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My neighbors think we're insane ..

bkervaski

Hellloooooooo!
Testing
QB Wings + Fuse + Finishing Kit + Firewall Forward Kit all showed up yesterday, this is the overflow room while we're getting organized, yikes!

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The really scary part is when you've spent years with those parts neatly organized on shelves, with your build space looking like a well-stocked warehouse. Then one day you look around and the shelves are... BARE! Oh my, what a feeling!

I recently experienced this epiphany. No more parts on the shelves must mean only one thing - the airplane is pretty much ready to fly. The evening that I reached this conclusion was a bad one for me as I spent the whole night lying in bed, excited, making mental to-do lists to prepare for final inspection and first flight. It's a real shifting of gears to go from full-on construction to making ready for flight, or at least it has been for me.
 
I got a neighbor that I think drinks a lot of vitamin B :D and will want to talk for 47 hours when he sees me in the garage. The mustang was blocking his view for a while but it has since been relocated to make room for the airplane; only a matter of time now...
 
Neighbors thinking you are insane is when you do a full power run up in the driveway :D
 
Even though it has been years since mine has gone to the hangar at the airport, people still use "That house with an airplane in the garage" as a reference point to give others directions.
 
When nearly every room in the house is storing finished parts, you are truly near the end of the work at home. The storage increases with build time. You will see. :D
 
I purposely only open my garage about half way to get air flow but still avoid people walking buy saying "Is that an airplane?"
 
When nearly every room in the house is storing finished parts, you are truly near the end of the work at home. The storage increases with build time. You will see. :D

A related story - I painted my wings in the fall and needed to get them to a warmer spot overnight as the paint cured; I didn't want to run the garage heater all night. My wife had a couple of friends visit that evening. They didn't quite know how to comment on two airplane wings sitting in the kitchen, but it seemed the undertone was "that wouldn't happen in MY house." She still has to listen to that story every time she sees those friends. I suppose the morale of the story is to make sure you have a patient and supportive wife as you reach these later stages.

Larry
 
I suppose the morale of the story is to make sure you have a patient and supportive wife as you reach these later stages.
You are so right, Larry -- in fact, it's important at every stage.

I had people stare curiously or stop by to ask about the RV-7 wings and fuselage when I was working on that. No one does now, because all of the woodworking on the new bird is just generic woodworking. Nothing looks like airplane parts yet... but it's coming.
 
My neighbors think we're insane ..

Actually had one ask if I was torturing cats. It was the air drill.

Another took pictures of me in my forced air painting outfit going in and out of the Harbor Freight driveway tent. Thought I was making drugs like Walter White from Breaking Bad.
 
Neighbors thinking you are insane is when you do a full power run up in the driveway :D

I can't wait to do that. My neighbors do full power run-ups of their bikes in their driveways; why can't I use an IO-540?
 
You are insane, but so are the rest of us, so you're in good company. How boring would life be if we were all sane. :D
 
After my plane had made it through phase one, my neighbor asked for a ride. I told him the only thing crazier than a lunatic building an airplane in his garage was a neighbor who was asking to fly in it. :) We had a wonderful flight together.:D
 
not yet but soon...

My shop is in an old barn on a farm. When I literately rang his door bell with my bicycle and asked politely if they had any room they could rent to a college kid... they asked me what for. I said I am going to build a "model airplane" I just may have forgotten to mention the 1:1 scale. I knew if I had dropped that they would have thought I am crazy... The other day he saw the HS and said something like. That seems very big... ;) hahah. I suppose once the wings show up I may have to do some explaining.
 
I was insane for 7 1/2 years. Then I was a Hero... Go figure
love flying my RV. Worth every minute
 
A related story - I painted my wings in the fall and needed to get them to a warmer spot overnight as the paint cured; I didn't want to run the garage heater all night. My wife had a couple of friends visit that evening. They didn't quite know how to comment on two airplane wings sitting in the kitchen, but it seemed the undertone was "that wouldn't happen in MY house." She still has to listen to that story every time she sees those friends. I suppose the morale of the story is to make sure you have a patient and supportive wife as you reach these later stages.

Larry
It is critical, and I hit the jackpot on that spousal issue!❤️
 
Neighbors thinking you are insane is when you do a full power run up in the driveway :D

Like this?
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I know no Vans but we did a run up :)

When my I brought my girlfriend home for the first time she thought that I have a strange table... It was the horizontal stabilizer :) But she accepted it quite well that I am building a plane.

Yves
 
Not yet but soon

Varied, very interesting WW comments... given D. Maib has Mickey mouse steering the boat. Given, I'd not ask the name of the boat.
 
When I was a kid I thought other people were weird for NOT having a work shop in their garage. I grew up watching the old man work the lathe, restore motorcycles, fix cars... Runs in my blood. My neighbors may think we are weird for busting down a wall to put a wing on the plane... But I'll always think they are weird for not building one!
 
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