I was trying to organize moving the aircraft to the hangar this weekend, but events conspired against me. I tracked down a suitable flatbed trailer early in the week, but it wasn't available on the weekend. The long range weather forecast said it was supposed to rain Saturday and Sunday, so I didn't look for another trailer. Then late in the week the forecast changed to show that Sunday might be suitable. I relaunched the "find a trailer" effort, and looked at two unsuitable trailers, then learned of a perfect trailer that I could pick up on Saturday. Unfortunately the owner of said trailer had misremembered the width, and it was obviously too narrow. Another lead also turned sour, then I got wind of another perfect trailer late on Saturday. By this time I had already told the prospective helpers that the move was off, so I didn't try to put it back on the rails, as Terry and I had already planned a Saturday night on the town, and there was no time to get things organized before our dinner reservation. I did arrange to have Jim Manton, a coworker with a pickup truck, help me move the wings.
Sunday morning I installed the fuel tanks on the wings (I still need to torque the bolts, and put in the screws on the upper surface). Sunday afternoon Jim helped me carry the wings up from the basement to the garage, then we brought up the wing cradle and put everything in the back of the truck.
The drive to Smiths Falls was a bit stressful, as the wind came up, and we hit some snow squalls. The front of one wing started to lift in the cradle - we had to make a quick stop to revise the way the cargo straps were arranged, to put one over the top at the front to hold them down. Then the centre part of the cradle started to lean over, as the very strong crosswind was putting a huge amount of side load on the wings, and the screws at the gusset at the bottom of the centre posts were working loose. We made another stop to add cargo straps to brace the centre posts. It was quite a relief to make it the airport.
Jim Manton - coworker, test pilot, proud pickup truck owner.
The wings are now safely parked in the corner of a large hangar at Smiths Falls, in the company of two Mooneys. I might have a chance to move the fuselage to the hangar Wednesday PM, if the weather forecast holds, the one suitable trailer I have actually seen is available, and I can organize a suitable number of bodies to help. If Wednesday doesn't work, it'll be another several days before I have another chance, as a whole herd of Terry's sisters arrive on Thursday, and we'll be busy with them until Tuesday.
