Subtle details such as flush-mounted wingtips show a builder is serious about making his project “right,”
but may add a significant number of hours to your overall build process.
Perfection, Completion,
and Common Sense
‘Good enough’ is never good enough, but ‘perfect’ maybe more than you have time for
BY BUDD DAVISSON
CAN YOU THINK OF ANYTHING that takes longer to bring into the world
than an amateur-built airplane? The natural character of the
homebuilding process can be agonizingly slow, but there’s one thing
that can bring it down to a tree sloth crawl: an uncompromising
search for absolute perfection. While we all like to see our hands
creating a perfect flying machine, the truth is that perfection is the
enemy of completion.
Before you head to the Internet to launch a scalding comment at
me about striving for perfection in all things aeronautical, read on
first. Then toast my toes, if you want. I can take it.
Right up front I should say that there are those builders to whom
there is no such thing as perfection because no matter how perfect
something they do appears to the rest of us, they aren’t satisfied with
it. So, perfection to them is unobtainable and a forever-goal.
However, they are psychologically addicted to perfection, so they
have no choice but to strive for it. I’m not talking to them. I’m talking
to the rest of us.
Incidentally, when walking around fly-ins these days, it’s easy to
become intimidated by the insane quality of many homebuilt air-
craft. There are so many absolutely gleaming jewels on the flightline
that we have the urge to drag our own air-
plane back into the hangar because it looks
so crude by comparison. This may not be
logical, but it’s certainly understandable.
