2.7 Hours
One day after ordering the tail kit, Van’s sent me a FedEx tracking number, and, yes, I’ve been checking the progress every 15 minutes or so! Finally, this morning, it said it was on the truck for delivery. Fortunately, my girlfriend had the day off and was going to be doing homework all day, so she would be there to accept the package when the FedEx driver showed up.
Around 12:30, I received a picture message from my girlfriend. There were no words. Just a picture of a box that had the words, “Fragile High Dollar Aircraft Parts Handle With Care,” emblazoned on it. That was the good news. The bad news was that only one box, not two, had arrived.
The tail kit comes in two boxes. The small box contains small parts, ribs and hardware, while the larger box contains skins and spars.
Not to worry, two hours later, a second FedEx truck showed-up and the second box was delivered. A little strange that they arrived separately, but I don’t care!
Based on their size, you wouldn’t think the two boxes had much in them. However, those guys at Van’s sure know how to pack! The boxes have layers of parts and parts inside of parts…once the tape or straps are cut, the boxes literally spring open.
Doing an inventory of the parts did not take very long. However, the hardware inventory was another story. Van’s tells you that you do not need to count rivets, but you do need to count everything else. Well, there’s a lot of hardware!
About halfway through the hardware inventory, I realized I was going to need another hardware cabinet. After a quick trip to Lowe’s I was back at it. Two hours later, all parts, big and small, were accounted for. Thank you Van’s for such quick and complete service. Thank you FedEx for not kicking the boxes around too much!
Parts are tightly packed as sub-kits.
Once separated, the contents of the small box cover a 2x5 foot table.
The skins are taped down with duct tape. When you remove the tape, they spring open...watch out for fast moving sharp edges!
Those look like airplane parts!
