Moving Day!

Yesterday was moving day. We finally stole a few hours and moved all of the parts to our storage unit.  The vertical stabilizer, rudder, and trim tabs fit in the back of the car with ease and we were able to quickly move those into their new home. We then borrowed the big moving truck that the storage place provides to come back home and get the tailcone and the horizontal stabilizer. We padded the floor of the truck with blankets, used the rolls of extra carpet we've been holding on to for years to softly brace the sides of the tailcone and then held it down with a single come-a-long strap across the top. We used some heavy cardboard boxes strategically placed to keep the horizontal stabilizer from sliding and then drove VERY slowly and deliberately the three relatively straight miles between our house and the storage place. The transfer went smoothly with nothing sliding or even moving an inch.

The next challenge was to get the tailcone through the maze of hallways from the loading platform to our 10' x 10' storage garage. While the width of the halls provided for about a foot of clearance, it was the two 90 degree right hand turns that had us a little worried. Fortunately the tailcone is light, allowing Mark to easily lift the forward end high above his head, while I used my yoga skills to frog squat while holding the aft end only a few inches off of the floor, then we slowly snaked our way around the corners. I'm glad that there were no others around to see us, as I am sure it was quite a sight. Now that all of the pieces are in one place it really does look like quite a lot of plane, although the living room now looks a little bare without the horizontal stabilizer.

As far as the building process goes, we did get the wing kit in early last week and were able to inventory all of the contents. We've had to slow down the building, and when I say slow down I really mean stop, as the graduate course that Mark is currently working on consumes about ten hours every day, leaving no time for anything else. It really was like we stole a couple of hours back to ourselves yesterday so we could move the plane and then rearrange the garage giving us the ability to park the car where it belongs, as its been sitting in the driveway since we received the wing kit last week.