Print
Hits: 2350

Sorting out the details of the expected arrival of the engine and prop are driving me crazy. I hadn’t planned it this way, but the scheduled arrival dates for both the engine and prop were on the same day, and in a very busy week. Plus I needed to pre-position an engine hoist at the hangar, so I would be able to get the engine crate out of the back of the pickup truck I would borrow. It quickly become like one of those classical puzzles where you have a dog, cat, and a mouse to get across a river, and only a small boat that won’t fit everyone at once.

I expended a lot of mental energy coming up with a plan of how I would make this all work, then it all blew up in slow motion. First, the pickup truck I planned to borrow needed unplanned maintenance, so it was in the shop for several days, and I couldn't use it to pre-position the engine hoist. Then, yesterday, I learned that rather than coming direct to Ottawa as I had thought, the prop was going to go via Toronto, arriving there today. This was important, because it would slow the arrival in Ottawa down by at least a day, and could foul up my plan to handle the Customs paperwork myself. I still don’t know if I will need to hire a Customs broker, and pay them several hundred dollars to do 20 minutes of work. I did the Customs stuff myself when the original prop arrived in Ottawa - it was very fast and simple.

Then, this morning, I called the trucking company with the tracking number to get an update on the engine, as I expected it should arrive today. They told me that the truck and trailer that have the engine were involved in an accident near Thunder Bay, Ontario. They couldn’t tell me anything about the status of the stuff that was in the trailer, or what the new arrival date. I got a message from them late in the day that the goods in the trailer were OK, and that they would arrive in Toronto on Friday, and then onward to Ottawa sometime after that. I hope the engine will be ready for pickup on Monday. I’ll be on the road Tuesday through Thursday, so I hope to get all this stuff sorted out before then.

Today, after work, I borrowed the pickup truck, drove to RV-9A builder Phil’s place to pickup another builder’s engine hoist (thanks Mike), and took it to the hangar.

I will be very, very glad when all this stuff is finally safely in the hangar.