So the wings finally arrived. Vans missed their lead time and projection a little bit and it took a few extra days for ABF to decide to deliver my kit so this added up to about 3 extra weeks I was not expecting for lead time.
ABF canceled delivery three days in a row and ended up delivering my kit at about 7PM on a day where they claimed the delivery would take place between 9-5.
When the truck finally arrived, I found that the spar box was in great shape but the other crate was busted open, missing part of the lid, bottom panel pulled loose, two metal bands missing, and the skids on the bottom broken off.
Thanks ABF! You are now officially 0 for 3 kits (RV7 kits included) that you managed to deliver to be without severely damaging the crate!
At first I figured there was no way that the contents would be intact and or not damaged. Much to my surprise it appears that everything is still in there! I have to do a complete inventory to be sure but it is looking good so far.
Those beautiful spars are like airplane porn!
After pulling everything out and getting a look at it, all the parts seem to be undamaged. The skins are OK and while I still need to do a complete inventory to make sure nothing fell out, it looks like I got lucky!
I just got my wings from ABF and was disappointed too.
ReplyDeleteTodd, Back when I built my RV-7, ABF basically destroyed my wing and fuselage crates. I swore to never use them again and used Partain to deliver my finish kit. Fast forward 10 years and Van's told me that ABF now had some of the lowest damage rates of all the shipping companies they deal with so I took the gamble again. For the fuse, I will be requesting a different company!
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