"Near enough is good enough".

I see so many new guys in forums worried that their plane isn't "perfect".  So I thought I'd take a little time to say "don't stress"!

There are a few things that need attention to detail up front to be sure.  Your power system needs to be well balanced to prevent you burning anything up, your servos and control rods need to be capable of the job and your hinges for control surfaces need some extra love.  After that?

"A little bit out" isn't going to kill you.  It might change the way your plane behaves in a minor way with some things but on the whole most well-designed scratchbuilt "disposable' foamies will put up with you being on the learning curve.  If your cuts along a join aren't quite straight and it leaves gaps?  Fill the gaps with glue or cover them with tape.  Your throws aren't quite even?  You'll learn to live with it. 

 

I see a lot of people get really fussy about their weight too.  Don't.  A really light and floaty plane is a lot of fun of course but an ounce or two over the listed maximum weight isn't going to stop your plane from flying!  It might suck some of the low-speed performance out of it but it's not going to stop you getting into the air.

While it can be advisable to do things like bevel or round the leading edges of your wings, horiz and vert stabilizers etc it's not mission critical either.

Of course, as with all things, there's limits.  You can't go ridiculously out of whack without creating some major issues but little bits here and there simply aren't going to stop you from flying and having fun.