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Fuselage
I ordered my Fuselage kit on 28 Jan 2005. It arrived in Montgomery 24 May 2005. The tail-dragger fuselage is packed in one crate that measures roughly 3-1/2x8x1 feet and weighs in at 325 pounds. I picked it up at the ABF terminal about 6:00 am. Back in January, Barb's quote was $245 to my door. The final price was $195. I expected to see an up-charge for the insanity over fuel prices, but was pleasantly surprised. I saved $50 by going to the dock, and didn't have to stand around all day wondering when the truck would show up.
Sidebar - I lauded the service I received from ABF on the Wings page, but it bears repeating. The folks at ABF have been a pleasure to deal with. I've read the horror stories from other builders about crushed crates and holes left by forklifts. I found the fuselage crate on the ABF dock looking just like it did when it left Van's - no gouges, splits or mangled corners, not even a footprint.
It fit nicely between the wheelwells of
my Ranger, but would have been easier to handle if I had remembered to take
the carpet out first. Alli helped me drag the crate off the tailgate
and set it down on my handtruck. We slid it into the shop and I trudged
off to work.
I went home for lunch and pulled the lid off the crate.
The fuselage crate had about twice as many staples as it needed, but
considerably fewer than the wing crates. It came apart with much less
effort and damage.
Even though the crate weighed over 300 pounds, there was
quite a bit of crumpled paper taking up space and keeping things in their
assigned places.
I spent about 18 hours over the next three days getting the parts inventoried and stashed. Organized and put away would be an exaggeration. When I finally got thru the fuselage pick-list and the many sub-kit lists, I think I was short two washers from one little bag and four bolts from another, but I can't be sure. Maybe the bags were packed on a Monday. Maybe I just can't count. Either way, not bad for 40 pounds of screws, nuts, bolts, rivets, bearings and other assorted hardware.
With the kids out of school for the summer, I took a week of leave and we went to North Carolina to visit the family. I can't just sit around and look at the walls, so I took a box full of small parts and a file to do some de-burring - I should have taken a bigger box.