Picking Up the Empennage

After some planning througout the week, the day has come to pick up the FIRST kit of the airplane, the empennage.  The empennage is the "aft" or back part of the airplane that includes the taile cone, horizontal stabilizer, elevators, vertical stabilizer, and rudder.  The rudder, vertical stabilizer and horizontal stabilizers are complete.  The elevators were started but no riviting was done to them yet. 

My son Manny and I woke up bright and early at 0530.  We loaded up the VW Jetta with the horizontal stabilizer cradles built earlier in the week, gobs of tiedown straps, a cordless drill, and patio pillows.  With the fuel gauge needle hovering on the "E" mark, we made a quick stop at the fuel station to top off with diesel.  After the top off, we headed on the Floridas turnpike in search of I-95.  Traffic was nearly nonexistent at this early in the morning at 0600.  Before we knew it, we were in Winter Springs, FL in no time.

We met with Roy at his beautiful property with a separte motor home sized garage/shop.  He took the time to show us his nice work and some mishaps which I gladly appreciated.  We looked over all the asembled parts closely and were happy not to find anything that popped out as unusual (for a newbie builder at least).  The bulk of the parts small to medium parts were in a waist high cardboard box.  The very small parts (rivtis, bolts, nuts, etc.) were in their original Vans packaging or in appropriately sized tupperware type containters.  He offered to do a full parts inventory but with time contraints and parts already assembled, I didn't think that was really feasible. 

With the purchase certain now, we jumped back in the trusty VW and headed up the road some 5 miles to what looked like a an auto wrecker shop.  I was close, it was an auto mechanic shop but WOW, what a dump.  Singed the paperwork for the 15' box rental truck and the fuel gauge didn't match the paperwork.  They gave me the paperwork for a different truck.  Fixed the paperwork and Manny drove the VW and I the box truck back to Roys house.

We loaded the all the parts very carefully over the next 1.5 hours.  The patio pillows came in very handy.  I also rented 24 moving blankets which were essential to protect the all the parts.  Large skins were placed on the floor with 2 blankets in between each blanket.  Rudder and vertical stabilizer were padded with several layers of blankets and secured to the side using the rails.  The horizontal stabilizer was set into the cradle and also secured to the rails with straps.

The ride home with uneventful with a quick pit stop for fuel, food, and empty bladders.  We unloaded the truck into the garage in no time flat.  Returned the truck at a local place and made a stop at the local aircraft hardware shop for supplies.  We built a ceiling hanging shelve out of 2X2 and lamp chain rated for 90 lbs.  The rudder, vertical stabilizer, and horizontal stabilizer with 1/2" foam all went up there easily and out of the way.  All other skins went on to a top shelf also up and out of the way. 

Still need to organize the small parts, and the waist high box full of parts as well. 

Thats it for now.  Took plenty of pictures but cant post them up just yet.  Stay tuned for more....