What are the Odds??!!?

[lcarroll]

   We've all had bad "Carpet Monster" experiences. I'm no exception however since the dog doesn't understand and my Good Wife thinks I am a pessimist and over react as a matter of course I really need to share this day's journey into mayhem with someone. I am beginning to wonder if the Spirit of the "Pilot Unknown" of an Unknown MFJ who flew Pfalz DIIIa 8304/17, the subject of my present Build, is indeed haunting this Build. If so the Gent has a great sense of humour!
   I mentioned earlier in the Build Log in Under Construction that I am presently dealing with a nasty strain of influenza thus I'm doing only bits and pieces of the project. This morning I thought, given the rigging is as far as I can go before adding the edge tapes and doing the last repairs to the "Lozenge from Hell" I'd finish preparing the elevator and rudder for installation. I'd already added brass tube and von Buckles eyelets to the control horns, painted them and had them ready to go and had them safely stored to avoid loss. If anyone should ever need to know where the place, "safe storage" is I can attest to the fact that it is the last place you'll look and it takes the better part of an hour to get there! Having overcome that obstacle I removed the rudder horn from the portion of sprue I'd left on (to make it easier to work with and hard to lose), got it on the rudder and was very pleased with the results. Then I started to repeat the sequence with the first elevator horn........ a light cut on the first side with trusty old #11..............."ping" followed by 3-4 richochet sounds, and now it's fun time. Over an hour of floor crawling, desk cleaning, and even paint rack and tool caddy emptying. It's a former control horn and the Carpet Beast is a happy camper! Now follows another 45 minutes of scratch building a replacement. Being a keen little builder I decide to install them (see, now I have the requisite two again) so out with the Albatros Grey green paint, clamp the little devil and give her a quick coat. As I go to put it aside to dry, wait, there's more! "PING" and total silence! Where on earth did it go? Unbelievable! Dohhhh! etc etc. repeat the earlier exercise in floor sweeping, tool and paint caddy emptying etc. An hour later I say something like "fooey" and "Beep it" etc. The poor dog goes back into hiding, and I decide my Hobby needs a day's rest. I decide a fresh cup of coffee will cure all, keep my glances at the Whiskey cabinet to only that, and with a few quick visits back to the accident scene to take just another quick look finally sit down to the coffee. Wonder Dog slowly approaches the previously loud and profane master to determine if he's still in trouble, gets a pat on the head and while scratching him behind the ears I catch a glimpse of something Albatros Grey Green. It's the second or scratched control horn dried onto my wrist watch strap! I'd like to be really mad about the lost time however the discovery is all good.
    The coffee got cold while I installed the little buggers, don't ever want to repeat that experience!
    Just another day at the work bench.............I wonder if the unknown "vonPfalzFleiger" is still laughing?
    There! I feel better now, Thank you for listening to my troubles!
Cheers
Lance

[Modelnut]

I feel your pain. My apologies, I would laugh but it's happened to all of us.
I have lost track of wheels, struts, even a WING once! In my defence please note I build the tiny scale.
The wayward part shows up eventually.

[Ernie]

That sounds so familiar, Lance. I'm happy you got it sorted, and of course when you
are past the crisis, the missing goodies will come out of the woodwork.  I hope you
survive the "plague" soon. 

Cheers,
Ernie

[lcarroll]

  "It's all in the game" is a line from a great old song. You bet it'll turn up, and as always raise the question, how did I not see it there?!   
Cheers Guys!
Lance

[Nigel Jackson]

Oh Lance! It's the hope that I find so difficult to handle. The searching, the scrambling round on my hands and knees knowing it must be there somewhere.

Yet I cannot blame your Carpet Beast. My work station is the dining table suitably protected and the floor is tiled in terra cotta colour. Yet still things seem to vanish. Of those bits that fail in their bid for freedom, I'd say that 75 per cent are found hiding in the clutter on the table; 5 per cent have attached themselves to me; and the remaining 20 per cent reach the floor. What impresses me most about their efforts to get away is the seeming ability to send out an audible landing noise which bears no relation to the final destination!

On a different note, I hope you're soon feeling better.

Best wishes
Nigel

[coyotemagic]

Lance, I think that if I never changed clothes, I would be able to build almost an entire hybrid model from parts that had gotten themselves attached to me somehow.  So, for me, the odds are pretty good.
Cheers,
Bud

[Des]

A very familiar story Lance and one that is repeated around the globe on a daily basis, this is one aspect of our hobby that plagues us all and cause enormous amounts of frustration, hair pulling and teeth gnashing. I have now adopted the attitude that if a part "pings" off I just class it as gone and don't bother even looking for it because I know I would be wasting an hour or more of my precious modeling time.

Des.

[mike in calif]

Well, as stated earlier you'll now find the original to put in the spares box. I had the exact same thing happen(the pingy bit) scratched two new ones, but wound up 1 turnbuckle short. I'm almost at the point of buying one set of gaspatch turnbuckles every payday, just to have 'em.

[lcarroll]

   At the end of the day, like most self perceived disasters, it's all worth a good laugh or two. I do like Des' approach; "PING" heard, move on as it's a losing battle. It never ceases to amaze me that if I lose 10 parts per Build I'll find nine of them after completion, and most will never be used!
   I'll bet there's a dozen better stories out there, and they all sound like "ping"!
Cheers,
Lance

[uncletony]

That's a funny story that we can all relate to I always make extras for sacrifice to the carpet godmonster...

[bobs_buckles]

Sorry to hear your pain, Lance. I think (I know!) we have all been there!
Chin up, whisky down the hatch! You will be like a new man come the morning.

VB

P.S You already know this, but anything that is likely to ping off into the open jaws of Mr Carpet Pest, cut inside a clear polythene bag. 

[Ernie]

Sorry to hear your pain, Lance. I think (I know!) we have all been there!
Chin up, whisky down the hatch! You will be like a new man come the morning.

VB

P.S You already know this, but anything that is likely to ping off into the open jaws of Mr Carpet Pest, cut inside a clear polythene bag. 

I wanted to Von Bob, but couldn't find a bag big enough for me and the part...sorry, couldn't resist.

Cheers,
Ernie

[Cimmerian]

How I hate "ping".

At least it's funny when someone else does it. My model room has laminate floor now. "No more carpet monster" I thought, whilst that is true I now have laminate monster...he's not model friendly either.

[IFF1418]

Oh Lance, what painful moments you had. But now I think you can laugh again. I must say that it is (afterwards) hilarious and the comments on it too. You know that one day after searching for hours for a little part that went ping, I took my clothes off to see if it wasn't beneath it, and it wasn't. When I see now the direction in which it starts of, I search the opposite one.
Feeling better poor Lance?

Kind regards
Patrick

[RAGIII]

Lance, Like the others I feel your pain! My Snipe build has had its share of similar frustration. I was cutting the Compass off of the sprue and it launched into oblivion. As WNW gives you 2 types I merely went with the other option. Later in the build I was about to attach one of the PE cocking levers to a Vickers when it pinged onto the carpet. I began the usual search and found... you guessed it I am sure, the Compass 
RAGIII