Fuselage

Well... the day I've been waiting for came today... I picked up my fuse kit!

It's 22 miles from my house to Van's, via the scenic country back roads, which makes it less than half-an-hour drive time. I had a Will-Call appointment for 2 PM. It worked out weather-wise to be in between these spring downpours we've been having lately. Perfect.

A lot of the usual faces at Vans weren't there today. And when I went out into the hanger, one lonely RV-7A was sitting there. Most of the fleet is gone, too. I was told they are at Sun-N-Fun. That's a fly-in down in Florida that I'd like to visit someday.

So when I finished with the paperwork, I was told that they were expecting some UPS and Fed-Ex trucks at Will Call, and would I please go to the hanger door. So I waited there. I was a bit surprised at the changes going on at Van's. They are enlarging their quarters, and the construction is still going on.

The single big door that used to be to the left of the little entry door has been bricked up, and these new double-doors have been installed. There's lots of new square footage here, too.

I parked well out of the way, beside these container trucks. This cart with the big crate on top was wheeled out to my vehicle. Everything was just sitting loosely in the crate, since I'm not taking the crate with me.

There's a ton of stuff in that big crate! Here I am, midway through sorting and loading it all, wondering how I'm going to get it all into my SUV. Some of these skins are huge!

Smaller, heavy stuff goes in first.

I even had stuff on the front seat, and on the floor.

Well, the burning question of the day has been answered... YES! An entire fuse kit fits into the back of a Ford Expedition. Quite nicely, actually. I'm not sure I could have fit the big crate in here, but I don't want it anyway.

Don't let that picture fool you. There's a lot of stuff under those skins. The inventory list is 10 pages long! The drive home was uneventful, and I spent the next 5 hours doing inventory and unloading it all. I'm still not finished with inventory. For a brief time there, that feeling hit me again... the same one that came home with me after the empennage kit, and especially the wing kit... "what on earth am I getting myself into?" But it didn't last long this time. I guess I have enough confidence now to know that I can do this.

For some of you Westerners, the drive to Vans might be worthwhile. Here's why:
No crating charge
No shipping charge
No sales tax
Yippee!

Now I have to get busy and get these wings finished!

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