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Accidental RV Psychological Warfare

dicel87

Well Known Member
Over the long weekend my girlfriend suprises me with a visit (she lives in another state). Whenever she is here, she refuses to use the bathroom in my master suite...something about bachelors not having any sense of cleanliness when it comes to bathrooms. (go figure) Instead she always uses the guest bathroom.

So yesterday morning, its rainy and chilly. The perfect sleeping in weather. But as usual I am up at 5am making a pot of coffee and checking out the news. Instead of waking her up by going into my bathroom, I headed down to the guest bathroom with a copy of Kitplanes Magazine (dont even try to say nobody else does that!)

Later that day, having forgotten that I left the magazine in her bathroom, she tells me....."you know, those RVs are really pretty. I didnt really like the other planes in that magazine that much compared to those really pretty RVs. I think thats the one you should build".

I just sat there thinking to myself "YES!...how cool is SHE?!"

So the moral of the story guys is to leave an old Kitplanes Magazine in the bathroom and maybe, if you haven't already, you'll get the green light to start pounding rivets!

Scott
RV practice kit in the closet, 10 hours of instruction in the logbook, and an RV in my future
 
The trick is that if she is still a 'girlfriend', and doesn't have a ring on her finger yet (engaged), BUY WHILE YOU CAN; no approvals needed! Especially if she doesn't live with you!

You won't even have to 'sneak' in new tools from the vehicle to the workshop! How nice would THAT be? Oh, I am talking to myself... about that new bandsaw yesterday......wife is in the front yard raking leaves, I duck into the shop while she isn't looking with the bandsaw...oh, nevermind :D
 
Now if you can get them to buck rivets!

I ordered the tail kit just before I met my wife two years ago. The first entry in the logbook has both of our names on it, I think I knew then that I had to marry this girl.

For the longest time I would tease that the ring on her finger was really my fuselage kit.

The Fuselage kit was ordered the week before our wedding last year and she has been nothing but supportive. In fact she asked me to put rudder peddles on the right side so she could take flying lessons when we finish it.

The best part is her father is also a pilot who did maintenance work under and IA to put himself through school. When the In-laws come to visit I know I will get at least two days of good building in on the plane. He even drove all rivets on one wing while I bucked. That might even be on the same wing my wife bucked while I drove. What a woman!

As for sneaking tools in, that isn?t a problem because after insulating and dry walling the basement in two days she is convinced I can do anything. I keep telling her that is true, IF I have the correct tools. Now she lets me buy any tool I need. Heck, I even used the rivet squeezer to fix a toy suitcase for a friends doll collection. That airplane sure made me look like a hero!
 
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wives

My wife was kind of mad at me at Oshkosh in 2003 because I wouldn't put up the deposit for the RV10 tailcone. I had another project (Pietenpol) I needed to sell first. I sold the Piet a couple of weeks later & immediately put up the deposit. Well, she's excited enough about going places she'll run me out of the house to work on the plane. She say's if don't work on it, I'll never get it finished. I've found some pretty good deals on some things for the airplane that I really couldn't afford at the time but she tells me to go ahead & get it, we'll find the money. Matter of fact, she does the Creative Memories scrap book thing, so she's doing my photo album. She really doesn't care for flying that much she just knows it quicker. I've had a C-150 for 4 years now & she's never even sat in it let alone go flying.
I've also got 2 daughters, 15 & 10, they'll help in any way I ask.

Marshall Alexander
RV10, working on wings
 
Marshall

I am still trying to figure out which is more expensive: our RV's or the scrap booking hobby that my wife is also involved with :D

Who ever knew that there would be such a market for specialty scissors, little letter cut-outs, stick on symbols, etc!
 
txaviator said:
I am still trying to figure out which is more expensive: our RV's or the scrap booking hobby that my wife is also involved with :D

Who ever knew that there would be such a market for specialty scissors, little letter cut-outs, stick on symbols, etc!

I would have to agree with that! My wife has as much stuff as the store does. She comes out of the store bummed out and says they have nothing that she doesn't have. :eek:

I am still dreaming of the RV9A, but collecting tools and the practice kit is in the workshop.

Kacey D.
RV9A Preview Plans
 
txaviator said:
I am still trying to figure out which is more expensive: our RV's or the scrap booking hobby that my wife is also involved with :D

Who ever knew that there would be such a market for specialty scissors, little letter cut-outs, stick on symbols, etc!

Ditto for my wife.

I'm thinking that when we all finish we can fly to some place, drop the wifes off and then go fly some place else. The only problem is the weight of her scrapbook stuff is probably more than all of my RV tools. :D I'm just thankful they don't cost as much!
 
txaviator said:
I am still trying to figure out which is more expensive: our RV's or the scrap booking hobby that my wife is also involved with :D

Who ever knew that there would be such a market for specialty scissors, little letter cut-outs, stick on symbols, etc!

No kidding. We just thought flying was expensive.

Marshall
 
Pschy ops

Second (current) wife went up in a Pitts S2C and came down and said "we gotta get one of these!" (THANK YOU GOD!)

THEN we went to Oshkosh and sat in the 7A next my 9A that I was finishing the HS on at the time and she finds out my 9A can't do Acro but the 7 can and makes me sell the 9A and BUY the 7A! (THANK YOU AGAIN GOD!)

By the way, that Pitts ride was on our honeymoon so this ones taken, has no sisters and I'm keeping this one for as long as she'll have me even if she is into those sticker things too.

Hey, maybe we should have a sticker booth at one of the flyins for our women :D

Remember that old southern saying, if mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy.
 
jimpappas said:
Second (current) wife went up in a Pitts S2C and came down and said "we gotta get one of these!" (THANK YOU GOD!)

hahahaha

Nora saw a picture of a Pits S1 in Sport Aviation and thought it was cute and wonder if we could get one. Oh baby! Now to finish the -9. Even though it can't do acro, the little wheel is on the right end for her to learn in.
 
P.s.

I just read this thread to the Scrape Book Queen of my domain. She said we are "Wrong, very, very wrong."
 
Just don't get tongue-tied while talking to the wife (like I did once), and accidentally call it "crap" booking....... :D

I now just use the oldest philosophy in the book: "It is easier to beg for forgiveness, than it is to ask for permission"....well, not all the time, but I do use that philosophy occasionally.
 
txaviator said:
You won't even have to 'sneak' in new tools from the vehicle to the workshop!
I got a good laugh on that one TX. Glad to see I am not the only one having to do this. The thing that gets me in trouble is when the Fedex or UPS guy shows up at the door.
 
Here is my method of keeping the piece with the wife of 36 years. She sees every penny I spend and she gets to spend an equal amount on the house or whatever she wants. That always benefits me too as in the swimming pool. There is one problem though. I may not live long enough to finish the plane. Anybody know where I can land a third job? Who nees sleep anyway. :eek:

Jim RV-9A wings 90919 Arkansas
 
Keep at it, it will be done

:) :cool: [Keep at it guys, you will be having so much fun flying your plane to LOE, or Van's Homecoming, or for those Hundred dollar hamburgers. KEEP ON IT.



Dale
N565DM
RV 6A
St. Cloud, MnFONT=Arial Black]undefined[/FONT]
 
We seem to have a common theme happening here. Scrap booking and RVing.
I must admit, I hadn't thought of asking my wife to "scrap" my up comeing -4.(she might take me literaly!) However, I just spent my entire long service leave (8 weeks) renovating our kitchen/dine/lounge area, and helping return a '42 DC3 to the air, and Tiff has gone from "what is a DC3?" to bawling her eyes out as she saw it take of, and offering to do a whole book of scrap on the repair. As a resault, she is fairly keen and suportive of me spending more time on my plane(tail just about finished, wings sitting in shed, under a carefully aplied layer of protective dust) now that the house is done and the DC3 has flown home again. Bit of a bummer that I have to go back to work tomorrow.
Anyway, nice to know I am not the only one out there gritting my teeth as two shopping bags of corner cutters, teddybear shapes "special" paper,and stuff thatI still havent worked out yet, gets displayed on the kitchen table.
Still, she does me the honer of being interested in my new tools that I equaly proudly dump on the table. Ya just gotta luvem.
Cheers
Bill.
 
Just wait, fellas....Just when I thought the scrap-booking hobby could go no further, the wife has discovered a new twist to it all.....

Her scrap-booking crew has now ventured off into ALSO making belt buckles. Yep, I have no idea where that came from, but the same stores that sell the materials for scrap-booking are now selling supplies to make your own belt buckles. They buy blank sterling silver buckles, blank black leather belts, then they all get together and glue millions of little sequins and stones to the sterling belt buckle, all in fancy little designs :confused:

I must admit however, that I don't mind it at all. I just think it is funny, the things they come up with. Geez, if I had "seen" the scrap-booking craze coming? I could have opened a quick little store selling all the supplies (like many others have done here in Dallas/Fort Worth) and surely made enough profits by now to pay for QUICKBUILD wings and fuse, rather than slow-build :D

Like I said though, I don't mind it as long as she is happy. I find it comical they get enjoyment out of "building little belt buckles and glueing pictures on fancy paper". From the wife's point of view, she thinks it is comical that we get enjoyment out of "riveting little pieces of aluminum together". I guess it's all relevant........ :cool:
 
Scrapbooking?

Man, scissors, stickers and paper must have taken a huge leap in price recently. I had no idea they could cost as much as a GNS-430! That's almost as frightening as the cost of gas!

Maybe I don't know what scrapbooking really is.
 
My new wife's a keeper!

She flew with me (her first time ever) in really windy/gusty conditions and the airplane was being thrown around all over the place. She loved it! We then go to the Watsonville Airshow and when we are looking at the cute Cubs and Champs, she says, "We need an airplane of our own". So I take her to the line with the beautiful RV-8s and tell her my dream of building one of those. She carefully checks out all of them and thinks they look great!

A few days later, we fly down to Santa Ynez where there are two RV-7s doing touch and goes. She can't take her eyes off of either of them. One of them pulls into the fuel island, fills up and the pilot (and wife) start washing it at the nearby pad and my wife says, "Oh wouldn't it be fun to wash our own plane like that on a day like this?".

So my to do list as of now
- Get a house with a garage
- Order the tail kit for an RV-8
- Keep my wife happy by working on it :D
 
When RV's and Scrapbooking collide

Last year my wife put together an album for me with her scrapbooking skills and had it wrapped up under the Christmas tree. It was so touching that I couldn't talk for about 30 minutes after looking thru it. Until that time I never knew that both her and my two sons "Got it." So as your building and flying produces more memories and photos your world and hers will hopefully collide and you will get something as truly wonderful as I did. Here a few examples which do not do justice to the work that she put into this. The text is bent in the photos that I just took for this post, but are not that way in the book.

Rosie took the cover photo without knowing it at the time. This is probably my favorite picture of "The Flag."
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/1847/dscn3078ge4.jpg
This was taken at the Van's Homecoming in 2000. I was well into the build by this point.
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/7461/dscn3079vq9.jpg
This one shows my son Jason working on the tanks with me. He liked the proseal!
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/8218/dscn3085br4.jpg
This is what Jason wrote about our time together working on the plane.
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/9830/dscn3084dm0.jpg
This is what my younger son Spencer had to say about the plane.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/834/dscn3083dm6.jpg
This is an example of how she made each page unique and interesting.
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/6069/dscn3081xx8.jpg
Some pages didn't need as much but she still carried the theme
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/2822/dscn3082dl3.jpg
Here she used the poster from our stop at Sun N Fun. We both have great memories of this.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/2649/dscn3080cr5.jpg
So remember to take pictures if your wife does scrapbooking. You'll likely be glad you did.
 
My Bride doesn't Scrap Book

The first time that my wife (G/F at the time) came to CA, I took her with me on one of the $100 omlette missions that we do every weekend. I set her up to fly with a friend in his RV-6. After watching a series of loops and rolls, I knew when they pulled back into formation it was going to be a defining point in our relationship. Lucky for me, she was all smiles!
We got engaged while up to our elbows in PolySpray at a fabric covering seminar at Arlington.
She looks forward every year to the annual on the PA-20 and the condition on the RV, as timing mags and cleaning spark plugs is recreation to her!
Sorry she has no sisters, and I am staying as long as she will allow it!
 
Wow, that is very cool!. I can very well understand how this gift would leave you at a loss for words
 
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I got it easy!

My Wife owns a thoroughbred...Apparently it was "free"

Word to the wise, if anyone offers you a "free" horse...Run the other way as fast as you can!

Yeah spending money on an RV is no problem whatsoever...:D
 
I'm very lucky to have the right wife. She enjoys flying with me, as long as it's not too bumpy. :D

Long story short, I wanted to build a 6 or 7. Something smaller and less expensive.

However, she was determined to have something with 4 seats. So she suggested that I build a -10. It's not often your wife makes you spend more money and build a bigger airplane.

Very cool
 
RV Psyc warfare

Be very careful Scott. Girlfriends are very good at this in reverse. They say these things when they are in the prenesting mode. Once they get you at ease that they are the one and HOOK ya. Then the real girlfriend comes out.

Just a heads up to proceed with caution!:eek:
 
Later that day, having forgotten that I left the magazine in her bathroom, she tells me....."you know, those RVs are really pretty. I didnt really like the other planes in that magazine that much compared to those really pretty RVs. I think thats the one you should build".

I just sat there thinking to myself "YES!...how cool is SHE?!"


[/I]

Scott,

Now THIS is a fun thread. Call me skeptical, suspicious or whatever but she has a motive in there somewhere. Maybe it is my 30 year career as a cop that makes me wonder!!!

As somebody said, buy now while you are single. I'm thinking, except in a few rare cases, this may be a passing phase.

You know the question, "what causes a woman to stop giving ......(fill in the blank),?" :(

Answer: Wedding cake......:eek:

Could be the same for airplane support.
 
The greatest passenger, ever!

Eight years ago, after serious discussions over many months, Kathy and I decided it was time to order the tail kit for our RV-8. We knew it would be a large investment in time and money, but Kathy was very supportive of the venture and one evening I filled out Van's application, signed the check and put the envelope on the kitchen counter, ready to go out with the next day's mail.

The next morning I was tinkering in my shop when Kathy came in from the house with the envelope in her hand and a friend in tow. The girls were going out shopping and Kathy asked me if she should put the letter to Van's in the mail on their way out? I asked her if there were any second thoughts on her part and she replied by sealing the envelope with a kiss, leaving her red lip print on the back of the envelope. Turning to her girlfriend, she said "guess what... we're going to build and airplane! What do you think about that?" Her girlfriend got a strange look on her face and then told us that she was probably the wrong person to ask. She then proceeded to tell us in every detail how her father and brother were both killed in an Aerocoupe several years earlier. They went up for an early morning flight out of a small grass strip not to far from our home. They landed, topped off the tanks and launched again. The second takeoff with full fuel, hot and humid air, and up slope into tall trees was a recipe for disaster and Kathy's friend began to cry as she described how the plane hit the top of the trees and burned on impact.

Kathy and I were stunned by all of this and I forgot all about the envelope that Kathy was still holding in her hand. Before the girls got back from shopping, I left on a 3-day trip. ( I was a slave for a major airline back then.) When I returned from the trip I didn't see the envelope on the kitchen counter and I asked Kathy where she put it. "I mailed it", she said!
When I asked her how she could go forward with building an airplane after listening to her girlfriends account of her father and brother's deaths, she asked me two questions: "Those people died because they did several stupid things, didn't they?"
"Yes", I replied.
"Are we going to do anything stupid with our airplane?"
"Nope", I replied.
"I know we won't", she said,"so I mailed the envelope!"

Kathy and I have been all over the United States in "Miss Izzy" Right now we are in Scottsdale, Arizona. Arrived here yesterday with six other RV's full of good friends. Going to visit Sedona today and will see Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and Lakes Powell and Mead before the week is done and we head home to North Carolina. Kathy has no desire to learn to fly, never even took the stick to get the "feel" of it, but she is the greatest passenger and partner a pilot could ask for. We have about 450 hours on the RV and we're just getting started!
 
Update

Got a good laugh to see this original post from over 3 years ago and I have to report that there is good news and bad news guys.

Good news
1. I married her :)
2. I now have a house, 5 teenagers, and a poodle :eek:
3. I've got 10 more hours in the log book :p
4. My student ticket finally came back from the FAA after 6 months :D
5. I'm retiring from the Army this fall :p
6. I'm still chasing the dream :)

Bad news
1. 5 teenagers :eek:

Scott
Kansas City MO
 
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