Getting close!!

[Delta Whisky]

Email this evening contained great news - - - - my kit just left Idaho. Thanks to the fine folks at Kitfox, my "free time" will soon be spoken for. Standby for an onslaught of questions and requests for opinions.

[DesertFox4]

That’s always good news. Congrats Darrel. Have fun.

[Flybyjim]

Great news Darrel, good meeting your wife and seeing you at S&F last week. You will be having soooo much fun when the kit arrives, I hope your engine container does not have forklift fork holes in it like mine did a few weeks ago!!!

[ken nougaret]

Good to hear it Darrel. As Jim said, it was pleasure meeting you and your wife at S & F.

[Frontier Fox]

That’s great news Darrel. You will be several months ahead of me so it will be nice to follow your progress.

Joe G.

[bholland]

Glad to hear everything is on the way. It was great meeting you and everyone else at Sun N Fun. Looking forward to seeing your post.

Brett

[Esser]

Lots of new kits starting. I remember the feeling of getting the kit! Have fun!

[chefwarthog]

Have fun..... live is short so doing what mater to us make sens...

Two kits have been very interesting for me lately but the US/CAN Dollars is still to hight.....

Eric

[Cherrybark]

Congratulations Darrel. It's a pretty amazing day when a pile of parts and boxes are delivered. The best advice, passed down to me by Eddie Forward (EFWD), was to stop tracking the hours and the tasks completed and just enjoy the process of building.

Take pictures, post your accomplishments and, above all, ask questions when you have doubts. There is a lot of knowledge on the forum and it always seems to be given in the most friendly fashion.

[Esser]

On thing of advice, leave your parts in the boxes they come in. It's much easier to find stuff that way. I put all mine in parts bins and it made things very difficult.

It would be nice if Kitfox could send something you could print on stickable label sheets so you could label part numbers quickly if you decided to use a parts bin in numerical order...

Also, the Building Tips sticky at the top of this forum is a great resource. It's too bad it's not arranged in any particular order but if you had time to kill one evening you could print them off and file them in folders that represent each part of the build (Wings, rudders, Covering etc.). It's awful to struggle through something only to find later someone had explained in detail how to do a task.

There is so much information in there its hard to remember what was talked about cause you really can't follow along unless you are at that point yourself.

[Cherrybark]

And do take the time to check off items in the inventory list. Then, after you've spent 30 minutes looking for the right bag of bolts, you can confirm you have them somewhere on hand and continue looking.

I did put all of the bags of rivets in a single Tupperware container. There are a large number of these bags, with some duplication, and it was great not to have to paw through these bags while looking for the aforementioned bolts. Naturally, there was that one time when, in exasperation, I finally looked in the rivet bowl and did find a "missing" part.

You're going to have a great time. And a good sense of humor will certainly help!

[jiott]

I agree with Josh, keep all parts in the boxes they came in. The inventory list references box numbers/letters so its very easy to find a part. I don't think I ever spent more than a minute or so looking for a part.

[aviator79]

I agree with Josh, keep all parts in the boxes they came in. The inventory list references box numbers/letters so its very easy to find a part. I don't think I ever spent more than a minute or so looking for a part.

I'll reiterate this. It's what I did, and when you really can't find something, you can go to your inventory lists, which will tell you what box it's in or what sub-kit it's included with. If you left everything organized the way it came, it shouldn't be too hard to find.

[Delta Whisky]

The inventorying (and, keeping them in the box) should start late tomorrow morning.

These great suggestions remind me of building my RV-6. I unboxed some items (not all) and stored stuff all over the house. E.g., the main fuse longerons went on top of the drapery hangers in the living room. They couldn't be seen but they sure could be forgotten - as could lots of other things. Finding them probably added a week to the total build schedule.

[Flybyjim]

Did your very big box come today?

[Delta Whisky]

No sir - road repair slowed the truck in Illinois and they won't be here until tomorrow morning. If it isn't raining I hope to post pictures tomorrow. We'll see - shouldn't count your chickens until they hatch don't ya know.

[Flybyjim]

So sorry, it has been said, good things come to those who wait.

[Delta Whisky]

Brandon and Heather arrived early this morning and the unloading went smoothly. I spent the rest of the day doing the inventory thing and perusing the manual. Hopefully, the inventory drudgery will be completed tomorrow and the real fun can commence.

[aviator79]

:D welcome to the fun part!

[efwd]

It is so funny to read these posts. Having experienced this for myself two years ago and being new to the forum at that time I posted words so similar. I remember how I felt then as well. Two years later I have read posts like this, as we all have, and find that they are all so familiar in character.:D Congrats on your shipment arrival. The inventory may be laborious but as elated as you are having got your prize, you won't mind doing it at all. Have fun.
Eddie

[Esser]

Two years ago already Eddie??? Time flies!

[jiott]

Its the trip of a lifetime for a first time builder! Every few days or weeks you will say to yourself "Wow, I just learned something new, did something I've never done before, and it turned out good". You meet a new challenge, look it straight in the teeth and work your way thru it (its really not all that hard). Soon things start really coming together, you walk a little taller, feel good about yourself and self-image. There will also be times when you need to humble yourself and ask for help or advice, but that is also good for the soul. You are in a rarefied club and when you speak occasionally about it to ordinary mortals (don't overdo it) they suck in their breath and can hardly believe it. Your stories are not the boring, easily ignored comments about the favorite sports team. And you have not even done your own maiden flight and flight tested your creation; that's a whole 'nother level of pride and accomplishment. I can continue on and get real blubbery about it, but I'm sure those of us that have done it get the point. Enjoy the ride, there is nothing like it you will ever do.

[airlina]

Well said Jim,and here it is 15 years later and I still enjoy my Kitfox and know I made the right choice all those years ago. Bruce N199CL

[rosslr]

Yeah, I agree with Bruce ... nice piece of writing Jim! You are a great ambassador for the Kitfox!

Have fun Mr Whiskey!

cheers

ross

[aviator79]

[QUOTE=jiott;73195...when you speak occasionally about it to ordinary mortals (don't overdo it) they suck in their breath and can hardly believe it. Your stories are not the boring, easily ignored comments about the favorite sports team. [/QUOTE]

People whose names I don't know approach me at work and ask "I heard you're building a plane that you can actually fly.", and they are intensely curious not just about the plane, but about my motivation for building it, and what the experience is like. I feel we live in a world world where people's lives are increasingly digital, and folks increasingly value how others perceive their activities over the enjoyment they actually derive from them. In this world, what we do in our garages and hangars is an oddity: both intensely private, and starkly real. You're now part of a very exclusive club. Enjoy the journey.

[David47]

Jim and Brian, very nice. Just shows we Kitfox builders really are a cultured mob .... :)

[Delta Whisky]

Thought I'd share that build activities have actually commenced! First impressions: what a world class manual and great kit. I've pretty much decided that to keep from boring folks steeped in the tradition of Kitfox assembly, I won't post day to day activity here but will keep my log up to date; those with a passing interest can check in at their leisure. Of course it also means that postings will be opportunities to answer questions and solve my problems.

You can see it at: http://www.mykitlog.com/display_project.php?project_id=2413

BTW - disregard the total hours logged. I haven't been able to figure out how to delete the hours logged on the plane/project I divorced.