Today I went to the loading dock and picked up the finish kit. I spent the evening doing inventory on the parts. Only a few small hardware items were missing. I’ll call Van’s in the morning and get that taken care of.
Crate opened up. Let the digging begin! Starting to get all the parts unloaded Wendy trying on a wheel pant as a hat!
Today I decide to bit the bullet and build a rotisserie for the fuselage. Bending over the side of the fuselage on a step-stool trying to rivet and do systems installation inside the fuselage was destroying my back. It’s touch to climb in at this point because there’s really nothing to sit on. So I burned an afternoon building a tool instead of building the plane, which drives me crazy. However I think it’s going to be time well spent and my back is going to thank me!
Tonight Wendy helped finish sorting the the parts and hardware. Inventory is now complete. Looks like a couple of hardware bags are missing. I’ll contact Van’s on Monday to have them sent out.
Today the Fuselage kit arrived! This evening Wendy and I cracked open the crate and began inventorying. We almost completed inventorying before it got to late. We still have a little bit of hardware to go through. We should be able to wrap it up tomorrow.
Opening up the crate Wendy removing the packing paper from the crate Wendy and I inventorying parts.
The wing crates were delivered today. Zak came over and helped me unpack and inventory everything. Big thanks Zak! A couple of parts were missing and one item was back-ordered. I’ll contact Van’s tomorrow and have them send out the missing parts and get an ETA on the back-ordered item.
Wing crate # 1 Wing crate # 2
I spent the afternoon finishing inventory and doing some last minute organizing. I organized all the hardware and small parts into bins. It was time consuming, but should result in a faster build since I won’t have to go digging for parts and hardware as I work.
Parts layed out for inventorying. I put them on shelves when I was done. Don't want to ruin the ping pong table! Large skins in the corner all accounted for Spars and doublers Spars and doublers Each line item had to be accounted for Nuts, bolts and other hardware, organized by size Drawers of rivets and miscellaneous parts.
Went to the loading dock to pick it up If you know me, you know I’m impatient. The crate for the empennage/aft fuselage arrived at the local loading dock this morning, and they were set to deliver it Monday….but I couldn’t wait! So Wendy and I hopped into the truck and took a drive over to the Old Dominion loading dock in Lithia Springs and loaded it into the back of the pickup.
Building the RV-14A It’s time to get back one the horse. Today I placed my order for the tail kit of the Van’s RV-14A. For a while now I have been debating whether to pull the trigger. I’ve struggled not having a project to sink myself into. After some deep soul searching, and doing some convincing with Wendy, we made the decision to ride the crazy train again! :)
More updates to come soon!