What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Daily Musings .. nothing important

bkervaski

Hellloooooooo!
Testing
Well, it appears in addition to being a gymnast to build an RV you also need to be good at crossfit .. I'm sore as can be today from getting my wheel pants done yesterday. A constant drop, mount, mark, unmount, hop up, sand, repeat countless times for 10 hours :eek:

Also, I have a video camera setup to automatically activate when I walk in the shop to record my progress .. on more than a few nights I've been woken up at all hours by the compressor I forgot to turn off and have had to go down and shut it off .. hopefully dressed .. sometimes not .. sorry for whoever watches those videos and catches me stumbling in half or :eek: mostly naked :p
 
The physical impact of one of these builds doesn't get a lot of attention, but it can be significant depending on your age and physical shape. In addition to the pains you mention, I have a chronic case of tendonitis from years of hand work, cleco pliers, etc. Not to mention the blood I've left on different parts over the years from cutting myself. I used to tell my wife that if I wasn't bleeding when I left the workshop, it wasn't a good work session ;)
 
BUT---

its the education and recreation thingy. I guess the recreation is the workout you get during construction. :eek:

Tom
 
My worst moments were when I was building the baggage door on my 8. You have to strap the door down tight to the fuselage and crawl under the instrument panel to drill and cleco the thing together, and then again to install the rivets. Well the problem is, I'm a good sized guy (Mostly around the middle :eek:) and I had to lay everything I needed on the floor right behind the firewall, then wriggle my hulk in, face up and arms above my head as there would be no re-positioning my arms after I was poked up in the nose; the gear towers being extremely limiting. Add to that the fact that the crotch strap mount is poking up from the wing spar. I put some foam and blankets in there to cushion it, but that sucker poked me seriously in the back the whole time!

So there I was, squirming on my back, arms extended forward over my head, strap mount digging into my back yelling "ow, ow, ow, mother &*%#@)&^!", all alone in the hanger, in the winter, and the heat is set to kick off at 9 PM! I truly thought I was just going to lay there, stuck, and freeze to death! My wife would have eventually missed me and tried my cell phone, but I couldn't have reached it in my pocket if I wanted to! Wouldn't have been a pretty picture with the EMS folks there sometime in the middle of the night, prying my fat, half frozen, rigor mortise stiffened magnificence out of that fuselage!

Yeah, that was my worst build moment! :D
 
Last edited:
My worst moments were when I was building the baggage door on my 8. You have to strap the door down tight to the fuselage and crawl under the instrument panel to drill and cleco the thing together, and then again to install the rivets. Well the problem is, I'm a good sized guy (Mostly around the middle :eek:) and I had to lay everything I needed on the floor right behind the firewall, then wriggle my hulk in, face up and arms above my head as there would be no re-positioning my arms after I was poked up in the nose; the gear towers being extremely limiting. Add to that the fact that the crotch strap mount is poking up from the wing spar. I put some foam and blankets in there to cushion it, but that sucker poked me seriously in the back the whole time!

So there I was, squirming on my back, arms extended forward over my head, strap mount digging into my back yelling "ow, ow, ow, mother &*%#@)&^!", all alone in the hanger, in the winter, and the heat is set to kick off at 9 PM! I truly thought I was just going to lay there, stuck, and freeze to death! My wife would have eventually missed me and tried my cell phone, but I couldn't have reached it in my pocket if I wanted to! Wouldn't have been a pretty picture with the EMS folks there sometime in the middle of the night, prying my fat, half frozen, rigor mortise stiffened magnificence out of that fuselage!

Yeah, that was my worst build moment! :D
To borrow from Larry the Cable Guy, "I don't care who you are, that there is funny!" :p:D

So, there must be a story in there about how you finally did get out!
 
Well, it appears in addition to being a gymnast to build an RV you also need to be good at crossfit .. I'm sore as can be today from getting my wheel pants done yesterday. A constant drop, mount, mark, unmount, hop up, sand, repeat countless times for 10 hours :eek:
Been there, done that. And after all that work, I have discovered one of my wheel pants is skewed and I'm half-a-ball out in the cruise. I flew without (wheel) pants last week and could fly feet on the floor for the first time in 18 months. :(
 
Wait until you crawl back into the tail cone of a nose gear RV to replace an ADAHRS unit and forget to put a saw horse under the fuselage. Now you have to crawl UP, in reverse, with your arms above your head and no way to get them down.

Vic
 
While you are in the back of the RV, hands above your head AND then start getting feelings of claustrophobia. Not fun. Don't panic, but get out quickly. That was my worst part. I didn't mind the blood or smashed Thumbs.
 
I hear ya, dudes .... I hear ya. I was regularly sore as h*ll from all the contorting when I was building my bird. But it was 11 long years ago that I started the build. Now - in my "advancing years" - I'm a tad less limber, and the bigger maintenance tasks and annuals make me so sore I can hardly get out of chair! I need to find some wild-eyed, airplane-nutty kid about 12 who would relish the opportunity to wriggle into the nether regions of my 9A! Oh yeah .... he needs to live near the airport, too! :D
 
What are the odds...?

Use a block of wood as a backer when drilling small holes in thin sheet metal. However, if there is already a same size small hole completely through the block, and by the merest of chance it happens to align itself precisely with the location of the new hole to be drilled in the sheet, the drill bit will zip right on through and into a waiting fingertip. Thus, the driller becomes The Drillee. I know...I have proof.

I had hoped and taken appropriate measures to prevent this apparent "Wrong of Passage." I did everything I should, alas to no avail. So...what's up with that? Sheeesh!
 
Last edited:
For years during the build I kept hearing about people drilling holes in their fingers, I was like, what the heck are these guys doing? until I got to the gear leg fairings and then I finally joined that club. :eek:
 
You are not alone....

Experienced the "pain" just last night while trying to figure out how to position the fuel tank skin on the work bench so I could debur all the inner rivet holes. The benches are up against the wall, and the wing stands are only about 3 feet away from the bench, and the skin was on my dimpling table with the C-Frame in place, so I don't have a lot of room to move things or myself around.

I contorted myself just long enough to feel the twinge in my lower back start to become more pronounced, and then I realized there was an easier, less painful way to position the skin (and myself) to get the job done. Funny how you always figure that out AFTER you "feel the pain." :D
 
Panel dives are the worst! I got cramps in places I've never had cramps before, like my hips. :eek:

Now that the upholstery and carpet are in, it's much more comfortable.
 
Back
Top