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Things That Make Me Crazy

RPorter

RPorter

Active Member
Been reflecting on our RV-12 build for the past few weeks, and I started to think of all of those little anoyances the everyday builder faces.......Now I know it is dangerous for me to think, especially very hard, but this provoked me to ask you all. What are those little problems you encounter while building that make you want to tear your hair out? Honestly, for me, it was stripping out those phillips head screws used to attach panels with. Lets see some comments!
 
Easy one for me. Building in a single car garage, I'm constantly reorganizing and moving things to make room for what I'm working on at the time.

Not much I can do about it, but its a constant struggle.
 
My biggest aggravation was actually the little things! Finding out you are stopped dead in the water waiting for Fed Ex to deliver some little item that cost .03 cents, but is being delivered in a few days for $9.00. On a 12 there are lots of little things you need to buy, but you find out about it when you are ready to use it. I started a thread on the 12 forum titled "Everything except paint an liquids" or something like that to make it easier for others to get such stuff in advance. Simple talcum powder was one such example, not available everywhere like in the old days. Special grease for the wheel bearings was another that held me up for weeks due to back order and cancellations. Local suppliers don't exist down here.
 
Ordering something to finish a step and figure out 2 days later you needed something else:mad: so 3 dollars in parts ended up costing you 40!
 
Lack of $$$ :)

Agree on the posts above about waiting for parts. I wish Van's would provide the list of hardware and bag contents in their subkits on the web site. I bought the baffle kit only to find that the oil cooler mount on the baffle requires additional parts.

A couple of my frustrations have been mostly in the realm of wondering why you thought a particular task was going to be hard before you actually do it. Cutting the canopy, bending longerons, drilling the rear spar bolt holes, etc.
 
My biggest pet peeve looking back at my build is paying good money for standard parts that don't fit.

Case in point, the air intake snorkel used with a horizontal induction engine.
I had to hack away and reglass a portion of the snorkel because it interferred with the standard Plane Power alternator that came in Vans FWF kit. Maybe my expectations were too high, but when you use standard parts, they should fit... would it have really cost that much more to make a mold that did not require much trimming?

Anyway... my 2 cents.

Jason
 
I think the biggest pet peeve for me has been myself. I've been my own worst enemy for most of the project. Sure, fiberglass parts could have been better or the plans could have been more clear here or there, but ultimately I think I didn't always think far enough ahead which wound up causing me problems later on.
 
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