Unboxing, Inventory, Parts Prep

When we arrived they were ready for us - tables in place, empennage box ready to be opened. We dug in and organized and inventoried everything and pulled off the protective coating and labels in preparation for alodining the aluminum parts (applying a protective chromate conversion coating).

Initially separating the part numbers from the parts was disconcerting as it seemed it would be difficult to determine what was what when building the subassemblies.  However, each type of part is distinguishable by shape, hole pattern etc and more obvious that you would imagine.  In our case, it is also helpful to be working with individuals that can look at a part and identify predictively where it goes.