The prop finally arrived today. What a relief. I was told late on Friday that Customs had finally released it, but this saga has taken so many strange turns that I wasn’t really sure that it was true.

The prop was supposed to be picked up yesterday, and I had asked for it to go to the Day and Ross depot, to be held for my pickup. But, that was the info I had given them a week ago today, when I had understood that they could pick it up on Wednesday. That plan fell apart, and the pickup was placed on hold. Today I was planned to drive to Kanata, a suburb west of the Ottawa core, for a day of meetings with CMC Electronics. The city bus drivers are on strike, which has really fouled up rush hour traffic, so the meeting was scheduled to start at 10 AM, to allow people to do an off-peak drive. I was having a quiet coffee at home at 8:15, working on work e-mail, when the door bell rang. I looked out the window, and saw a Day and Ross 18-wheeler at the end of the driveway. Somehow the “hold for pickup” bit had fallen through the cracks, and the prop came straight to the house. Fortunately I was at home - on any normal day both Terry and I would have already been at work.

There was a foot long puncture mark in the box, which the driver kindly pointed out, suggesting that I open the box before signing for delivery. But, the puncture mark was no where near any of the prop blades, and everything inside looks perfect. I’ll leave it in the garage over Christmas, and drag it out to the hangar sometime in early January.

The prop came with a custom fibreglas spinner - very nice.