Friday finally got here and I departed home for my road trip to "parts south" at 1130am.

First stop, my long time friend Lynn's place just outisde Barrie.  Lynn and I grew up in the same hometown of Holland Landing and her late father Wally owned the local airport.  For several years Lynn was heavily involved with ultralight aircraft, as a builder, pilot and instructor.  Now heading in a different direction in life, she contacted me with a list of items from sale from her collection.

As I arrived in her driveway, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that one of my best friends Mike (also from Holland Landing) was also there.  It was just like old times - what a fantastic chance to catch up a bit.  None of us has aged by the way ;)

Lynn had collected up a bunch of stuff for me and made a sales pitch I couldn't refuse.  More on this in a bit.

Next stop, my parent's place to pick up Dad and head to Kitchener to see Scott about the 750 rudder he has for sale.  I like taking Dad on these jaunts when possible.  It's great to catch up and of course talk airplanes - it's certainly something in the DNA I got from him!

After a dinner in Guelph with Dad, we made our way to Scott's place in Kitchener.  The deal for the rudder we agreed to got even sweeter when Scott included a box of Cleco fasteners, Cleco pliers and two heavy paper bags of A4 and A5 rivets - all for $100 cash!  I didn't dicker or give him a chance to change his mind.  START THE CAR!!

We wound our way back to Dad and Moms during Friday evening rush hour and seemed to hit every red light.  Times like this remind me how much I enjoy living in northern Ontario.  I decided to grab a nap for a couple of hours, but by 415am this morning, I was back on the road home (there are other things I have to get done before going back to work tomorrow!)

Amazing stuff for my project.  In fairness to Lynn, I won't disclose what I paid for her portion of this stuff, but suffice to say, it pays to stay in touch with friends!

The big item of the trip however is the 750 rudder.  Scott had attended a Zenair factory sponsored  rudder workshop with the intent of getting a head-start on his 750 build, but as is often the case, life got in the way and he decided to part with his barely touched project.  This rudder is already mostly built, including corrosion protection.  Fortunately one side only has some temporary rivets on the skin that can be drilled out so I can confirm everything is good inside and run the wires for a navigation light.  For $100 and the fact it was built in a supervised factory workshop I can drill a few rivets out to confirm.  Unassembled rudder kits are more than $500 from the factory and there is at least $100 in hardware that he threw in.

Deal?  Absolutely!

Can't wait to show Ron!

But right now, the lawn needs to be cut.... again.

Yesterday, I called Zenair HQ to inquire if my plans had been shipped yet.  I spoke with Kaitlyn who confirmed my package left their facility via U.S.Postal Service Air Mail on Friday afternoon.

Today, using the tracking number she provided me, I logged into the USPS web-portal and discovered that as of Monday morning my package was somewhere in the bowels of the USPS International Service Center in Chicago.  Further reading reveals the ISC where all outbound mail from the U.S. goes to be sorted for distribution.  I also read that it can be a bit of a black hole and there are many reports of stuff going missing, never to be seen again.

Thankfully when I checked a couple of hours later and my package was showing as of Wednesday morning as being in Canada Customs.  I'm normally more patient than this, but Canada Post and their postal workers union are deep into a nasty labour dispute with both sides threatening strike/lock-out action by midnight tonight!  At this point I hoping my plans wouldn't end up stuck on some conveyor belt or parked truck.

Knowing that web-portals are sometimes slow to update, I took a chance and called my local Post Office (love small towns).  The lady there confirmed for me that I indeed had a package awaiting pick-up!

Brenda was kind enough to drop by and pick it up for me (I was stuck at work).  When I got home, it was waiting for me.  To be honest, I kinda thought it would be a bigger box, but happy nonetheless it has arrived safe!

Opening the box explained a lot.  The plans are curled a bit on one end to fit a standard shipping box:

A fully numbered and complete set of plan drawings and folder with builder resource information including a CD of assembly photos. Really nice stuff.

Who's a happy guy?

In order for this project to come together, I'm planning on building in sections in order to keep things economical.  Overall I'll be spending a fair amount of money, but by doing things in stages, it will keep me from being overloaded by debt.

I figure if I'm going to build and learn as I go, might as well spread the dollars over time as well.

To that end, I've broken the project into several "sections" and within those there will inevitably be sub-sections.

Airframe

I've decided on the type of airframe I want (high wing, side by side).  It will most likely be buying something that is a complete fuselage, tail section and wings.  Whether that will be fabric or metal or fiberglass or a combination of 2 or 3 is yet to be determined.  Tail dragger (conventional) or tricycle gear is also a consideration.

Interior

This will be largely dependent on the airframe, however the key here will be lightweight materials with a eye towards function and comfort.

Avionics

The key here will be simplicity.  For the type of flying I plan on doing, I really don't need much more than what is required for basic visual flight rules.

Now, I'm the first to admit that I am a gadget geek, easily distracted by the latest and greatest electronic systems and gizmos.  Unfortunately, there is a big correlation between fancy and expensive.  Surely some electronics add to simplicity and by combining several items into one do-all display there might be some money savings, but I'm not sure putting all my money into a single system makes sense.  If that single system fails, it will be costly to repair or replace, where an individual component is easier to diagnose and replace where necessary without upsetting the entire apple cart.  Perhaps once I'm up flying I can take a look at upgrades, but for now I'll stick with tried and true simple analogue stuff.  (Unless I get a deal I can't refuse!)

In my next post, I'll talk about engines, a really big topic.