Today, I discovered that my -7 is a great cargo-plane, in addition to all the other missions you can do with it.
Here's the background:
A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new trailer for my car.
It came with steel rims and since they'll corrode rather quickly, I decided to go with alu-rims this time.
(Besides: a true rivetpunder prefers aluminium over steel any day, right??)
I found a dealer who had the correct type of rims and tires, so I ordered four wheels from him.
His shop is about 3 hrs drive away, so a 6 hour drive just to pick up some wheels was out of the question.
He gave me an estimate of the shipping-cost: about 1000 NOK (170 USD) and that was pretty expensive.
It's always nice to have a good excuse to go flying, right?
I got an idea: his shop is located about 5 min drive from a 700 metres grasstrip, so I asked him if he could deliver the wheels there. He said sure and we decided a time and date: at noon today.
I flew up there in 25 mins, met the guy and he had the wheels with him:
Here, the cargo is ready for loading:
A few minutes later, the wheels where loaded: two in the front and two in the back:
Soon everything where covered up, (had to protect the nice interiour) strapped in and secured:
Then, there was time for the 25 min return flight, the 20 min drive home from the airport, gather a few tools and get into the driveway.
Here's a "before-pic":
Half an hour later, the result was this:
Summary: for about 23 litres of fuel (cost about 345 NOK), I reduced the shipping cost with more than half, got two flights done and enjoyed myself at the same time!
Hard to beat ..... life with a flying RV is a good one.....
PS: a footnote: he said he had been in the tire-business for many years and had customers pick up wheels with all kinds of means: cars, trailers, tractors, ATV's and even a bicycle once! But he had never had a customer come in a airplane before....
When I told him that me and some friends had built it in a garage, he was truly amazed.... in fact; he took some pics and details of the plane and was going to send it all in to the local newspaper!
Ain't life grand...
Here's the background:
A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new trailer for my car.
It came with steel rims and since they'll corrode rather quickly, I decided to go with alu-rims this time.
(Besides: a true rivetpunder prefers aluminium over steel any day, right??)
I found a dealer who had the correct type of rims and tires, so I ordered four wheels from him.
His shop is about 3 hrs drive away, so a 6 hour drive just to pick up some wheels was out of the question.
He gave me an estimate of the shipping-cost: about 1000 NOK (170 USD) and that was pretty expensive.
It's always nice to have a good excuse to go flying, right?
I got an idea: his shop is located about 5 min drive from a 700 metres grasstrip, so I asked him if he could deliver the wheels there. He said sure and we decided a time and date: at noon today.
I flew up there in 25 mins, met the guy and he had the wheels with him:
Here, the cargo is ready for loading:
A few minutes later, the wheels where loaded: two in the front and two in the back:
Soon everything where covered up, (had to protect the nice interiour) strapped in and secured:
Then, there was time for the 25 min return flight, the 20 min drive home from the airport, gather a few tools and get into the driveway.
Here's a "before-pic":
Half an hour later, the result was this:
Summary: for about 23 litres of fuel (cost about 345 NOK), I reduced the shipping cost with more than half, got two flights done and enjoyed myself at the same time!
Hard to beat ..... life with a flying RV is a good one.....
PS: a footnote: he said he had been in the tire-business for many years and had customers pick up wheels with all kinds of means: cars, trailers, tractors, ATV's and even a bicycle once! But he had never had a customer come in a airplane before....
When I told him that me and some friends had built it in a garage, he was truly amazed.... in fact; he took some pics and details of the plane and was going to send it all in to the local newspaper!
Ain't life grand...
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