I picked up the kit from the local shipping terminal on December 23 (Merry Christmas, indeed!)

The reserved 16’ Penske rental truck was unavailable, so I was provided a 22’ version at the same pricing.  My son drove the truck down and back without incident, and I had four members from the local EAA Chapter 309 to assist with the offloading.

We were able to slide the roughly 14’x4’x2’, 825 pound crate down the truck’s ramp onto two furniture dollies, and push/roll it into the (soon-to-be airplane manufacturing plant) two-car garage.  I restrained my help from doing anything more than minimal unpacking at the time.

I began the real unpacking process on December 28, and was quite meticulous in doing so.  I created an Excel spreadsheet that duplicated the packing list, as well as options for other data as well.  I photographed each item as I removed it from the crate, and checked the item on both the hard copy sheet and the electronic spreadsheet.  I noted in the spreadsheet where the particular item is currently stored in my workshop, linked it to the appropriate photograph, and will also link it to the appropriate drawing(s) and assembly guide(s) which are in electronic format.  The “Find” function in Excel proved VERY useful in the process and, hopefully, will be even more so as I proceed.  I finished the unpacking/inventory process in early June after approximately 53 hours of effort.  The process was delayed for about a month due to a computer problem which prevented me from accessing/using the spreadsheet.

I am currently building two 8’x4’ workbenches (following guidelines from the EAA Chapter 1000 version) with casters (following EAA’s Charlie Becker’s recommendation) that can easily be rolled around, and be clamped together end-to-end for the longer/larger construction tasks.  I hope to have these completed, and the workshop more fully supplied by the end of this month such that I can “resume” actual aircraft assembly.