I had hoped to have the fuselage at the airport by now, but it has proved difficult to get all the ducks in a row. Every time I think I have sorted things out, one of the five ducks steps out of line. The trailer I had planned to rent has proven to be unavailable the two times I tried to get it. The weather has not cooperated. Etc. The other three requirements to do the move on any given day is that I need to be available, the pickup truck must be available, and I must have a suitable number of willing helpers.

In the middle of the night a couple of days ago, Jim Manton came up with a simple mod to make to his snowmobile trailer that should allow us to use it instead of renting a flat bed trailer. It is a very sturdy, wide trailer, but it isn't long enough. However, without the wings or moveable tail surfaces installed, there is actually very little weight on the tail wheel. Jim proposed to make an extension to the back of the trailer out of two pieces of plank. We'll stack two 14 ft long planks together, and bolt them on the top of the trailer deck, with the ends of the planks extending aft. We'll screw some plywood to the sides to gusset them together, and to make some fences on each side of the tail wheel. This should work quite well - knock wood. We bought all the hardware and wood yesterday. Tonight we'll install the plywood gussets. Tomorrow I'll pick up ramps from Mark Richardson. Friday night I'll do my weather dance, and Saturday morning we'll see how it all works out.

I have taken advantage of the extra time in the garage to do a couple of tasks that would be more difficult to do in the hangar. There is still a fair bit of work to do yet, so I've pretty much given up on flying before the end of the year. I might be able to get the actual work done, but there are at least a couple of required inputs from various layers of bureaucracy to get the necessary paper work. I can't see all that happening quickly.