It has taken 4 days to complete the inventory of the fuselage and wings! There are a lot of pieces to squirrel away, and the hardware bags take a long time to sort. I decided to load the inventory items onto a spreadsheet, label my shelves, and then make a note of where I stored the pieces. I’m hoping this will make it faster to find the smaller components later on.

Hardware

This is the massive bag of fuselage hardware …

It takes a long time to sort because it contains lots of different bags, with many containing a multitude of different hardware types … see the contents of a typical bag …

I’ve found the easiest way to deal with this is to sort hardware into different drawers, labelling them to make it easier to find during the build.

Rogue Bolt – the one that got away!

One bag contained an AN4 bolt which had slipped the net and did not have any thread!

Expert Packing

The boxes are packed very well indeed … it’s obviously a well proven process in the Vans factory. Lots of little parcels, all wrapped in copious quantities of paper.

Skins

Some of the skins, especially the fuselage underside, are quite large. The only place large enough to store them flat was under the workbenches, but I’m nervous about dropping things on them during the build, so decided to store them in our spare bedroom

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Sub Kits

Lots of parcels contain sub kits, which are just lots of parts bundled together. Much easier to check on the inventory.

It all took a lot longer than I thought. Van’s made very few mistakes, with all major components present and correct. The minor omissions were in the hardware bags, so I’ve sent an email to Vans detailing these items.

When I get back from work time to finish the Empennage Attach, then start on the wings!