We finally had an opening in late March which allowed a chapter member to move into his own hanger. That freed up our chapter hangar in mid April. I moved out to the hanger the next weekend, April 22.
I kicked around a lot of ideas for moving the plane, particularly the fuselage. I have one friend that was able to get his RV-6A (with the gear on) into a 26' U Haul. The gear on a -9 must be wider, because I'd have had to have pulled my legs in 3 or 4 inches to have a hope of getting it into the door. Scratch one option.
I have another friend that has a 26' farm equipment trailer, but the more I thought about that the less comfortable I was.
I finally decided to get someone that did hauling for a living and called a local hauling company with a Roll Back wrecker. I talked to the owner and he was so intrigued (plus concerned about being able to do it without damaging it) that he decided to come himself. :) My kind of guy.
They did a great job. After 6 years of work nearly to the day, this ended up being pretty surreal to me. I never dreamed I'd have my own plane at an airport. Pretty cool.
Pics:
Moved the fuse over to the door so I could just roll it out when they got there.
Yes Virginia, it does fit through the door. About an inch to spare on each side.
I don't have any pictures of the gawkers, but we had a lot of strange stares. I think someone called the police because a cruiser came by in the middle of the proceedings, then did a U turn at the corner and left. :)
Driving through town on the way to the airport. Man did they slow up some traffic. One girl jogging nearly fell of the curb - she looked back 4 or 5 times. Pretty funny.
Clear of town on the way to CPK. We did hit a pretty good shower on the way but it only lasted a minute or two. Washed off all the dust from working in the garage the last few months.
Getting ready to unload. Strapping worked great on the way. Didn't move an inch. We had it secured fore and aft with webbing, and had cross straps looped over the steps.
We had to roll it down very slowly so we could keep the nose wheel from castering sideways. I grabbed the tail and helped keep it straight that way. Once it was on the ramp it was easy to just pull it into the hangar.
In her new home. Time to start the final push to completion.
Pretty barren at this point. This is our chapter hangar, which is available for builders when they are close to completion. Pretty great to have this as an option.
This is a bit later in the week as I'm starting to move stuff out (and put the empennage on just because I could). I rented a 17' U Haul later in the week and took out all the major parts - wings, benches, roll around tool box, etc. Took a couple of loads to do all that.
This is the beginning of the time we all look forward to: putting stuff on for the final time.
