Finish Kit Arrival

I took Friday the 17th off from work to stay home and wait for my Finish Kit to arrive. The shipping company said it would be delivered between 10 and 2. While waiting on the kit to arrive I completed several odd jobs I've been meaning to complete. Finally they called and said they had some lift gate problems and it should be there in the next couple hours.  .....long story short, the day was very frustrating with broken promises and the kit didn't arrive until 7:30 that night. Luckily, Kris, who stopped by earlier in the day with the intention to help unpack everything stuck around until they finally arrived. The temps were now dropping into the mid 20's outside and this didn't sound like fun anymore. We decided to try and roll the pallet jack on the semi frozen ground to the shop. The shop sits about 200 feet off the street and the crate weighs about 350lbs. With a running start we actually made it to the shop, exhausted, but we made it. The truck driver, upon entering the shop, was just amazed over the plane and had several questions. The excitement and wonder he had over the plane relieved the frustrations of the day and made me remember just how cool this project really is.

Kris left after hanging around much longer than he intended and then Jess and I started unpacking the crate...

Taking the top off.

The engine cowlings are huge!

With Ayla fast asleep inside Jess was able to help me unpack and complete inventory. There really isn't that much to this kit. A lot of big parts.

Dorky space helmet pic.

Parts...LOTS of parts!

Ok, so one disadvantage of buying the tail and fuselage together is that you get a lot of parts. We started unloading as soon as we got home. That wasn't too bad. Each sub kit is wrapped together and can be easily carried to the shop from the street. Didn't take too long. Now when you start opening those sub kits it starts out like Christmas, excited to see what's inside, but after while that wears off and the "where the $&@t am I going to put all this" starts to set in. The issue is that each easy to carry sub kit has several parts that it comes with. I estimate I received around 450 parts total today. We started inventory, but will continue into tomorrow. Still excited though!