Time for some Company! HOBBS: 93.0 hrs

Over the weekend, I had my first visitors to see my project. Bob Markert and his wife Mary (RV8 builders, currently working on their wings) and John Loretz and his wife April. Although John isnt a builder, he currently flies a 200 hp RV8 and seems to have an underlying interest in building. John introduced me to aerobatics in his '8' a few months back, boy, what a ride that was! My first loop and several aileron rolls, a few of which I did myself. Samira and I spent the day preparing for the visit, cleaning and organizing the shop along with the house. I made up a batch of homemade potato salad and we marinated steak and chicken for 'kabobs'. I went out and bought a slew of beer and Samira whipped up some tasty Red Sangria.
It was very cool to bring out all of my finished parts (HS, VS and rudder) from storage and simulate putting them together on the bench to form an aircraft tail! Everyone seemed to like the sight of 'airplane parts' under construction as well.
I was pleased to see the interest from the women to join us once we ventured into the shop for the tour. As I told the ladies, I dont believe building an airplane or aviation-related activities are strictly a man's domain nor should they be, so they are always welcome if the interest is there. Of course, Mary and Bob are building as a team and Samira is just about to delve into helping me as well, so I shouldnt be too surprised. And April seemed to be just as interested as the others, maybe there is a project in John and April's future...John did mention something about an RV10...hmm :)

It was a nice evening: good food, good people, good conversation (mostly about airplanes!), good beer and Sangria. A scene hopefully to be repeated again!