The Kit Arrives!

10th October 2007 2hrs 30min
Checked the Kit Inventory

I got a call Monday from the shipping company (same one used by Isham inc. - Planetools.com - for the tools) to say they had a consignment for me. Vans ship C.O.D. so I had to pay the shipping charges as well as VAT (sales tax). This was expected and all the calculations checked out. Once again, the shippers cleared the kit through customs without charge and there was no trouble with the duty free status of the aircraft parts. By Wednesday afternoon, the truck driver was ringing from nearby for final directions and suddenly, there it was.


Strangely, I was not particularly excited; just very pleased. It was as if I had been anticipating this milestone for so long that it had begun to be confused with reality. So when it actually happened, it had lost some novelty value.


Anyway, I got the two boxes out to the shop and began the process of checking the inventory. The RV-9 Empennage kit is now a series of sub-kits, each wrapped separately and containing its own tiny inventory list. All the elements in each sub-kit are listed together on the master list so you don't have to go hunting through 4 pages for every item.



Already, in the very first work session, the project has drawn blood. Some of the edges of those skins are sharp and the first thing I knew was that there was blood on the blue plastic. At least the plane is metal so I don't have to worry about the wooden plane builders mantra "don't bleed on the work".


Two of the parts in particular looked hand formed and had some surface scratches, which I will just polish out with the Scotchbrite wheel. Another part (VS808PP - spar doubler) has a very pronounced curve in it and I am wondering how to fix it. Perhaps being rivetted to the VS803PP spar, which is a channel section, will be enough to put manners on it. I will put a question on the bulletin boards and see what everybody thinks.


Now I have to put the kit away until I finish with the trimming of the shop itself and also connect up my new airline manifold (imperial measurements) to the output from the compressor (metric measurements). Fortunately, there are no machine threads involved; just nipples inserted into each end of a section of pressure tubing with jubilee clips to secure them. I do need to think about relocating the regulator out of the soundproof enclosure where I can read the guage and adjust the line presure. Hmmmm!