About 3 years ago I decided my 21 year old RV8 "quickbuild" would fly. The painting is now almost complete and it is approaching the move to the airport for assembly.
One of my friends who has been helping me with the final push is Cameron Rogers. As well as being a flight instructor with a Ph.D in group theory, he is a poet. I thought his poem might be of interest on this forum.
The first two lines need some explanation. They come from a plaque in the garage where I have been building. The plaque is shown in the photo. My wife bought me the plaque. My father-in-law added the annotation when I became a judge so it has its own delightful ambiguity. Anyway - here is the poem.
Here a pilot and a normal person
Live - but then you ask, "who will be the judge?"
I say, if I leave it will it worsen?
Must I fix it? That blasted nut won't budge!
A. N. Four two six, A. D. Three dash four
Wait.... Too short. Make that three dash four point five,
Buck up! Squeeze...push...past the pain, squeeze, push, more!
One less birth pain before it flies, alive.
It is much more, and less, than riveting.
(Am I, countersunk, a complete nut-plate?)
Yet God, that craftsman, master, set on wing
These wings, and holds this feeble thing, innate.
I thought to build this plane - instead I see
That this petulant craft is building me.
-Cameron Rogers 2024
One of my friends who has been helping me with the final push is Cameron Rogers. As well as being a flight instructor with a Ph.D in group theory, he is a poet. I thought his poem might be of interest on this forum.
The first two lines need some explanation. They come from a plaque in the garage where I have been building. The plaque is shown in the photo. My wife bought me the plaque. My father-in-law added the annotation when I became a judge so it has its own delightful ambiguity. Anyway - here is the poem.
Here a pilot and a normal person
Live - but then you ask, "who will be the judge?"
I say, if I leave it will it worsen?
Must I fix it? That blasted nut won't budge!
A. N. Four two six, A. D. Three dash four
Wait.... Too short. Make that three dash four point five,
Buck up! Squeeze...push...past the pain, squeeze, push, more!
One less birth pain before it flies, alive.
It is much more, and less, than riveting.
(Am I, countersunk, a complete nut-plate?)
Yet God, that craftsman, master, set on wing
These wings, and holds this feeble thing, innate.
I thought to build this plane - instead I see
That this petulant craft is building me.
-Cameron Rogers 2024
