1003.1- Empennage Inventory Second Half

Empennage- 1 hr 30 mins (Empennage 2:41, Total 14:28)

After going to the airport and watching -L and her mom get a ride in -E's RV-8, I counted and inventoried all the hardware. I'm missing two washers so I'll have to give Vans a call tomorrow. Then I moved the oversized pieces into the guest bedroom since I don't want to risk them getting damage in the garage. Finally ready to build!! -M

1003- Empennage Inventory First Half

Empennage- 1 hr 11 mins (Empennage 1:11, Total 12:58)

Spent a quick hour taking everything out of the crate and running inventory. The crate was really beat up during shipping, but I'll still be able to scrap most of it for a C-frame dimpler platform and alodine dunk tank. Glad to have that giant thing not taking up garage floor anymore. -L and her mom were in town and helped me out! -M

1002.5- Workshop Ready

Workshop- 3 hrs (Workshop 11:47, Total 11:47)

Between last night and today I got my shop set up and ready to go. No video as it was moving things out of garage and rearranging them again. Pretty boring but necessary step. Next post should be vid of the practice kits (only took two months...). I hope this isn't a preview of things to come with respect to progress. -M

1002.4- Empennage Delivery

Talk about a gorgeous day to take delivery of the empennage kit! Unfortunately, it will be a few days before I can take it apart for inventory, but I did raid it for the plans and literature so I can begin to review them. -M

1002.2- Tool Organizing

I was able to raid -B's hangar tonight and get the last few tools that I needed! Glad to have good friends that are willing to share...
The orders from last week have been coming in already, so it's time to get organized! First thing I did was make a board to keep all the bits, cutters, dies, etc so they aren't strewn about and likely to get lost. Also tried to keep it in a logical flow for ease of accountability and to aid in learning the conversions between different measuring conventions. -M

1002.15- Toolkit Complete

Save for a few tools that I need to pick up from -B at the airport, my toolkit is complete after a multitude of visits to Harbor Freight, Home Depot, and Lowe's, and orders from Amazon, Spruce, Avery, Brown, and Cleaveland. A few hours of research and an Excel spreadsheet really helped out for comparing prices and (mostly) ordering from the cheapest bidder. There were some exceptions where I took the "you get what you pay for" approach and deemed some high-use items as worth the extra money. Glad to be done with the initial pain of that. I'm sure there will come many a time where I need something I don't have and will have to reorder, hence the budgeting and forecasting. -M.

1002.1- Empennage Kit Ordered

As promised, the past month has been ridiculously busy. Timing, money, and availability finally worked out to take 15 minutes and order the first (empennage) kit from Van's. It was far easier that I thought it would be. Just need to buy/borrow the last few hand tools and I'll be ready to go once the kit arrives!! -M