Quick Build Wings And Fuselage Delivered

Stewart Transport delivered my wings and fuselage this morning. Overall I was pleased with their act and would recommend them. The only negative is no flexibility in their delivery date. So if you’re unavailable when they show you’ll need to have someone else accept delivery. The process started 2 weeks ago when Todd, the scheduler, called and gave me a tentative delivery date of July 31-August 1. He called again last Wed and firmed up the date to Aug 1. Kelly, the driver, called yesterday and said his estimated ETA was between 9-11 AM today. At 7 AM today he called to say he was 30 minutes out. I had my garage prepped with a wing cradle and fuselage stand ready to go. He showed up in 70’ truck with a built in crane. There were several RV kits inside to be delivered around the country. Mine was at the rear since it was coming off first. They also deliver Factory 5 kit cars. Everything seems well packed and secured against damage. Kelly seemed experienced at delivery fragile aircraft components and was happy to assist me getting it all in my garage. I did an initial inspection for damage while in the truck and found none. Kelly lowered my fuselage directly onto my wheeled stand and we pushed it into my garage. The fuse isn’t heavy by itself but it was packed full of parts. 2 men can easily lift the wings and fuselage. They’re just big and easily damaged. The wings we offloaded carefully by hand, depositing them directly onto the cradle and then wheeled it to the garage. He gave me a packet of paperwork from Van’s including the 9 page inventory list. I have 5 business days to make any damage claims and 30 days to inventory. Signed some paperwork, gave him a healthy tip for all his help and off he went. I spent a couple hours starting the inventory process which will be an all day affair. I’m pleased with how my wing cradle works and thankful that my builder buddy Dan gave me his old fuselage stand. It’s motivating having these large, completed components in the garage now and I think it will be money well spent.