Its been a while since my last post. I've been keeping a crazy schedule. After 3 years of building in my garage, I am nearing the end. The tanks are sealed, the interior has been put in and taken out. I have more to do, but need to get the panel and engine completed . I have been working all week, working on the airplane all day Saturday and getting ready for flying the test fly off by flying every Sunday. (Yes, my wife is a saint. I'll make it up to her)
It is freezing cold in the garage and I decided I will move the plane to the airport where an excellent A& P will help me with the electronics and engine hook up. He has a heated shop and will let me work on it in there on the weekends.
Here we are- all loaded up on the trailer. I was fortunate enough to have borrowed a pickup and 12 foot trailer. The trailer, of course, was not nearly big enough. Plenty of weight capacity, but not long or wide enough. The solution was to take the sides off, use 1" 4x8 plywood to build a wider deck to get the width. Then, we decked the triangular support from the trailer body to the hitch. The nose of the plane extended over the back of the pickup. We were still very tail heavy, so my whole free weight stack got added to the front of the trailer for balance. Talk about rigged!
I am very nervous, but everything is lashed down tight and double checked. Here goes.
____________________________________________________________________
The view out the back window of the pickup as I head off down the road. I have my oversize load permit and walkie talkies to keep in touch with my friends in the escort vehicle. We have to keep the speed to 45 mph to keep the trailer from "walking" back and forth. The little wooded roads from my house to the highway are suddenly MUCH narrower. Definitely not making any friends on the divided highway. 25 miles to go....
____________________________________________________________________
The fuselage and canard safe in the new hangar. This was a really long day. Now I'll have to move the contents of my workshop from the garage to the airport.
____________________________________________________________________
Now that the plane has moved out, its time to pack up the shop in the garage and set everything up in the new hangar. It has been three years of evenings and weekends here in the garage. I balanced the options of bringing the airplane back here to finish it before moving it back to the airport for paint and interior. That would make it more convenient to work on it in the evenings as the airport is 30+ minutes away. On the other hand, that move driving the airplane down the highway was very nerve wracking and Nancy would really like the garage back. In the end, I decided to finish the plane at the hangar.
Everything is packed and I've rented a 26 foot Uhaul. This should be fun.
___________________________________________________________________
Bringing the wings up from storage in the basement. Just awkward, not really heavy. (The wings that is, not Steve and I)
____________________________________________________________________
It really didn't look like the wings and everything else would fit, even in this big truck. We finally decided the only way to find out was to try fitting them in there.
___________________________________________________________________
...and it all fits. The wings with the winglets facing each other at the front of the truck was the ticket.
___________________________________________________________________
It actually all fit. We are loaded up and ready to move the shop contents, wings and few remaining parts to the hangar. Sean got home from Karate in time to give the effort a thumbs up.Thanks again to Jeff and Steve and, of course, Nancy, for their hard work and help.
____________________________________________________________________
Wow! Its a garage again. We haven't parked in the garage since April '06. My wife is thrilled.
___________________________________________________________________
Well, here we are at Smoketown airport at my new hangar. No, the plane is not in the hangar. It is at the other end of the field at Dutchland Aviation. The owner, Dennis Glick, is doing the panel and engine instrumentation. He is known throughout our region as the premier A&P.
I go in on weekends and work on helping with whatever he has gotten to. He did my panel and engine hookup on my first Velocity. The man is a creative genius, fanatically detail oriented and I recommend him highly. I feel VERY fortunate to have his help in this phase of the project.
The great thing about Smoketown is that there is also a great paint shop, Lancaster Aero Refinishers, and an interior shop, Sierra Aircraft Interiors on the field. I can simply push the plane from one hangar to another while finishing up this summer.
____________________________________________________________________
Well, everything is off the truck. It ended up taking an entire 26 foot moving van to move all of the hangar stuff and tools.
___________________________________________________________________
Hmmmm..... Where to start. I have collected a LOT of tools while building two airplanes. This could take some time. I decided to get the shelving done first and work from the center out, getting things off the floor. It is a gorgeous hangar and I can't wait to get it set up. I'm finally back in a hangar after all those years since I sold the first Velocity.
__________________________________________________________________
Here is the family in front of the new hangar. I'm looking forward to finishing the plane this summer and taking them on trips from here. My hangar door faces south toward the entrance to the taxiway. I take breaks from working on the plane and picture taxiing down to the end and heading out for Florida again and on to the Bahamas. My old plane was in the hangar one down from this building and I can really picture it happening again now. Home stretch time.
___________________________________________________________________
It's starting to come together. I think I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but it looks great with all the tools off the floor and the Velocity and Oshkosh pictures up. I'll add pictures of the finished Man Cave next week.
___________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment