Inventory

Spent the day doing inventory and storing parts that I will not need for a while.

There are  a lot of parts in bags

And checklists to go over

This is the single largest bag of rivets.  These are for the fuselage alone.  To paraphrase that classic line from Clerks, "5000?!".  Note, there are several thousand other rivets for the aircraft.

Though she enjoyed the company (and the fact that the heat was on all day), Bleriot was quite bored by it all.

Picking Up The Aircam

Well, the big day finally arrived and it was time to head to Florida to pick-up the AirCam kit.  It was snowing pretty hard when I left the house at 5 am and I could only drive 42 mph getting over  to Tmacs.  Once there, he and Earl were in the Crown Vic ready to roll.  We pulled out and decided to stay as far east as possible so we took HWY 17 to Jacksonville NC, Wilmington, Myrtle Beach and on to Charleston before we joined up on I-95 in Walterboro.  We saw snow all the way to Myrtle Beach.  Once on I-95 we were good to go.  We made our lunch stop at my favorite I-95 eating establishment, The Georgia Pig.  The Pig looks like where Lil" Abner would take Daisy Mae on a date if it was for  a formal occasion.  It was cold inside but they had the heater full blast.

This was one of those small propane heaters that was roaring like a J-52 engine in an A-6.  The BBQ was excellent but I'm not sure Tmac will stop by there again.  He described it as a once in a lifetime experience.

Earl and Tmac leaving the Pig.  It was cold and windy.

Spent the night in Lake Wales and picked up the mighty Penske in Sebring on time.  Loaded the truck and we were headed North.

The mighty Penske and the Crown Vic at the starting gate for the trip home.

725 miles later and it was time to unload...

Don and Myron came over to help with the big stuff.

Have to go over to Tmacs to get my car and return the truck today, but the drill bits are sharp and we will be officially starting soon.

Powerful As A Nation

Today I put away the engine for the Vagabond.  It is an A-75 Continental.  Continental's trademark slogan was, "Powerful As A Nation".  I put the cylinders and crankcase halves in separate rubbermaid containers and put them upstairs in the clubhouse.  Here they are after being sprayed with preservative

The next task was to clean up the trash that accumulated in the downstairs of the clubhouse.  The Vagabond wings had been stored in there so not much cleaning had occurred.

Here is the before picture

And after.

We also had a visitor today.  Travis from RDU stopped in with his new Carbon Cub.  I flew a Sport Cub at the factory in Yakima Washington this year.  I was not impressed.  The Carbon Cub has the big engine.

Well that's all for now.  I have to go furniture shopping with Mom because my cousin Carl Jr. broke one her chairs at Thanksgiving.  Bleriot is not looking forward to the cold weather coming next week.