Moving day has arrived! I signed up for 2 uPack trailers, one for the household items and one for the plane. There definitely was a concern about insurance since it only really covered catastrophic damage - i.e. the trailer is totaled. So I focused on securing the plane as best as I could. I loaded the wings first on each side and secured them with their own stand, attaching them to the floor and wall of the trailer. I made sure to add plenty of padding around them since it is guaranteed that there will be bumps on the 18+ hour trip to Colorado. The fuselage was loaded tail first and it fit quite nicely. I secured the wheels with wooden blocks that were drilled into the trailer floor, with straps going underneath the blocks and around the wheels. I also secured the tail with a wooden strut to make sure there is no pitch movement. I did the 'jiggle' test and nothing budged! From there I secured the empennage parts by hanging them above the wings against the wall with plenty of padding and straps. Unfortunately, I'm sad to report there will be some repairs needed to the vertical and horizontal stabilizer.. somehow they were banged around enough to loosen the knots and had some damage to the skins. Oh well, I knew the risks.. just a few hours of de-riveting the skins and slapping on new ones. Overall, I'm just happy that the plane is safely at home in the new place with a bigger garage! Exciting things coming up, I'm expecting my avionics to arrive in May! I still have the firewall forward kit, Rotax 915is engine and upholstery on order (since January).. but Covid-19 has certainly slowed things down. I hope to have an update from them on the new ETA now that the factory has opened back up. Comments are closed.
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