Author Topic: Has anyone ever.....? (Read 3300 times)

Paul Taylor · « **on:** April 20, 2011, 07:14:32 PM »

Has anyone ever built a plane without making any mistakes?

I am building my first full fuse plane and I have had little mistakes here and there and had to patch and re-cut, and sand.

Just wondering

John Stiles · « **Reply #1 on:** April 20, 2011, 07:20:12 PM »

Quote from: Paul Taylor on April 20, 2011, 07:14:32 PM

Has anyone ever built a plane without making any mistakes?

I am building my first full fuse plane and I have had little mistakes here and there and had to patch and re-cut, and sand.

Just wondering

Yup, I have.....try building with a patch over one eye.....much of my building I do peering through this giant lightd magnifying glass! But it's a wonderful tool for removing splinters!

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #2 on:** April 20, 2011, 07:23:51 PM »

I seem to always end up repairing crash damage before the first flight.

Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach · « **Reply #3 on:** April 20, 2011, 07:44:02 PM »

I can say unequivecally say that I have NEVER finished without a mistake! I pride myself on my perfect record!

Larry Cunningham · « **Reply #4 on:** April 20, 2011, 08:03:28 PM »

Heck, there are several airplanes I haven't made any mistakes on. But I never *finished* them either!

Interesting you mention this, I used to watch Bill Melton build his carrier models. He used techniques which depended on patches and fixes. For example, he rougly cut open the aft profile fuselage to install a tail gear wire, which got patched and had its ditch filled with epoxolite. I know a few "fussy" builders who wouldn't like doing that.

Dang, I miss Bill at times.. What a fine friend and great modeler Dr. Melton was. And he was brilliant, and not just about model airplanes.

L.

".Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life." -George Bernard Shaw

Randy Ryan · « **Reply #5 on:** April 20, 2011, 08:36:05 PM »

Every single time Paul, not a single exception in 55 years.

John Witt · « **Reply #6 on:** April 20, 2011, 09:33:27 PM »

Like doctors, I bury my mistakes in the turf.

John

Clint Ormosen · « **Reply #7 on:** April 20, 2011, 09:49:05 PM »

Wouldn't be a good building experience without a few mistakes along the way. Some are no big deal, but some mistakes drive you nuts! Like gluing the top block on a then notice there are no blind nuts for the engine mount.

<<<<<----------- Dropped and completely broke the whole tail section off this plane just after silkspaning.

Chucky · « **Reply #8 on:** April 21, 2011, 04:55:43 AM »

Perfect things are boring. That's what machines do. Hand made things are much better, you know. The little deviations from plans are like the artist's name on a painting -- they make it unique and special. I keep telling myself these things so I don't get so upset when the inevitable happens.

Paul Taylor · « **Reply #9 on:** April 21, 2011, 07:47:22 AM »

It is nice to know I am not alone.

Matt Colan · « **Reply #10 on:** April 21, 2011, 08:06:52 AM »

Let's see, mistakes..........................

Well I stepped on the outboard wing of my smoothie when I was putting the wing away.........

I dropped the Oriental Plus fuselage when I was doing something with it (can't remember)......

my Cobra wing, the wing is upside down, where the landing gear is on top of the wing...........

The only ones I have that are fairly mistake free is my Profile (probably because I watched my grandfather build half of it), the Ares (even though the outboard wing is warped) and the Trivial Pursuit (knock on wood)

Steven Kientz · « **Reply #11 on:** April 21, 2011, 03:06:19 PM »

I have only built a total of four built up wings, so far I have a 2-2 record of sheeting the center section without a BC in them. I guess it could be worse.

Steve

John Hammonds · « **Reply #12 on:** April 21, 2011, 04:39:53 PM »

Well, I guess confession is good for the soul....

I built a Claus Maikis Commodore about 30 years ago and somehow managed to build the wing with the inboard U/c mounting in the top of the wing.

I must have stared at it for about 5 minutes trying to convince myself it wasn't true.

TTFN
John.

Perry Rose · « **Reply #13 on:** April 22, 2011, 04:50:02 AM »

I'm happy to get one built without any blood stains on it. Then again I always say "if I'm not bleeding I'm not having fun".

Bob Hills · « **Reply #14 on:** April 22, 2011, 05:55:45 AM »

Heck! I built a LEFT wing Twice for my R/C glider!
Bob Hills in CT.

john e. holliday · « **Reply #15 on:** April 22, 2011, 09:21:53 AM »

Isn't that the reason we put the perfect finish on our planes? A woodworker told me that a good woodworker knows how to hide his mistakes.

Paul Taylor · « **Reply #16 on:** April 22, 2011, 09:50:24 AM »

Quote from: Perry Rose on April 22, 2011, 04:50:02 AM

I'm happy to get one built without any blood stains on it. Then again I always say "if I'm not bleeding I'm not having fun".

I did that a lot as a kid building 1/2'a. I always had blood on my plane, pants, shirt from x-acto blades.

I still get a poke every once in awhile, but not as often. Guess I have leaned something about building these model planes.

Gary Anderson · « **Reply #17 on:** April 22, 2011, 12:07:05 PM »

Hi guys,
My first mistake is when I start the model, now you know the rest of the story???

Robert Schroeder · « **Reply #18 on:** April 22, 2011, 01:08:14 PM »

Mistakes in building? Surely you jest!

One man's mistake is another's way it is. My Sheeks Spitfire is supposed to have the outboard wing shorter tnan the inboard. The directions didn't say the outboard flap was supposed to be shorter too, so I just assume that was inadvertantly left out.

My Twisters are too heavy to suit me. That wasn't a mistake! The dope was too heavy. Must have been bad dope

!

Bob

Jerry Leuty · « **Reply #19 on:** April 22, 2011, 01:59:14 PM »

Wheather it is a classic car or a model airplane mistakes are inevitable. When you are finished and ready for the maiden flight only you the 'builder of the model' know where the boo boos are. When someone compliments you on your car, house, stunt ship, just be gracious and thank them. No one looks over a model long enough to find your little secrets. And if they happen to see one that really sticks out then so what. Go fly the thing and wow them with your piloting skills. I once built a prototype 'Hobo' designed by Tom Niebuhr from the Dallas club. I had it all framed up and when it had set for a couple of days it warped in all areas. I realized that I would have to disassemble the whole thing in order to build new major components. After studying it for a while I saw my trash truck coming down the street. I removed the landing gear and threw it into the back of the trash truck. The big tail gate crushed it along with the rest of the junk. The driver said; "Just didn't come out as it should of did it?" "Nope. It didn't." Too many other planes to build to get hung up on one major rebuild. I just finished a .40 size scratch built Legacy. The paint is curing now. Not too bad for a Monocoat and rattle can finish. Next I will build the Brodak Legacy to be powered by a Avastar .46 and I will duplicate the parts and scratch build a twin model to be powered by a LA .46 This is my first 'modern' stunt ship and I like the lines. I am excited to get to fly the .40 size soon. Yeah a few boo boos in it too.

Bob Hunt · « **Reply #20 on:** April 22, 2011, 02:03:09 PM »

Never make mistakes... I call it innovative engineering on the fly!

Bob Hunt

Dick Pacini · « **Reply #21 on:** April 22, 2011, 02:22:59 PM »

The dumbest thing I ever did was have my new plane chucked up in a vise, similar to the paint stands where a plate is bolted on the motor mounts. I had a home made gizmo using an old crankcase and crank from a Fox. The crank was screwed into a piece of hex bar stock with a tapped hole and that was chucked in the vise. I successfully doped, covered, doped again, sanded and painted the model and it was looking good.

The phone rang and I went to answer it and walked squarely into the last third of the model, breaking everything in the way and snapping the nose off.

To this day, as much as I would like to buy a paint stand, I wonder how many people have run into their own model like I did. Of course, a free standing unit would likely scoot or fall over. Maybe some day I will get up the courage to buy one.

Jerry Leuty · « **Reply #22 on:** April 23, 2011, 05:45:26 PM »

I worked for General Dynamics later Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas for 30 years. We built the F-111, F-16, F/A 22, and now they build the F-35. We only sold one maybe two perfect F-16s to the Air Force. That does not mean that the airframe went through the entire assembly process without a hitch, far from it. What that means is when the Air Force took the new plane up for the acceptance flight the entire flight went off without a single problem. Very unusual given that there is always a problem with electronics. No other aircraft manufacturer has ever built a perfect airplane. So if an experienced aircraft manufacturing facility cannot build a single multi million dollar airframe without a single boo boo and a lot of them, what makes us think we can build a model costing a mere $100 and have it perfect? Huge difference between 6061 aluminum and fickled balsa wood. Then comes the maiden flight where we are fortunate to get it back on the ground in one piece because it needs balancing and trimming and lots of it. Don't let pretty paint fool you in the pits. You are looking at a proto-type model and it is built by humans. I love this stuff.

bobsrc · « **Reply #23 on:** April 23, 2011, 08:30:20 PM »

The hidden truth of this subject is that the big difference between novices and experts is that the experts have already made most of the mistakes and have a vast library of ways to hide them. This is written by one who has been making mistakes for over 60 years. Good luck.

Clint Ormosen · « **Reply #24 on:** April 24, 2011, 10:51:04 AM »

Quote from: bobsrc on April 23, 2011, 08:30:20 PM

The hidden truth of this subject is that the big difference between novices and experts is that the experts have already made most of the mistakes and have a vast library of ways to hide them. This is written by one who has been making mistakes for over 60 years. Good luck.

Yup, this. ^^^