The dreaded step!
 

Please co-miserate with me...

What step in model airplane building do you dread the most, but MUST be done?

For me, I hate setting the horizontal stab and squaring up the wing.

Absolutely hate this step.

Brian

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I hate when the instructions say to "carve/sand to shape"

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Brian, the step I hate the most is when I discover I've made two right wing halves. Of course, if you can get another kit, that is a good reason to have two.

Don

RE: The dreaded step!
 

motor and radio installation !

RE: The dreaded step!
 

:D

RE: The dreaded step!
 

When I'm moving right along on a build and discover a mistake I made. Like as of this moment!!!!!!!!!!![:@]Nothing I can't correct but I really hate it.
I don't like building wings all that much, it just takes a lot of time but I think the hardest part for me is installing and setting up the radio gear, servos and what not. I make up all my control rods and have my planes operating before I ever start covering or painting/glassing. Just so much time involved. Kits I don't mind the wings as much but on a scratch/plans build it involves a lot of thinking and time, fitting every part before gluing.

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Sounds like onboard gear is the thorn in most people's side... So far.

Brain

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Sanding. Plain and simple. Every plane project I have that it stuck in a corner unfinished is stalled at the stage it's ready to sand. I simply hate it. Everything else in building a plane I love. Heck, I'm one of those weirdos that loves to cover. But I hate to sand the plane. [:@][:@][:@]

Ken</p>

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I gotta agree with foodstick. I get very little pleasure from installing radio gear, engines, retracts, and related systems to make them operate. On the other side of the coin, I really don't mind, and quite often enjoy, the sanding process which a great number of builders really dislike.

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Love framing and shaping the structure, heck I even used to enjoy whittling those big blocks down, shaping them.

Once I learned to use superior techniques from one kit to improve the one I was working on, heck the plans and instructions are just a guideline. After many kits even plan building seems natural. Once you build wings ten different ways, it seems more clear when some of the info isn't there !

I still laugh sometimes after cutting a kit out from plans, finding a part or three that isn't even VAGUELY close :) memories ;)

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I have to add another. After getting over building a left hand wing. setting up the throttle is the step I dread the most. Getting the engine running just right, the idle established and the ability to kill the engine set, then have a near linear response to the stick is probably the hardest step in building. Well maybe right up there with wheel pants.

Don

RE: The dreaded step!
 

The way I do it, it just takes so much time waiting for the epoxy to cure. Even with a kit I install my own servo rails and put things in some odd places so I can get the correct CG. If I give building too much thought I would be buying ARFs. Sanding?? I would rather be locked in a phone booth full of moths with the light on rather then sanding. I know, there are no phone booths anymore but you get the idea. If I think about it the only thing I really like is the covering?? Well, that and the creative part of building, the thrill of watching something I created lifting off for the first time. The big boost of my ego when someone asks who made it. As soon as I get this one finished and have had a week or two to think about it I will tell you there is nothing about building I don't like!! Seeing the finished product makes all the work worth it.;) If I wasn't building I would be watching TV and reading while I listened to the elastic in my under ware expand and wiping the gray mater flowing from my ears off my cheeks.:eek:

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Eeek! I build a lot, but it's not making me any thinner... [:o]

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I dont mind sanding too much. I find it kind of nice every once in a while where I can just sand away and take my mind off things. I guess because fine woodworking is my original hobby I am just one of those guys that could keep sanding until its just a little bit smoother.

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I hate it when the guy askes me for my credit card [:@]

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Mine is along the lines of yours Mike.

Adding up all that I spent at the end of a build. Heck, I'm into my current build for something north of 3 or 4 grand, and I haven't even bought the wood, radio gear, or motor for it!

[X(]

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I like warbirds and the part that I have a love-hate relationship with is scale details. I love the research, photo hunting, carving pieces, making plugs and vacuforming, figuring out creative ways of reproducing that "last" little detail........"oh, and then just this one "last" thing"......until it's been 15-30 last bits.

Thats the part I hate....figuring out when enough is enough. At this rate it's a wonder I ever get to finally fly the things!!

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I'd have to say push rods, linkages and radio gear. It can get pretty tight/awkward in some fuselages for my big mitts!

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Steps I dread the most:
CG measuring => battery installation.
joining wing halves - I never get the dihedral angle in the instructions and once over sanded.
most afraid of wing saddle - yup once I had to use a big screwdriver to separate the wing from the fuse [&:].

Now everybody repeat after me:
I LOVE SANDING, again I LOVE SANDING until it sinks.

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I second every thing Alex just wrote. I was going to write the exact same things down.

RE: The dreaded step!
 

While the Slot Machine and CA hinges have made life easier I still hate installing hinges.

A close second would be bending piano wire!

Cheers

Gord

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I'm going to go along with RC Ken. Sanding is THE worst for me!

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Brian,

I'm surprised no one picked up on this? It appears as though you put the wing in after the tail feathers? Did I read that correctly?

I always set my wing in place first. Totally in place, screws and all. THEN I set my stab measuring off of the wing. If the stab is square and aligned, the vert stab is easy to put in place.


I really live to build, especially scratch building, but I have never made two left or two right wings by mistake.

RE: The dreaded step!
 

All of this is why I wait until I see you guys selling your plane in the RCU Marketplace! :):D

RE: The dreaded step!
 

COVERING!! sorry for yelling :D I really dont mind it just a pain sometimes....

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Covering / Fiberglassing / Painting.

I'll sand all day :)

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I agree!!:D

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I don't really know what you guys are talking about, never been there.. For me, it's putting those darned decals on. I can never get them straight. They don't slide around like the old decals in plastic kits used to do. By the time I realize that they are crooked, it's too late. And, I can never figure out which way a Star and Bar should point on the wings. Thank goodness there are ARFs out there now that have the decals already installed. Thank you Frankie T. :)

RE: The dreaded step!
 

BALANCING followed by my second most hated part of building- BALANCING !!!!!!!!!!!!!

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Hinges for sure and then throttle hook up on a gas engine[:@] Oh and then there is fiberglassing and the very,very, very worst part.. REBUILDING!!![:@][:@]

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I guess I am one of the rare breed, I enjoy building planes. I find it a great way to get rid of stress. However out of building I would have to guess that sanding/carving has to be what I hate the worst. I still have nightmares of sanding the Ultrasport fuse...ugh..and now I am building a Dave Platt spitfire, *old 60size kit* and I have to do all this sanding..*whine whine snivel sniff*.. LOL.

Other then sanding..I would have to agree with others, that bending and sodering piano wire. Specially on a Sig Mini smith.. *screw this clamp in place and break out the mig welder.... *

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I'll second Covering, Radio, and motor installation!

Steve

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Really Brian, how can you hate ANY step in building a kit??? [&:] I enjoy all of it. The part that slows me down is designing a covering/paint scheme. I'll mull over that for days or weeks even. But HATE it? Naw, it's all good.

RE: The dreaded step!
 

The "dreaded step" for me is when I am working on a 30 or 35% airplane and I have skinned the wings. Now the time has come when you cut out the surfaces and have to face them with leading and trailing edges. I worry over cutting them both out the same. It just freaks me out.

Nubbs

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Iron on covering. Even after 30 years of messing with the stuff, plastic film hasn't gotten any less frustrating! Give me solid wood structure and glass any day of the week.

Other than that, I love to build, even sanding. Nothing like watching what appears to be a block of wood turn into an airplane.

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I always see the first maiden flight as always being the hardest step to take.

But many many years ago I tended to hate building wings. But I got over it eventually.

RE: The dreaded step!
 

HAHA. For me would have to be hinging, then pushrod/linkages. I don't mind sanding or even plastic film covering.

RE: The dreaded step!
 

The step I fear the most is right after I decide to start a build and have ask my wife for $$..

RE: The dreaded step!
 

Paint

RE: The dreaded step!
 

I guess I never realized this as an issue. I don't remember a kit that ever mounted the wing 1st... The wing is usually always squared off the center of the rear fuse, or the tip of the horizontal to the tip of the wing.

I've been studying Joe Bridi lately. On his Super Kaos, he mounts the horizontal 1st, then he sets the wing to the horizontal. Builders preference I guess.


I'll second that too.

:D


Don't know that I hate any part of it... but I do dread a few steps.

Brian

edit... I guess I did use the word hate... oh well. ;)