Prudent: adjective acting with or showing care for the future.
This has been my watchword as both a pilot and a homebuilder. In thinking things through in build decisions I often try to think through accident chains and see if (or where) a particular choice would lie within them. This has lead to many delays in my build as I work through some gray areas of the plans. It has grounded me more than once when the weather looks like it may turn for the worse or if I'm feeling a bit under the weather myself. In the air we call it being ahead of the aircraft.
Cautious: adjective (of a person) careful to avoid potential problems or dangers.
Um, not so much. I tend to work in bursts of activity, moving rapidly through a task once all that prudent planning stuff is out of the way (and then come to an abrupt halt when the plan is either done or has ran into difficulty). I tend to drop tools where I'm using them, look once and grab twice, and let the scrap lay where it falls.
I've got pretty tough skin, and usually get away with abrasions and can get stuck with things that pull out without leakage (like those little pig tails from drilling aluminum). I also am building the plane in the back yard, so one can pile on bug bites, dirt, sweat, filings, paint, and sawdust onto any exposed skin.
When the inevitable breach happens and the hemoglobin escapes I usually find out by marking a part or tool with it. This leads to the inevitable Hunt For The Leak. Underside of the forearm is a good place to start, but really it could be anywhere, and more than once I've come up empty as to where it came from and just continued building, as clearly the self-seal properties advertised in the pamphlets about blood work.
This can lead to hilarity, like the time I had a small cut on my cheek on a hot day. I didn't know where the red stuff was coming from on my hand as I worked and wiped the sweat on my face off, but eventually it stopped. It was the first time I ever heard my wife yelp at me when I walked back inside; she was mad enough over the scare to refuse to take a picture of me for posterity's sake (I thought it would make a nice addition to the builder's log).
What does this have to do with homebuilding? Well blood is worthless (one can't be paid for donating it), and the plasma in the blood is worth between 20 and 40 bucks per pint of blood drawn. From the price we can clearly see that human blood is not certified for any sort of aviation application (otherwise the prices would start at 150 dollars for non-TSO'd blood and 500 for the certified stuff). So I had to come up with how to handle it.
Since human red sauce has a lot of iron in it, removing it from aluminum is a good bet - dissimilar metals and all that stuff. Blood actually rusts (which is why it turns brown after drying), and so corrosion is a possibility. It'll put a rust spot on steel. I think it gives a nice weathering effect to wood. Forget painting over blood - it'll either try and repel the paint or leave a textured spot. I recommend having a lint free cloth dedicated to wiping it off as soon as it's detected. Yes, gentle reader, I have a blood rag.
I gave up on band-aides for minor cuts. They either hang on things I'm working on and come loose (and stick to the part) or fall off due to being all sweaty and never adherering properly. A styptic pencil is a better choice. I typically just run it lengthwise along a suspected area of leakage until I feel a sting, and then rub it in circles around that spot.
I've mentioned sweat a few times, as it's figured into my build quite a bit. Making plane outdoors and under a tarp covered tent in central Alabama (state dinosaur - Zeuglodon) requires drinking a lot of water and clothing that is okay to look randomly faded. Here's where some testing is required.
I know folks that have corrosive sweat. They can put rust spots in the shape of their fingerprints on the barrel of a perfectly blued shotgun that pop up in hours. Since I regularly drench sheeting and parts with big drops of the stuff, I set up a trial piece of 6161 aluminum sheet and a piece of steel stock, leaned over it on a summer day, and let it pour onto a section of each, along with a control section and one other with just water. I guess I'm ph neutral or something, but I found no effect on aluminum and no greater rust on steel than just water.
I have a friend who did the same just for fun and found his sort of etched aluminum with oxide and super rusted the steel. So it's not a bad idea to set up an experiment to find out how yours is.
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