inventory – PH-MNX

Fuselage Inventory

ph-mnx — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 19:23:24 +0000

Finally I received the Fuselage kit. It’s always hard to predict when you will finish the previous kit and when to order the next. Take into account a 2 months lead team and 2 weeks of shipping when ordering. As you can see in the back the wings are nearly done and also the flaps and ailerons are done.

The Fuselage comes in a single 140kg crate. I’ve created a cart to transport the crates from the truck to the workshop. Also many trucks don’t have a forklift, so the cart comes in handy. Opening the crate was easy as 1 side and the top nearly fell of on arrival.

As you can see, one side of the crate is severely damaged, so I checked before signing the paperwork. Turned out they really do a great job at Van’s. Even if a forklift driver screws up in the harbor, the kit is still ok.
How is that possible? Paper, lots of paper.

Not just the subkits, but also between the subkits. In this case I’m particularity glad Van’s did that, else I probably had some damage.

After unpacking a part or subkit, you have to check the Inventory list to see if everything is in the crate. On first site it seems impossible, but the box on the floor actually is 75% of the Inventory list.

Last summer I created a simple attic, where I can store the parts. On the left side I store skins and aluminum parts. On the right side I keep other parts, such as steel parts, hoses and in this case a tail wheel.

Aha, the firewall forward. According to the plans a steel plate that will ruin your drills in a second. I ordered some spare Cobalt drills and some drill-oil.

There are many bags with small parts in the kit, such as bolts, rivets, nuts, washers and nutplates. I found that the best way is to get them out of the bags and put every type in its own bag. The bags of Van’s are created for specific parts of the kit. However some type of bolt or nut can be in five bags. Better spend a few hours extra during inventory and make them easy accessible during building.

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2019-04-18)

Video

Wings Inventory

ph-mnx — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 22:31:51 +0000

While it was freezing outside (coldest week of the winter, so far), I started with the inventory of the Wing kit. The two crates contained all the items on the packaging list. First up was the big crate with skins and ribs.

During the waiting time on the Wing kit I spent some time building a second floor panel to store completed products. The parts I’m going to use during the first phases of the Wings, I store in the small rack (in the back).

Wing parts for later phases, such as flaps and ailerons are stored en this floor panel.

I got everything unpacked and administered, also I disassembled the crates so I can reuse the materials for jigs, cradles and Wing stands.

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets: 0/0

Video

Empennage Inventory

ph-mnx — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 17:46:01 +0000

Checking all the parts in the two empannage boxes is much easier than anticipated. The sub-kits of Van’s make it a breeze to do the inventory. Conclusion: the shipment is complete, including the Van’s cap and the RV-Test project that I ordered to get the hang of it. The only thing missing, is the paper plan’s binder, that apparently is no longer included by Van’s.