The work begins again

With a few days until space would be available to work on my plane, I went down to the Alaska Airmen's Association and volunteered for the organization of the annual trade show. I've been volunteering time as office staff off and on for five years now, but this was the first year I actually worked the show itself as a volunteer (the prior couple years running, I worked as a vendor).

This introvert is thoroughly peopled-out. But it was a great show, good times, good to see the thousands upon thousands of pilots, current, former, and future. It was also nice to see the public come - those who took time away from the annual bike blessing or the beer festival downtown to trek out to the FedEx Hangar. It's hard to foist the untrue illusion that airplane owners are rich guys with million-dollar airplanes upon the public when they're surrounded by a sea of guys in well-worn carhartts and work boots!

It was also disconcerting at how many people remembered me and knew I'd left my job - but good, I guess, that they all had good memories of me helping them, and the solutions we'd found for their equipment needs were all working very well, months to years later. You see, sales is not about selling things to people - it's about helping people accomplish what they truly want by providing goods, information, and service. It's gratifying to see that my old boss still thinks well of me, and so do my old customers!

The aileron cove's compound curves are still proving annoying to fabricate, but today I should be able to start on rechecking the trammeling and possibly nailing the ribs. And the front yard is almost snow-free!