P51lou

I guess I will tell on myself to get this started…

While working on my Bud Nosen P51 tonight, I finally reached the point to start sheeting the top of the left wing; I started at the front spar and worked my way to the rear of the wing. As I was laying the last piece of sheeting I realized that I forgot to remove some of the pins holding down the rear spar. Well after a few choice words and a smoke and looking at the wing, Since the wing was not sheeted from the front spar to the leading edge yet and the way I had pined it down, I was able to reach in with my yard stick and pivot the heads of the T pins freeing the wing. Woo Hoo

Well there you have it, now it’s your turn to tell on yourself

Lou

SilverEagleBW

My Feedback: (1)

DOH,Welp.I built two right fuse sides,DUH,so i just went ahead and built two left fuse sides and built two planes.And YESSIR,Ijust did the sheeting over the pin deal on a wing,had to remove the sheeting,,DOH!

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

I have built 2 left wing panels. Not sure if it was dumb, as I relayed my problem to my wife and ended up with another kit, so I ended up with 2 planes. Pretty smart I think!!!! Good Luck, Dave

Fubar-One

My Feedback: (1)

Probably the dumbest thing was getting carried away sanding down my right Kaos wing before building the left wing. Then I had to sand the hell outta the left one to match the right one.
I have done dumber stuff but you specified building.

john_s3

My Feedback: (1)

Here I Go.When Cutting A Long Piece Of Monokote With A Straight Edge.I Had The Singel Edge Razor In One Hand And My Other Hand Firmly On The Straight Edge And Not Noticed That The Tip Of My Finger Was Just Over The Edge And Cut The Tip Of My Finger Off.When I Asked Why I Did It? I Replied "I Guess I Did Not Learn That Lesson Yet" [X(] [] I Double Check Every Cut Now.[&:]

Drexus

With the last chunk of covering from the roll... on the last part of the plane... I tried ironing the covering to a wing with the covering facing up. The sticky mess meant a trip to the store for a new roll.

I've also built two left ailerons.

But mostly, I once assembled the T-REX wing without glue... I was so impressed with it's ability to hold strong that I left it like that in the vise to show some friends. After that I went back in the lab the next day and sheeted it.

Oh ya, I was real impressed with myself. Not because I forgot to put in bellcranks or anything, but that none of the ribs were glued to the main spar. The whole thing was firewood.

BigBird1

My Feedback: (4)

One retract on the bottom of one wing and one on the top of the other wing...

Guess this would count for one of the dumbest things..

hopkimf

My Feedback: (56)

My 40 size H9 Cap has silver covering on top, yellow and red on the bottom. I put the horizontal stabilizer on upside down with the yellow and red up. But I got a chance to fix it. I had a dead stick right after takeoff and didn't have enough airspeed. It went in, split the fuselage. While examining the wreckage, I noticed the Robart hinge points pulled out on one side of the elevator, and the horizontal stabilizer broke in two. So it was easy to slip the remaining half out and reassemble. The stab split where I cut too deep removing covering. The hinge points pulled out because they were not glued in well enough.

One more thing. I powered it with a 60 size OS helicopter engine. It had a number of dead sticks. Is there something in the helicopter engine induction system that would make it unsuited for airplane use with conventional tank location??

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I usually make two or three bone-head moves on each plane.

I'd tell you more, but right now my forehead is CA'd to the desk, and it's hard to type like this.

gow589

My Feedback: (1)

Trying to find a way to run some servo wires in a Saab Vigen wing. After many fruitless attempts to get a channel made in a place I could not drill or cut, thought I would light a balsa stick and hold it up. I wanted to see if the flame would melt enough of the foam to get it through. Totally forgat an hour before I was trying to melt it with Laquer thinner. I remembered when it "Wooshed" out of my hand. I got the flames out, started to relax, then saw them coming up from underneith again. 10 seconds of scrambling. It's amazing how much smarter one can be in a matter or 10 seconds!

Gary

Cobra1

My Feedback: (42)

Back in the 80s when superglue was fairly new, I pinned my fuse to my building board, held everything in place and started gluing. Went real fast, smoke was coming from the joints and burning my eyes (Iuse a fan now) and I just knew I could finish the whole plane that weekend. When everythig was just right, I tried to remove it and found that it was now part of my building board. I had to scrape the fuse side off with a putty knife - I never had that happen with white glue.

Live Wire

Using wing sheeting that came with some kits. Big mistake on scale F4U TF. looks like a Fl. Storm you can surf on it!!

airbatic

Thrice I have tried to make mistakes during building but each time I fail.

Let's see. Ah yes. I poured some epoxy resin, got called outside, came back and poured more
epoxy resin, stirred, stirred, and stirred. The darned tailwheel just wouldn't damn stick.

Kraus

cruzmissile

Once when I build my first RC ever, it was a sport P-51, I had finished the whole plane and my dad come down stairs to see my progress. Well we was looking through my box and noticed a very thick narrow piece of wood left over. He picked it up and asked me what this piece of wood is,(he knew what it was...) I looked at it and said"I don't know". He explained to me how important it is to have my wings remain in one piece while flying.

The wing uses a single large spar that when putting the wings together, you would have to glue the spar while glueing the wing halves together. Well, the plane never flew and became the hanger queen it was.

Yak18

My Feedback: (11)

Hot Stuffed my thumb to the firewall of a Sig Citabria...way back in the 70s before debonder was around. On another Citabria, I dropped molten solder on my wrist...it stuck there burning me like napalm. I don't build Citabrias any more.

Yak

P51lou

hopkimf

The main differance between a heli engine and a airplane engine is in the carb, A heli engine spends most of it's time around half throttle so the carbs are a little different and of course the big heads A fuel tank in a heli and airplane are in the same location.

Lou

ekir

My Feedback: (1)

Back in the 70's I was building larger R/C Sailplanes. I lived in a two bedroom apartment. I had my 140" wing span wing on the kitchen floor. It sure looked great until I turned around and put my size 11 foot through the wing.

This is not exactly while building, but I will throw it in. I had a beautiful Violett Viper Jet in my garage. My young son was chasing the dog. My son or the dog hit a bike and guess where the
landed.

Ed

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

I was sanding the surface of my Koverall/Doped SIG J-3 (modified to a L-4B) and sanded through the material on the side where it passed over a former. After some thought, I doped a patch in place, as well as five more along the same side at an angle. Since this IS a warbird of sorts, I figured they could be patches done in the field to cover bullet holes from a machine gun. Along with some other "antiquing" details, it turned out looking great!

badger5964

My Feedback: (6)

While building a Kadet Senior (stick built fuselage) I noticed upon completion of both sides that the plan called for spruce stringers on the bottom. I carefully cut out my balsa mistake so I could save the top stringers. Reglued some spruce in its place. when I got it all assembled I was disturbed that the structure was so flimsy. Looking over the plan again I observed the top stringers were spruce also, mine were balsa. Threw it out and started all over. One of the first instructions in the book is read and become familar with the construction plans before starting. I now spend about an hour staring at plans/instructions before starting as a result.

wounded_bird

My Feedback: (1)

My mistake would have to be building 2 left wings on a Midwest Aerostar 60. So I just bought another aerostar 60 kit and now have two planes. Worked out for the best because one has a 4 stoke engine and 1 with 2 stroke engine. I still enjoy flying them especially since Midwest has discontinued building that kit.

wascamp

My Feedback: (1)

In 1976 I built a PICA Platt T-28. I built the fues first and started the wing. The plans showed a 1/4 in square stick used as a washout fixture under the ribs. Well it was not in the box. There was a piece from the fuse, but it was not long enough. Seems that the plans called for you to use the stick to block up the wings and then build the fuse using the same uncut piece. To some of you this would not seem like a big deal. Just hustle down to your LHS and pick up a new one. Well, at the time I was on a 300 acre island 1200 miles from Tokyo.

magilla12

I covered my last kit befor installing any pushrods or controll links...

fokker20planes

I built two right hand fuselage sides on my Ace Mach None. I was only 13 at the time. Does that count?

ballgunner

My Feedback: (1)

My most repeated mistake is two left, or right wings. I've been building so long I should have this figured out by now. Probably caused by thinking about the next model after the first is finished.

speed_freak1

seems like i have done the worst so far for kit errors....... i had just finished building a wing ready to cover it, put it in the corner of the room and left it there while i was doing something else. then stepped back to look where i put the wing [&:] [:@] the wing was a mess...
gave up and brought a new kit