Honestly, I would have called that overkill a few years ago too... always trying to save the customer money up front. But I've been burned exactly like that, doing the cheap seal job just to have the same plane roll back in a month. That extra cost really is for peace of mind, for you and the owner. Sometimes the book doesn't know the whole story of a particular airframe.

I used to agree with you about photo bases. Then I saw a side by side where the painted one still had that flat, pasted-on look. The manual blend just adds a depth you can't fake, even if it takes all day.

I never got that scene before but @dakotas54's take totally changed my mind, lol.

Remembered the charger halfway through the hike, but the cable was the wrong kind (of course). Ended up using my buddy's phone as a hotspot to call for a ride, which took forever because the signal was garbage out there. Whole thing felt like one of those days where you're just solving one dumb problem after another. Honestly, just glad I didn't have to flag down a stranger or something.

My old foreman used to say you should have just enough mud under the tape to float it, like it's on a little cushion. He called it the "credit card rule" - if you can slide a credit card under the tape before you bed it, you're golden. That tiny gap lets everything move without stressing the joint.