Wing Inventory

After a few weeks on the road with work, it was a welcome surprise to have the wing crates arrive early.

Man, that spar box is LONG! (Found out it contains some fuselage pieces as well...no idea where I'm going to store that stuff for a couple years...)

 Unfortunately, the shipping company treated them like pinatas with the following results:

 The spar crate defintely got kicked around less, but it still had signs of damage.

Since the top of the crate had been knocked askew by the shipping company, the exposed staples dragged across the top of one of the right wing ribs.

 Other than the damaged rib, everything seemed to survive unscathed. I'll be contacting Vans & the shipper to try to get the rib replaced.

Couldn't have done it without my expert unpacking crew!

 The fiberglass tips really bring the size of the wings into perspective...makes the empennage pieces we've been building feel like toys!

Inventory took 3 weeks thanks to the recent nice weather - gotta clear the honey-do list first - but it's finally done! I'm short 5x AN509-8R8 flat head screws for attaching the fuel tank, and everything else is here. Not too shabby.

Did I mention there are a lot of rivets?

Wings: 2.5 hrs

Empennage Kit Inventory

We chose to do a slow-build kit to save money & get more hands-on experience for ourselves and our family and friends.

The empennage kit arrived from Van's ahead of schedule on Sept 27th (didn't even have our work tables built yet!) and it languished for almost 2 weeks before Erin & I could get out to inventory it. Half a dozen pieces weren't labeled, but all pieces were present & in good condition.

Man, they love duct tape.

Empennage - 1hr