So many mistakes, so much fun!

I stopped by our tech counselor to get some tips and get learned up on this rivet stuff.

I have been reading these forums for years and take pretty good notes. That being said, I think I made them all tonight! I started working on the tool box because I thought it would be the easiest of the two practice kits...by the end, even though I have been warned in these forums, I had:

-Drilled oval holes
-Poked a drill into my knuckle (only a flesh wound)
-Pinched myself with a cleco clamp
-Scratched the aluminum
-deburred too deeply (the hinge Al is much softer than the sheet)
-Pushed too hard with the drill
-measured once and started to drill...didn't catch the mistake until ALL the rivets were set
etc


So, I learned a lot, actually smiled rather than got mad when making mistakes, learned a lot, had fun, learned a lot.....

This is great stuff! I think I have never had so much fun screwing up so much!

Yep, you'll fit right in...

Firewall forward and im still doin all of that!

I won't even show people my toolbox. It hardly opens because the hinge is not installed very well. There are dents from the rivet gun on it and I learned that 80lbs is too much pressure for the rivet gun! I needed to use the hinge pin for something the other day and now I can't even get the pin back in. The toolbox is sitting on the shelf partly open and the pin sticking out half way.

Believe it or not, you will get better!! Have fun.

I learned so much with Van's training kit.

Not only how to and not to do stuff on parts but also how to and not to work with the tools...

Take your time, check, check and recheck what your readind and doing at first, then don't get sloppy as you gain experience and speed...

You definitelly will get better with time and practice.

The empennage is another great learning challenge with a steep curve especially the left elevator and it's trim tab... Isn't it what we love, the challenge??? Otherwise, we would take up something like knitting....

You will make mistakes again but the best thing is you will learn from them and that's very gratifying !!!

Keep up the good spirit !!!

The mistakes happen...

....but they happen less often (hopefully) and when you do make them you get more proficient at fixing them.

I am just about to paint my 8, so the "metal" errors are mostly over, now I will see what kind of trouble I can get into in a paint booth!

I know this though; I have enjoyed every single step, the mistakes included. I think you learn more from the mistakes than the successes, and as my old mother used to say," You should keep learning till the day they nail the lid on"

So make sure you have fun every day of the build.

Jim

I found during the build that if you can't poke fun at your mistakes...you can always count on your friends to do it for you

It got to the point where, if someone asked what they could do, I would just get it over with and say "point and laugh".

Sounds like you're off to a great start!

riseric said:

Otherwise, we would take up something like knitting....

Click to expand...

Hope I'm better at building, I'm no good at knitting!

Ah yes, the good o'l days ...

It's kind of funny to think today how I obsessed about every not-so-great rivet in the early days of the project. In one of my neophyte calls to Vans, Ken Scott said, "Nah ... don't worry about that. Its inconsequential to the flyability or safety of the aircraft. Just think of your project as building a tractor ... a sort of lightweight tractor." That comment did wonders to reduce my obsessing.

Been There and ...Will Be Again

I've built two practice airfoil kits in order to build my skills before the RV-14 kit arrives. The first practice kit was awful. Dan Horton couldn't find an acceptable rivet that I had bucked. After his great tutelage my riveting improved tremendously. The second kit went together in half the time as the first, even after I realized I swapped the left and right ribs and couldn't rivet the skins onto them. Luckily Dan showed me the proper way to drill out rivets. Practice does make one better.

+1 on Airfoil Kit

My wife and I attended the Sport Air weekend sheetmetal workshop before starting on the 10 kit. Now the previous year, I had taken the 2 hour Aluminum 101 course (twice) in Oshkosh, so I thought I had it nailed. Well, needless the say, there is MUCH to dislike about the small airfoil we produced during the weekend course.

We are both pretty anal people, and the small stuff bothers us. So, we argued about technique (funny, since we had no clue about technique), cursing the metal and, in the end, learned a WHOLE lot. I highly recommend the practice kits (MORE THAN ONE) before starting.

My wife and I each signed and dated that little airfoil with a big black Sharpie, and it now hangs in my shop as a reminder of just how much we've learned. To tell the truth, I actually love than ugly little thing!