Step 8.0, Fuselage arrives

Over the last eight weeks that I've been waiting for the fuselage to arrive I've not been very busy with airplane stuff, although I did manage to get the wing tips in order.  I think most people put that job off to the end of the project because it has no dependencies and it's not really all that much fun.  At least I didn't think so.  But now the long wait is now over as my fuselage arrived just in time for the weekend.

The box arrived via Conway Freight, in excellent condition, COD.  I had the driver meet me at the end of my road because of the fiasco with last big delivery (wings). It seems that I neglected to tell Fedex Freight that there were low overhanging limbs over my road.  My bad.  When the Fedex driver got to my house, he was not in a charitable mood to say the least.  And I think the less said about that, the better.

So this time I decided it would just be better to meet them with my pickup and do the transfer out on the highway.  We had no trouble getting the box into the bed of my Ranger, but when I got it back to my shop I realized that it might be a little more difficult to unload it by myself.  The shiping weight was 358 pounds.  Fairly heavy, yes, but I would only have to lift 179 at a time.  

Once the crate was safely lowered to the floor it was a little past time to go drink a beer.

The next 10 or 12 hours would be consumed with doing the inventory.  I think out of the hundreds of parts in that box there is only one we cannot account for.  I think that's pretty good.  It's a little tedious doing the inventory, but the process makes one familiar with each and every part before it's actually needed.

 And on it goes, part by part...

That's the firewall in the foreground and Carolina working on sub kit #19 in the background.  Van thoughtfully provided these convenient cushioned floor mats to ease the burden of standing still on concrete for many hours.

It was actually quite surprising to me how many parts there were.  Eventually everything was checked and put away.  The bags and the other very small parts go in the roll around parts caddy.  The rest fit on two shelving units with room to spare.

All of the large pieces I stood up along the wall or just laid down on the floor.  Hopefully out of the way.

Although I wasn't too busy while waiting for the fuselage to arrive, my puppy Trina was hard at work.  I didn't catch her in the act this time, but I certainly recognize her M.O.  Oh, and did I mention that the book was brand new, still in the box from Amazon when she found it on our porch, freshly delivered by UPS.  I guess the curiosity was killing her. 

So I tried to smooth out the chewed corner to salvage the book. Fortunately not much of the text was affected.  Her good fortune is that it's just damned near impossible to stay mad at her for long.