OldAndBold
Well Known Member
An airplane odyssey.
I just got done moving my 7A QB kit out of storage and back to the house. I started work on it back in 2004 in California but had to move to Michigan last year.
First, getting it delivered from Van's. I was living in Tracy CA when I started, so Van's shipped the QB wings and fuse kits via Fedex Freight. The two crates were delivered to the freight terminal in Stockton (about 40 miles away) and it was up to me to figure out how to get it from Stockton to home. From Van's to Stockton would cast about $700. I explored several alternatives and found finally that hiring a flatbed tow truck for two hours was the simplest. Don't expect the Fedex frieght people to know much about dealing with private individuals - they had to call someone to figure out how to accept a credit card payment. Anyhow, the tow truck driver was able to slide and push the crates off the flatbed truck into the garage.
If you decide to unpack the crates, be prepared for a lot of plywood to dispose of later. I did unpack/uncrate the fuselage and wings - and then they sat untouched for another year while I made little progress on the empennage. Then, it became time for me to switch jobs, which meant I had to sell the house and move. I had to pack up the kit again and move them out of the California house I was then selling. The next step would be to figure out how to move the kit to Michigan. Since I needed to de-clutter the house in order to show it and get it sold, I re-crated the fuse and wings ? which meant buying new wood from Home Depot. I was figuring I would eventually slide the crates onto a flatbed trailer and then tow the trailer from California to Michigan. But then, I thought that maybe I could get the moving company to do it for me for an additional charge over what my employer was paying to move me.
The household moving company turned out to be no help at all. At first, they suggested a price of $800, but then said it would be $1600, then said it would be $3500 but they wouldn't know if they could do it at all until the day the driver would show up to move us. Then, I considered renting a flatbed trailer one way from UHaul. Unfortunately, Uhaul would not rent a flatbed trailer one way, and the largest trailer they rent was two feet too short for the fuse crate. I tried United Rental. They had a flatbed trailer large enough, but they wouldn't rent it to me because they felt my Dodge 1500 pickup was too small to pull it (!) I was running out of options.
I finally decided to uncrate the kits again. More wood to dispose of. I rented a sixteen foot truck from Penske and loaded the fuse and wings onto the truck by myself. The wings were light enough. I could lift them one at a time by myself - they balance a bit towards the inboard side, so you will need to lift by the inboardmost exposed wing rib and then put the other hand under the leading edge. Don't drop it - that would be bad. To move the fuse by yourself, get a furniture dolly. Lift at the firewall end of the fuse and slide the dolly underneath. Go to the tail end and lift and steer the fuse up the truck's loading ramp and into the truck. Don't let it slide off the ramp - that would be bad. Move the wing cradles onto the truck, and then carry the wings up one at a time onto the wing cradles. I put furniture pads over everything and drove the truck to the storage locker and unloaded. I would leave the kit in California for a few months while I moved my family out of California to Michigan and then find a new house to live in.
Three months later, it was time to come back and get the kit out of storage and move it from California to Michigan. I would take an airline flight to Oakland, then a taxi to a truck rental place, then drive the rental truck to Tracy and then load the airplane onto the truck (again). Then, drive 2,500 miles back east, being careful to make sure that I-80 was not snowed shut in the Sierra Nevadas. It took three days of driving. I unloaded the kit (again) into a storage locker in Michigan ? I still didn?t have a house yet. Even if I did, it would be several more months before I was settled and had a workshop set up. So the kit sat some more in storage.
So finally today, I pulled it out of storage. I have my new house and the workshop is mostly set up. I loaded it onto a truck (again) and brought it home. I have become pretty good at moving it around by myself. It is now sitting in the garage. I have to build a new door in my basement shop before I can get the fuse into the shop. That is still to be done. But, I can finally get going on the empennage again. And I can get the wings into the shop and have a table for them.
Not easy to move it by yourself, but it can be done.
Cheers,
John Babrick
Shelbyville MI
I just got done moving my 7A QB kit out of storage and back to the house. I started work on it back in 2004 in California but had to move to Michigan last year.
First, getting it delivered from Van's. I was living in Tracy CA when I started, so Van's shipped the QB wings and fuse kits via Fedex Freight. The two crates were delivered to the freight terminal in Stockton (about 40 miles away) and it was up to me to figure out how to get it from Stockton to home. From Van's to Stockton would cast about $700. I explored several alternatives and found finally that hiring a flatbed tow truck for two hours was the simplest. Don't expect the Fedex frieght people to know much about dealing with private individuals - they had to call someone to figure out how to accept a credit card payment. Anyhow, the tow truck driver was able to slide and push the crates off the flatbed truck into the garage.
If you decide to unpack the crates, be prepared for a lot of plywood to dispose of later. I did unpack/uncrate the fuselage and wings - and then they sat untouched for another year while I made little progress on the empennage. Then, it became time for me to switch jobs, which meant I had to sell the house and move. I had to pack up the kit again and move them out of the California house I was then selling. The next step would be to figure out how to move the kit to Michigan. Since I needed to de-clutter the house in order to show it and get it sold, I re-crated the fuse and wings ? which meant buying new wood from Home Depot. I was figuring I would eventually slide the crates onto a flatbed trailer and then tow the trailer from California to Michigan. But then, I thought that maybe I could get the moving company to do it for me for an additional charge over what my employer was paying to move me.
The household moving company turned out to be no help at all. At first, they suggested a price of $800, but then said it would be $1600, then said it would be $3500 but they wouldn't know if they could do it at all until the day the driver would show up to move us. Then, I considered renting a flatbed trailer one way from UHaul. Unfortunately, Uhaul would not rent a flatbed trailer one way, and the largest trailer they rent was two feet too short for the fuse crate. I tried United Rental. They had a flatbed trailer large enough, but they wouldn't rent it to me because they felt my Dodge 1500 pickup was too small to pull it (!) I was running out of options.
I finally decided to uncrate the kits again. More wood to dispose of. I rented a sixteen foot truck from Penske and loaded the fuse and wings onto the truck by myself. The wings were light enough. I could lift them one at a time by myself - they balance a bit towards the inboard side, so you will need to lift by the inboardmost exposed wing rib and then put the other hand under the leading edge. Don't drop it - that would be bad. To move the fuse by yourself, get a furniture dolly. Lift at the firewall end of the fuse and slide the dolly underneath. Go to the tail end and lift and steer the fuse up the truck's loading ramp and into the truck. Don't let it slide off the ramp - that would be bad. Move the wing cradles onto the truck, and then carry the wings up one at a time onto the wing cradles. I put furniture pads over everything and drove the truck to the storage locker and unloaded. I would leave the kit in California for a few months while I moved my family out of California to Michigan and then find a new house to live in.
Three months later, it was time to come back and get the kit out of storage and move it from California to Michigan. I would take an airline flight to Oakland, then a taxi to a truck rental place, then drive the rental truck to Tracy and then load the airplane onto the truck (again). Then, drive 2,500 miles back east, being careful to make sure that I-80 was not snowed shut in the Sierra Nevadas. It took three days of driving. I unloaded the kit (again) into a storage locker in Michigan ? I still didn?t have a house yet. Even if I did, it would be several more months before I was settled and had a workshop set up. So the kit sat some more in storage.
So finally today, I pulled it out of storage. I have my new house and the workshop is mostly set up. I loaded it onto a truck (again) and brought it home. I have become pretty good at moving it around by myself. It is now sitting in the garage. I have to build a new door in my basement shop before I can get the fuse into the shop. That is still to be done. But, I can finally get going on the empennage again. And I can get the wings into the shop and have a table for them.
Not easy to move it by yourself, but it can be done.
Cheers,
John Babrick
Shelbyville MI
