Watched a guy drop a nut into the cowling of a 182 once and instead of pulling the panel he spent two hours fishing with a magnet on a stick, swearing the whole time. He finally got it out and it turned out it was the wrong nut anyway, so he had to do the whole thing over with the right one. My worst was probably a simple oil change that turned into a three hour mess because the drain plug was torqued on by someone who must have been mad at the world. Snapped my breaker bar on it, had to go buy another one, and the whole time the plane is just sitting there dripping. Funny how one stuck bolt can turn a quick job into your whole afternoon.

Wait, FOUR hours a day standing on hardwood? That sounds like pure foot torture, lol. I stand maybe an hour total and my heels are already yelling at me by lunch. The fact that you held out long enough to "finally cave" on a $40 mat is honestly wild to me. I would've tapped out way sooner and just worked from the couch. Your feet must've been begging for mercy every single day. Good call on the foam, that's the real MVP of your setup.