Welcome @Art. I feel like you are worlds ahead of me. Dig you workspace!
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So, what is the part of a RotorX build that you and your fellow builders fear the most? Not that I got that far, but with the RV-8 everyone said that it was cutting the canopy for the slider. I guess driving the 14,000 rivets was no big deal 
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The body panels, canopy and doors, I think. The fit is different for every helicopter. Getting all if it to join together “seamlessly” is tough. One guy told me he quit after a week of it. It took a month before he was willing to touch it again. There are 100+ nutplates and dzus fasteners that must be riveted in once everything is cut and clecoed. But that’s mindless busywork.
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Adjusting the canopy to the fuselage on model airplanes is scary! I can imagine doing it on a full size is the stuff nightmares are made of…! 
@smokinhole, I love these updates! In fact, I just noticed my pulse increasing slightly when I looked at the last pics 
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Thanks! Now I am starting panic. The non-pilot widow who occupies the full-sized hangar that I am next in line for doesn’t care to leave and is happy to pay the rent. There is really no way to do the next phases in the tiny space I am in. My wife has a standing order to give all my crap away (or burn it) when I die. So when that day comes, there’s a free Pitts (and an open hangar!) for the first taker.
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Have you tried charming the widow?
You can just casually mention that you are a daredevil stunt pilot, and show the pics of your heli that prove that you can also do wonders with your hands…
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When you die, I don’t think there’ll be much left of the pitts 
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I see what you did there. Gave him a false sense of invulnerability in his flying rotor machine 
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Well, for now it’s hardly a machine. Has not much of a rotor and is only dreaming of flying 
Honestly, I need that hangar so badly that I considered buying her husband’s Grumman Kitten-of-some-sort just to get the hangar. She wants a mint for it. So I think both the hangar, the plane and the 3 Mercedes are going to be monuments to his memory.
Wow. We might need to hear more about these Benzes too…
So I guess I’m being a bit entitled. With reason though. The waiting list for hangar space in the US is YEARS in some places. Many are filled with cars, boats, motorcycles and recently I met a lady who refinishes old furniture in hers. None are pilots. The US actually has laws against this if the airport accepts public funds. But complaining gets one struck from the list. 1st world problems!
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We have the same problem at my home field, except the airport authority has reacted in the opposite direction: you must live within county limits, no building planes, no working on planes (no maintenance of any kind, ridiculous!), and if you don’t fly regularly they will find cause to evict you. It’s awful, and their enforcement of these rules is illegal too. I feel your pain, our hangar waiting list is quite long, but kicking 1/3 of the hangar tenants out every year or two is evil.
My next door neighbor has about a dozen aircraft in his (large) hangar, is constantly building warbirds and biplanes, and flies the half-dozen that are airworthy regularly. They’re in the process of terminating his lease because they ‘don’t like the junk’. He’s the most hard-working productive guy I’ve ever met, super nice, and is having the rug pulled out from under him after 4 years.
Another long-term tenant that had a hangar full of warbirds and russian jets got kicked out recently, for not flying his.
In the meantime they won’t allow anyone to build a new hangar on their own dime unless they know the right people, then it happens quickly and easily. It’s amazing.
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So what I’m hearing in all this, is that there is quite the market for hanger space that is not airport controlled, and this reasonably well administered. Hmmm…
Yup. The expensive part is the runway co-located to the hangar…
So basically airport HOAs are even worse than residential HOAs. Wow, I honestly had no idea that was a thing- how horrible.
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I can only speak for KPDK, a busy executive airport inside the city of Atlanta perimeter highway. The T-hanger and workshop waiting list is usually long, about 7 years, but the airport goes a long way to maintain good relations with aircraft owners and the surrounding community. It built a park/playground and a viewing stand on the premises and encourages the public to visit. There is an annual community day with a large airshow.
Aircraft owners are encouraged to work or build, and I know of at least one of the workshops, usually end spaces on the T-hangar rows, that is owned by a pilot who doesn’t own an aircraft. I’ve spent many afternoons sitting in a lawn chair shooting the bull with the hangar and ramp rats about flying and their aircraft. There is an on-going overtly friendly, sometimes romantic, relationship between pilots waiting for T-hangars and the lady who administers the list, a white loose-leaf binder. It’s not uncommon to see flower bouquets on her desk around the holidays from people hoping to win favor in that their name might move up the list a little quicker. It is all humorously tolerated by the airport admin staff as a running right of passage for those who seek the phone call and email that their time has come.
The old tower has been turned into party space which one can rent, and I’ve spent a few Christmases there sipping spirits while having a front row seat to biz jet and helicopter action.
It’s a long wait, so would-be builders sometimes coordinate buying homes and ordering kit parts with their name moving on the T-hangar list. The airport has a rich history, is conveniently located for north side Atlanta residents, and works hard to maintain good standing with pilots, airplane owners, and the community - an extremely challenging task with the greater public becoming increasingly noise intolerant and environmentally sensitive.
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That sounds quite lovely.
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