built from plan constructing every piece himself.
At the risk of thread drift...
Do you think that the fact he built it from plans, constructing every piece himself, would make the ultimate product 'better' to fly?
I completely get the achievement and respect the amount of work and that in itself is a great ambition...
But surely, building everything to plan but from scratch will not make the final product any better than doing it from the kit received from the factory? OK, you can adjust some things to your specific needs, but you can do that anyway within the same confines as if you bought a kit.
And with the best will and tools in the world, those components which come ready made in the kit are probably made to a higher degree of accuracy/better tolerance when they come from Van's than done in your own garage?
I've always thought of the 'building from plans' really only making sense where there was no kit option. Unless, of course, you want the utter achievement of doing it all yourself, but without really getting anything extra for it.
I'm not at all dissing your friend or your statement - just genuinely curious...
B.