problems are what keep me from flying so much. I don't like to tinker and I don't like to rely "on the kindness of strangers." I like to fly but live in a place without mechanics. I still fly quite a bit locally (over 100 hours per year), but the trips have greatly declined for fear of getting stuck somewhere. Sometimes I just take the simple but grinding alternative of slogging it out in the incredibly reliable Japanese car.
