Build log documenting construction of my Van's RV-10 airplane.
Started RV-10 on June 29 2022.
Builder #42638
RV-10 Wing Kit Arrival
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The RV-10 wing kit I ordered back in January arrived at the ABF terminal on October 16, and I went to pick it up on October 17 in a 15' U-Haul truck that I rented.
The kit went into crating at the end of July 2022, and after a short crating delay was finally shipped on October 5. What should have been a 2 day trip from Oregon to California turned into a 12 day fiasco with my wing kit being trucked around the country. For some reason, the crates were put on the wrong trailer and instead of taking a 2 hour drive from Sacramento, CA. to my local ABF terminal, the wing kit ended up in Albuquerque, NM about 1000 miles away. It took several frustrating phone calls over several days to ABF during that time to finally locate my kit and it was then shipped back to California. I think when it comes time to get the fuselage and finishing kits I will seriously consider picking them up myself from Van's!
Luckily, other than the odd strap missing, the crates didn't appear to have sustained any damage that would make me worry about the contents, but the inventory would determine if there were any issues.
Arriving at home in a 15' U-Haul with the wing crates in back
Both crates fit into the U-Haul, with the wing spar crate positioned diagonally
Sliding the crates out of the U-Haul was relatively easy using the built in loading ramp
Both crates sitting in my workshop, ready for unpacking and inventory
Lids are off... the paper fun begins...
All loose paper removed
I wasn't expecting so many small parts to be packed into the longer box, but there were several. The other box contained mostly skins and ribs (including ribs packed between the leading edge skins).
I did notice that one of the strings holding the leading edge skins (4 of them) down had broken during transit. After cutting the remaining 2 strings to release the skins, i saw some scuffing on the inside of the inner skin due to rubbing against the ribs packed within, but there did not appear to be any dents and the scuffing was just on the surface.
Once again the gray duct tape is a pain to remove cleanly and pulls away the blue film in places. Where I could I used scissors to just cut the duct tape instead.
Parts starting to reveal themselves
With all smaller parts removed from the crates and inventoried, other than a few off by one counts in the hardware, the main mismatches I found were that I received:
1 bag of AN426 rivets that should have been AN470 rivets
VA-140 trailing edges (6) were marked as backordered on the packing list, but not on the shipping invoice I received earlier, and they were not in the crates
an additional piece of angle aluminum that I had added to the order was marked as packed but was not in the crates
On examining the main spars, I noticed a small nick (about 1/8" wide) on the right spar top flange near the outboard end. I emailed Van's builder support to determine if this would be an issue, but I think I will just be able to file it smooth and carry on building. It doesn't look like the nick happened during shipping, so my guess is that it occurred at the factory.
Other than those issues, everything was packed well and arrived in good shape. All that was left now was to inventory the skins and then reorganize my garage to store all the parts as optimally as possible.
Van's responded quickly on the spar issue and the mark was not deep enough to worry about. I will just file it smooth and spot prime over it.
Skin inventory was completed with no missing skins and no damage either so I'm happy with that. I also decided to pull all of the duct tape off, as I wasn't sure if it would cause any long term issues since I wouldn't be starting on the wings for a little while.
With inventory complete, I spent some time reorganizing my garage workspace to efficiently store all these parts. The wing spars and other long pieces went back into the crate, and the flat skins all fit nicely on the bottom shelf of my workbench. Other small parts (including ribs) fit onto two 3ft shelves. Now time to carry on with building the empennage.
