Here are some pictures from the actual move of the fuselage and wings. The trailer is a custom built 18 foot long, tilt bed. My friend Wayne Milbauer was of immense help designing and helping to get the trailer built. We had good weather the whole way from NC to Maine, although we hit bad traffic in several spots. The trip normally takes about 16 hours, but this time it took 22 hours. We had to drive straight through in order to get to Maine in time to meet the movers.

The blue tarps were just temporary cover while things were sitting outside. We had some rain while loading and I was trying to protect the fuselage and crates as much as possible.

I took the shipping pallet apart and used it to make crates for the wings. It was a huge amount of effort, but it worked out very well. As far as I can tell, not even a mark on the wing framework at all. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but I actually mounted two furniture dollys under the fuselage, and bolted them to the wing attach points. I essentially took the assembly that G.A. used to mount the fuselage to the bottom of the shipping pallet, and screwed that onto the top of the furniture dollys. I tied a third furniture dolly to the bottom of tail section (you can see this in the second picture below). This worked amazingly well to move the fuselage around, and in fact I've decided to keep the fuselage on the dollys until it goes on the gear. The mover had two 16 foot ramps that we put up against the back of the trailer, and we literally just wheeled the fuselage onto the trailer. Slick and easy.

And yes, we did get some double takes on the trip... *grin* By the look on this one construction worker's face, he may have been thinking that he was hallucinating.



Marie took these just after we arrived. You can bet we were all happy to be out of the vehicle, including the dog and the cat!


Here are a couple of short movie clips taken with a cell phone showing the unloading of the fuselage from the trailer. You can get a pretty good idea of the furniture dollys. You might need to have Quicktime installed in order to view these.
Sportsman Unloading 1
Sportsman Unloading 2

Bottom floor of the new AAF (Aircraft Assembly Facility).

Top floor - not entirely organized yet.

A shot of the house from the backyard. The property actually goes back about 790 feet from the road, total of about 4 acres, with the back half all wooded. It is a nice little slice of Maine.



16 Feb 2008 - 2 hrs
Start preparing for move to Maine.

17 Feb 2008 - 5.5 hrs
Packing.

19 Feb 2008 - 2 hrs
Packing.

20 Feb 2008 - 2 hrs
Packing. Lunar Eclipse! Very cool! Pallet dissection.

21 Feb 2008 - 1.5 hrs
Pallet dissection.

22 Feb 2008 - 1 hr
Pallet dissection.

23 Feb 2008 - 4.25 hrs
Start building wing crates from pallet parts.

02 Mar 2008 - 4 hrs
Wing crate fabrication.

03 Mar 2008 - 2.5 hrs
Wing crate fabrication.

04 Mar 2008 - 2.5 hrs
Wing crate fabrication.

05 Mar 2008 - 3.25 hrs
Wing crate fabrication.

06 Mar 2008 - 2 hrs
Finish wing crate fabrication!!!

08 Mar 2008 - 5.75 hrs
Packing.

09 Mar 2008 - 4.5 hrs
Packing.

10 Mar 2008 - 1.5 hrs
Packing.

11 Mar 2008 - 1.5 hrs
Packing.