Wings have arrived!

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!

Emp kit at home, Damage Assessment & Inventory

So it was easy peasy to transport the kit from my work to my house which is only 6 minutes away!















My uncle, my wife, and I slid the crate out and onto the floor.

I was anxious to get the crate open and look for hidden damage due to the outside of the crate being obviously damaged.   Typical Van's, they do an awesome job of packing these kits.  Tons of packing paper!

My wife loves to get me bent over working in awkward positions!

 So far so good.  Amazed that there is no damage yet.  Also amazed at the amount and the strength of the duck tape that Van's uses to pack these kits.  It is almost impossible to pull apart.  Ends up ripping up much of the blue film protecting the parts.  Seems like they are using much more now than what they did with my RV-7 build.

Still going!  There is a ton of parts crammed in there everywhere!

Using all the horizontal space I have in the garage to store the parts as they come out of the crate.  These still have to be unwrapped and inventoried.

 Found my first sign of damage with the F-1073-L which is one of the tailcone side skins.  I am not sure this damage was caused by ABF since it is on the side of the crate with no external damage.  This looks like it was damaged at Van's before it went into the crate.

No big deal though.  I was able to use my sheet metal skills to slowly work out that dent and now you can't hardly tell it was ever there.  No sense going thru all the pain and agony of dealing with getting a replacement for something that I can fix myself for nothing but a little time.  The crate alone to ship a new one would cost Van's a ton not to mention the shipping.   I am all about helping Van's keep their cost down which helps builders keep theirs down as well!

 Shantel helped me do the inventory and we banged it out fast!

 Tons of sub kits or packages of parts that are grouped together.  Amazing how once you cut the shrink wrap how the parts seem to multiply!  They sure know how to nest the parts!

Paper and more paper.  I filled up 3 large trash bags full of paper!

 

 I modified the crate to store the skins.  I need to keep space available so my wife can park her van in the garage.  This was the best I could come up with.

Those sub kits explode into many many many piles of parts!

 More parts!















Even more parts!  These are some long parts!  I am amazed at how much bigger everything is vs the RV-7 I built.  The tailcone side skins alone are almost as long as the RV-7's entire fuse.  I can see why this kit is so much more expensive than the RV-7 emp kit.  This thing has a ton more parts!

 More parts and some extra sheet stock that Van's provides.














Inventory complete!  I was only missing 2 parts!  The WD-415 elevator trim anchor brackets!  Amazing that Van's can pack and ship all this stuff and only miss 2 parts (2 of the same thing)!

Let the fun begin!  Step one..... Nice touch that Van's provides a cover for the plans!

ABF Delivers...with damage to the crate. :(

Seems not much has changed and the freight companies still don't take the $$$ signs on these aircraft kit crates seriously.  ABF delivered my tail kit today!  I had it shipped to my work since that is a commercial address with docks and forktrucks available.  We did not need either though since I enlisted some help and we slid the crate straight out of the truck and onto the bed of my pickup.

Here are some pictures of the crate damage.  Unknown at this time what if anything inside is damaged or missing.  My experience from the past with the RV7 was that even though the crate gets smashed, the contents can survive damage free.   Van's shipping team is amazing with how well they pack stuff!  We will see!

Just a waiting game

Empennage kit is set to deliver Monday.  While waiting I took the time to make another tool.  Made a nice backer board for my backrivet plate.  This is way nicer than what I used to hold it during my RV7 build.

Routed out for the plate and then rounded the edges to prevent skin damage.

Also got a small order from Van’s today.

All of the RV-10 and options plans on a USB stick!  How awesome would that have been back in the RV7 build days!  Uploaded them to Google Drive so I can access them anywhere.



Picked these up as well so that I can go ahead and install them in the tail-cone while it is wide open.

Tick tock....waiting

ABF called and said the kit will be here Monday.  Until then, we wait!

I have a new builder/serial number!

So I have a new RV-10 builder/serial number for my build.  It is #41942.

Anne-Marie at Van's confirms my kit is in the crating department being packed.  It won't be long now!