With a cycle time in years instead of days interesting things happen. Plane owners get divorced and perhaps the plane gets sold while still under contract, other owners die, and corporations owning planes go under or get acquired, and the new owners may or may not be interested in completing the repair process. Repair process on aircraft is similar to unibody work with a couple of major exceptions. First, no pulls. If a part is bent it is most likely replaced or carefully straightened by hand if non-structural.
Tolerances are significantly closer than for auto repair.
After four hours or so of working in the shop I elected to spend a little money and go warbird flying with their affiliated operation Warbird Adventures, as that looked like a lot more fun. Doing light acrobatics in an AT6 vintage 1943 beats all. After a short instruction on how to use the parachute, Paul, a resident flight instructor, and I took off, and it was time to play. This flight and the day learning about aircraft collision repair, along with the Beach Boy concert, made this the best NACE, for me, in eighteen years of attending that august event.