This morning while my wife was helping me clean and scuff a big pile of fuselage parts for priming, it occurred to me that there needed to be a thread for builders to express appreciation and thanks for their "silent partners" - be it a spouse, a relative, or someone else, I'll bet there's someone in your life who isn't as rabid about airplane building as you are, but nevertheless is an indispensable source of encouragement, assistance, and support. Building an airplane is not just a hobby, it's an enormous commitment. I suspect that every builder has someone who helps to keep them moving forward, even if they're not actually out in the garage helping to pound rivets every minute.
In my case, it's my wife Mary. She isn't the airplane nut that I am, but she still gamely helps make parts and shoot rivets when I ask nicely, and puts up with my endless hours in the garage and endless dollars spent on airplane pieces. I suspect that her tolerance of my eccentricities requires a lot of patience, not to mention forgiveness. When I get discouraged, I think about all the places we'll be able to visit together after this collection of parts is transformed into a real airplane. She may not get the same satisfaction from a nicely formed line of shop heads as I do, and she may not devour stacks of glossy aviation magazines and screens full of forum threads about esoteric aviation subjects, but when I talk about the RV-7 that's going together in my garage I tell people about the airplane that we're building.
So, who's your silent building partner?
mcb
In my case, it's my wife Mary. She isn't the airplane nut that I am, but she still gamely helps make parts and shoot rivets when I ask nicely, and puts up with my endless hours in the garage and endless dollars spent on airplane pieces. I suspect that her tolerance of my eccentricities requires a lot of patience, not to mention forgiveness. When I get discouraged, I think about all the places we'll be able to visit together after this collection of parts is transformed into a real airplane. She may not get the same satisfaction from a nicely formed line of shop heads as I do, and she may not devour stacks of glossy aviation magazines and screens full of forum threads about esoteric aviation subjects, but when I talk about the RV-7 that's going together in my garage I tell people about the airplane that we're building.
So, who's your silent building partner?
mcb