Joshua's RV-9A Project

Up early this morning, having taken the day off work, and called the towing company to confirm we’re still on.  The weather looks good, so we’re set for a 10am move to the airport.  Before that, I secured a videocamera inside the fuselage, mounted to the rollbar support channel, and one in the front window of the truck.  Pulled the plane out into the driveway to be ready for the truck to arrive.

Lots of open space in the shop now…what’ll I do with that?  I suspect Allison has some ideas already.

Kyle, the driver from Siewert’s Garage, a family-owned towing shop in Red Wing, showed up on time and was prepared with all sorts of straps and things that we could choose from to secure the plane to the truck.  He asked lots of questions in order to understand how best to lift, maneuver, secure, etc, the plane; I appreciated that he took the time to do it right.  Once the plane was loaded and secured to both our satisfactions, we traded cell numbers and set off down the highway, with me chasing in the pickup.  He kept the speed under 45 the enire way; watching from behind, I was never in doubt that the plane was secure, though we did make a pre-arranged stop after several miles to check the straps.

Pulling in to the airport, I led the truck to the hangar and we commenced to offloading the plane.  He grabbed some pictures for the guys at the shop, I paid the bill, and he was on his way.  In the 45 minutes I was on site, no fewer than three guys from the airport stopped by to check out the plane; there are several RV’s already at the airport, along with some other experimental types including a Lancair.  With the plane safely tucked away in the back of the hangar, it was off to get money to pay the hangar rent, along with a visit to the Ellsworth cheese factory down the road.

The tow truck was involved for a couple hours, and I was home in time for a late lunch.  Time-compression and editing out the parts where nothing was happening mean the entire thing is under 7 minutes on video…