My timing with finishing the workbenches couldn't have been much better since the empennage kit arrived the very next day! I was fortunate enough to have a gap in my schedule that allowed me to be home to sign for the packages. The FedEx guy saw the "High Dollar Aircraft Parts" on the boxes and assumed that it was a drone. I didn't have a chance to correct him before he drove off.
The two boxes were relatively small, but I could tell from the weight of each that they were densely packed with what will eventually be the tail of my airplane. To say I was excited was an understatement – I was downright giddy!
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| I'm not sure I've ever been more excited for a couple of cardboard boxes |
Like choosing which present to open first on Christmas morning, I chose to start with the smaller box so I could save the excitement of the big box for later. The very first thing that jumped out at me was the paperwork, which suggests that you should read it in its entirety before proceeding any further. Like a good boy, I did as I was told and read the important stuff before obtaining the four-page inventory sheet.
Unpacking the smaller box revealed a surprising number of aluminum parts. It's been said before, but the people that pack these boxes are masters of their craft. I don't think a single square inch of space inside the box wasn't filled with something.
Unwrapping each part from its paper wrapping was like opening another gift – each one a surprise. Among the items in this box were all of the fiberglass rudder, elevator, and stabilizer tips, spar doublers, and the electric trim servo and mounting pieces. Also included were all of the counterweights for the elevators and the rudder, which probably accounted for a lot of the package's heft. Spreading everything out, I started to worry that I might not be able to fit all of the parts on the benches.
The hardware bag alone takes up nearly half of the whole inventory sheet. There are a lot of different rivets, nutplates, bolts, nuts, screws, washers, et cetera that all needed to be accounted for. Thankfully a note on the bag says that the rivets didn't need to be counted individually, I just had to make sure that each bag was there. Inventorying was an exciting process for me, but even I don't have the patience to count each of the hundreds of rivets in that little bag. Everything else in the bag was accounted for, so I won't need to worry about missing any hardware at a crucial moment later on.
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| This bag may be small, but it's as important as it is heavy |
Once the smaller box was empty (and after I thoroughly checked it for any parts I missed, as per the instructions) I turned my attention to the larger box. Lifting the lid unveiled a tightly-packed group of all the skins, which were duct-taped to each other and to the box itself to prevent any movement during shipping. The skins themselves were thankfully undamaged during shipping – they were the pieces I was worried about the most.
Removing the duct tape also removed some of the blue vinyl from the skins, which caught me off guard. I know that these skins are durable and shouldn't get damaged that easily, but I still would have preferred that the film remained attached until I started working with the skins. Eh, not a big deal.
Cutting the last piece of duct tape caused the box and the skins to suddenly shoot upward, startling me. I quickly realized that the skins were actually quite springy, and removing the last of the tape caused all of that compressed elastic potential to be released at once, right in my face. I laughed at myself, then moved on.
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| *sproing!* |
Besides the skins the larger box contained longer items such as the spars and spar reinforcements, all tightly wrapped in a cellophane and brown paper package. Again, the amount of stuff they fit into a compact space is amazing.
When I finally got through the whole list I was pleased to find that, not only was nothing missing, nothing was damaged. I dreaded potentially finding a part that would be unusable and having to wait while Van's shipped a replacement, but I'm happy to report that that won't be the case for the empennage kit.
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| In the end I managed to fit everything but the skins onto the tables. I might need a bit more storage space for the next kits... |
The whole inventory took a lot less time than I expected it to – just a single afternoon. Of course the empennage kit is the smallest kit, so the wing and fuselage inventories will probably take quite a bit more time. I really don't mind though. The inventory is often touted to be the most boring part of each kit, but it was an exciting process to count, bit by bit, every airplane part that I'd soon be working with. What's better is that, after poring over the preview plans ad nauseam, I was already familiar with most of the parts I was unwrapping. That was just another shot of confidence for me as I embark on this journey – I may not have ever done this before, but at least I'm not totally lost.
As much as I want to start building right away, I don't have any of my tools. Cleaveland called yesterday to let me know that a couple of the items were on backorder but the kit should ship by the end of this week or next week. The journey will officially begin soon enough. Onward!
