Guess I have sniffed too much dope over the years

[Mike Griffin]

Lots of us on here have been building for years from either kits or scratch using a plan and I bet you if we combined all the years of building experience we have just on this forum alone, it would add up to thousands of years of experience.  However, no matter how long you have been doing it mistakes can still be made.  My good friend Eric Rule tells me it is from sniffing dope all those years.

So let me share with you the latest dumb thing I have done so maybe some of you wont feel so bad about some of the mistakes you have made.  I am doing a test build for the Take Apart Tudor and the fuselage can be built of either glow or electric by some simple cutting away of some material.   I am building two fuselages for myself, one for glow and one for electric and I am going to  swap the wing back and forth from fuselage to fuselage depending on which one I want to fly.  In other words, the wing fits either fuselage.

So.....I install the bell crank and sheet the center section making sure my joints were good and snug and then realize I did not put a pushrod in the bell crank.  I just sheeted right over the bellcrank without giving it a thought.  So I had to tear the sheeting off, install the pushrod and resheet the center section.  As if this was not bad enough, I suddenly realize (one of those realizations where the blood rushes out of your head) that I HAD NOT INSTALLED THE CENTER RIB THAT GOES UP INTO THE FUSELAGE AND BOLTS IN, IN ESSENCE MAKING IT A TAKE APART.  I had just built a regular wing that will have to be glued into the fuselage.  The Center Plywood rib with the extneded tab was laying right there on my work bench and I just went ahead a built the damn wing with out putting it in.  I have a beautiful wing but not a take apart wing.

Guys I cant tell you how this made me feel after doing all that work.  I just cleared my bench, went and poured some Jack Daniels in a glass and gulped it down.  THen I had another one.  I think I am through until after Christmas.  I sometimes think I am totally losing it by doing stuff like this... Or maybe Eric is Right, maybe we have just sniffed to much dope over the years and none of us are right....

Merry Christmas y'all....

Frustrated in New Orleans

Mike

[Gerald Arana]

Mike,

Thanks for the good laugh! 

 I'm laughing because I've done several things like that. It happens when I scratch build and I can't see far enough ahead.............so off comes the sheeting. 

Cheers, Jerry

[john e. holliday]

That is amazing after all those TA's he has built for other people.   Wait til you discover you forgot to put the tail skid block in/on  a built up stunt plane.   

[Steve Thomas]

Mike, if it makes you feel any better, I once tapered the elevators of an Ares the wrong way round. 3/8" thick at the trailing edge, 1/16" at the hinge line...

[Sean McEntee]

I can tell ya, age isn't a factor. I put the lead outs on my t-6 out the wrong wing.  

Just take a day off, reevaluate, and get back at it!  

[Russell Shaffer]

Gee, I haven't had to cut into a new wing since last week.  Mine was an unsecured bellcrank, but at least I didn't fly it that way. 

[Motorman]

You're just like me, a million miles away while you're working.


MM

[Mike Griffin]

You are welcome Jerry.  I guess we all do things like that eventually and then just have to laugh at ourselves.
Have a good Christmas.

Mike

[Mike Griffin]

Yall are making me feel better.  I guess misery loves company.  Doc you are right, I have built over 20 of these take aparts for other people and this was a first.   I just need a little rest...

Mike

[Clint Ormosen]

 Sorry Mike, I feel your pain.

So let me share this pic with you. No matter how bad I feel, this always puts a smile on my face. In fact, I have a hard time reading it without cracking up.

[Randy Cuberly]

Yall are making me feel better.  I guess misery loves company.  Doc you are right, I have built over 20 of these take aparts for other people and this was a first.   I just need a little rest...

Mike

Well Mike I've never made any mistakes like that!  Mine are always a lot more complicated and nearly impossible to recover from whithout throwing a bunch of stuff away.  For instance, do you have any use for a couple of Tom Morris offset angle flap horns with the mounting wires bent in the wrong direction?

Then there was the stab I glued into a Trivial Pursuit at 1 degree positive incidence...A good thing except I had the airplane on the bench upside down at the time so positive was actually negative.  Then there was the All American that I built like the plans but then realized that the wing was shown upside down and actually had the wing and controls set up for clockwise flight.  Yes I learned to fly clockwise even though I'd been flying counter clockwise for about 10 years at the time!  Was too proud to admit the mistake to anyone!  Youth is like that!

Randy Cuberly

[George]

...I just cleared my bench, went and poured some Jack Daniels in a glass and gulped it down.  THen I had another one...

Merry Christmas y'all....

Frustrated in New Orleans

Mike

 

Jack Daniels is for sippin' 

Merry Christmas to y'all too...

George

[Larry Fruits]

Hi Mike,
 Don't feel so bad. I once built a wing from a Walter Umland kit. He supplied the ribs with stand offs to hold the wing straight during construction. The stand offs had little slots at the back to support the lower trailing edge for gluing to the ribs. They worked great until I was all done and tried to remove the wing from the work bench. I say tried, as the C/A I used to attach the lower trailing edge had run down the stand offs and glued the wing to the bench. Ever try to get a 56 inch wing off the work bench when it is glued to it?  I don't recommend doing it............. Yeah, I learned some new words that day 

 Larry

[Mike Griffin]

You guys have got me belly laughing and that is a really good thing., it's great being human.

Mike

[DanielGelinas]

Well... on my last two builds, a viking and a banshee, the weight box access is from the top of the wing

-Dan

[Randy Ryan]

Back when I flew Wakefield I used to carve props in sets of 3. I had finished a batch of 6 blades and was setting them up in the hinging fixture when I realized I had carved one and only one, left handed. To this day I do not know how I did it, its a completely different animal.

[John Park]

Once upon a time, I was just getting ready to install the bellcrank in an almost-completed wing when I realised I'd forgotten to cut holes in the ribs for the leadouts.  I'm glad it didn't have a sheeted leading edge...