Time to leave the nest. I had some problems getting it out the door. Literally. My door was 10′ wide. But the tail is 3 inches wider. So we had to take it through the door sideways, stepping it out. The other problem was that I was planning on taking it to the airport on my own but my trailer is 79 in wide and the wheels are 80 in wide in their center. So that wasn’t going to work. So we hired a flatbed tow truck at the very last moment. The plane itself went down the road very well. The wings were sitting upright in their holder and they managed to catch a lot of wind as he went down the road. So we had to keep it below 30 miles per hour.

I was expecting how much work it would be to pack up the plane. But I was not planning for how much work it would be to pack up all the tools and miscellaneous extra parts. I still have a couple things to do when the plane is at the hangar, such as put the wings back on, so that requires almost all of my tools. It took me two complete truckloads just to get all of the tools there. And all the fairings and the seats are actually still at the shop and haven’t even made it to the hangar yet so I probably still have two more loads yet to go.

Yesterday a friend, Nick from Smokehouse Pilots club, help me attach the wings. I sat inside and put the bolts through while he stood outside and move the tip of the wing around.

Today, I managed to attach the aileron pushrods to the controls. It was hard to get those attached and those two bolts took me all day. Sadly, the hanger is it nearly as nice as my shop. It is dark and cold in there.

One step forward at a time…