CSJohnson
Active Member
My RV-8 empennage arrived last week and I spent much of the weekend inventorying, labeling containers, organizing and storing the parts.
When I opened the larger box I was surprised to see a lot of duct tape. When I cut a few pieces of tape allowing the skins to open, I was surprised to see even more duct tape.
The skins are taped to the box, skins to each other, and parts to the inside of of the skins. They were definitely secured so as to be immovable, but freeing them feels like I'm performing a surgical procedure. I tried peeling the duct tape off of the plastic, but it removes the plastic.
When I see pictures of others who have finished their empennage, I see careful attention to removing the protective blue plastic along the rivet lines, while maintaining as much of the protection as is possible. I don't recall seeing duct tape remains on any of them.
Everything seems to have survived the long trip from Aurora to Tampa, I just didn't expect unpacking to be this difficult, or to have duct tape remain on skins during the build.
When I opened the larger box I was surprised to see a lot of duct tape. When I cut a few pieces of tape allowing the skins to open, I was surprised to see even more duct tape.
The skins are taped to the box, skins to each other, and parts to the inside of of the skins. They were definitely secured so as to be immovable, but freeing them feels like I'm performing a surgical procedure. I tried peeling the duct tape off of the plastic, but it removes the plastic.
When I see pictures of others who have finished their empennage, I see careful attention to removing the protective blue plastic along the rivet lines, while maintaining as much of the protection as is possible. I don't recall seeing duct tape remains on any of them.
Everything seems to have survived the long trip from Aurora to Tampa, I just didn't expect unpacking to be this difficult, or to have duct tape remain on skins during the build.