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For those of you actually working on your "amateur" built Lancair:
1. You may have started as a virgin "amateur", but when you finish, you won't be an amateur (or a virgin) anymore. You will be older and wiser, but not necessarily saner.
2. The pilot's license may be a permit to learn about aviation, but your kit receipt is the permit to begin to understand the mysteries of the machines that become our wings. You will be richer in knowledge but poorer in available cash.
3. Not all "arts and crafts" skills need be mastered - just applied over and over until the highest standards are met (I never did become a master plumber - still have a mess of unused mis-bent tubing laying around).
4. Rewards come regularly as each of the millions of steps are completed. Even sanding can be satisfying if you reach a state of transcendental meditation.
5. Post-certification depression is quickly replaced by the high of the first flight. It's just as thrilling whether it's done by you or a test pilot.
6. The greatest reward comes after all the tweaking, tuning and breaking in everything - let's say during a long multi state cross country - maybe an hour or two into the flight on a crispy clear day - just after an "all-in-the-green" scan and with the background hum of a smoothly running engine - relaxed, you say to yourself "Self, I built this thing in my garage!" The smile will never leave your face.
Enjoy,
Scott Krueger
LNC2 - N92EX
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