Pics of the QB Fuselage arrival on 9-22-18

As promised, here is a picture sequence of the arrival of my QB RV-8 fuselage. Basically what came in the tuck was the fuselage in about 75% completed state, a small box of remaining parts to assemble, and the Van's stock spring steel landing gear. A lot of builders are opting for aluminum landing gear made by a company called Grove, mostly because they seem to provide similar service but are about 20 lbs lighter than the stock gear. For now I am OK with the stock gear since most of my mission for the airplane consists of transporting only me, myself, and I where I want to go. Lots of powder coated parts for the rudder pedals and control stick linkage, etc., as well as parts for the seat floors, upper fuse skins and bulkheads, seats and seat backs, and baggage area parts.

Step 1, the custom truck arrives. The trash cans on the right side had to be placed in front of my house to prevent others from taking up parking space. I live across from school property with baseball, football, and soccer fields, and the fall is very busy with little league games being played on these fields across the street. SO naturally cars like to park along the sidewalk in front of my house. Well, today I needed the space for the truck, so I had to take precautions by tying up some orange tape between the two cans and setting them out in the street to keep others from taking up the space for the truck. When the truck arrived, the cans were placed on the yard on the right.

Next, the doors were opened, exposing the aft side of my fuselage on the bottom, and another RV-7 fuselage on top and further inboard in the trailer. The white scaffolding on top is part of the custom crane boom that allows one to lift the fuselage completely out of the trailer without the need for a forklift.

We had to move mu fuse out from under the RV-7 fuse a bit to allow the block and tackle assembly to be placed bear the Center of gravity of the fuselage, so that when it is lifted it tends to balance on the crane without being to tail or nose heavy. Funny, W&B for this was just as important as it is when you are flying. It was interesting to see where the balance point of the 16 foot long fuselage. When is it all finished, with an engine and the tail section installed, it will be about 21 feet long. The balanced point ended up being just forward of the steel seat back support cross member that separates the front and back seat passenger compartments. The front straps from the boom assembly were strapped around two plywood extensions  that run through the center section wing spar where the wings will eventually attach to the fuselage. The rear strap was wrapped underneath the rear of the main cabin and attached to the boom. then the crane hook was attached to the assembly  and it was time to lift it up and out of the trailer.

 Chapter member Scott Barkley was there to help me with the off load. The gentleman above is the truck driver. That's about all it took - the three of us - to off load the whole thing. It only took about 15 minutes or so. Next the crane boom is extended and the block assembly is being prepared.

Next, Scott is guiding the tail as the crane lifts the fuse and starts walking out of the trailer doors. Mike Rettig loaned me his specialized cart that he built to support his tail section of his RV-10. Turns out that it supports my entire RV-8 fuselage quite nicely as well. Thanks Mike!!!!!!!

And here is the boom assembly after having been moved out onto the extensions:

And finally it was lowered onto the dolly and the crane was disconnected. Now all we had to do was wheel it up to the garage. Worked like a charm with no issues whatsoever.

Scott Barkley after a job well done! Many thanks Scott for your assistance with this. 

And the next series of pics is where the unpacking begins. You would not believe the amount of packing paper that was stuffed into the fuselage, not to mention how everything was packed inside the fuse as well as inside the additional parts box. It begins with the push/pull tube for the elevator and the hinge material for the cowling that will be attached after I get the finishing kit. With all the trials and tribulations I mentioned in my previous post, I will say that Vans is definitely master at figuring out how to pack things in small spaces. Enjoy the sequence:

And finally the contents of the parts box. It also comes with a large box of hardware, and two trashcans full of packing paper!