Richard Riley wrote snip

I'd rather trust the safety of something that I built than something
built by people that drink beer with lunch and go home at 5pm. Like
the damned Chrystler I just bought.

Man you said it Richard. This is what possessed me to finish my A&P
and start pulling my own annuals. Some of the work was so horrible on
my "certified" Apache 235 that I was amazed it was even signed off.
One of the replaced plexi-glass windscreens had a three-eights inch
gap under the bottom (cut wrong & no sealant,) hidden by the
windshield trim, that allowed rain to blow back and drip down into the
radio stack. I was in holding in heavy rain with other targets below
me waiting for the vis to come up at OAK when I lost both comm and
only retained intermittent g/s (leaks in the nose behind the landing
light as well.) The EFC had already passed. Shot a very iffy
approach. Had to call a very unhappy tower crew and approach that
scattered everybody due to my faith in genuine gov certified mechanics
(and my faith in 15,000 dollar annuals.) So now I do it all myself
because I kept hearing "Trust Me.." from mtc shops. But now the water
seeps through the rivets in front of the windshield and still gets
things a little wet! I'm tired of patching up forty-year-old
airframes that suck 30 gal's/hr. I want to build something new all
the way. (not just finish someone else's project.)

But my question is how did successful builders develop the discipline
needed to finish something so time consuming. I look around here and
see all kinds of honey-do's that have been going for years. Not sure
if I can "get the religion." How did you guys that made it to testing
convince yourselves that you could do it?

pac "I don't deal well with failure" plyer