Finally, the rudder kit arrived!

As you might recall, I was expecting the kit to arrive last week. But because of the current COVID-19 situation, a lot of the deliveries are delayed. It took almost 10 days for the kit to arrive, but it is finally here.

Door bell rang, and this is what I found on the porch!

Unfortunately, I do have a day job, so I couldn’t really open the create right away. I took a quick look at it and it looked undamaged, so I took it inside and continued working.

After dinner, it was unboxing time.

First, I must give Zenair credit for the extremely well-packed crate. What isn’t visible in the picture is the extreme amounts of packing paper that kept everything from shifting around. The kit is fairly straightforward: a handful of pre-drilled parts, the skin, the plastic shaper and the necessary rivets. Comes with a photo assembly guide and the drawing for the rudder too.

As you can see, I decided to get the hand riveter. The main reason was the custom machine heads. The rest of the tools I can buy or borrow elsewhere, but I didn’t want to make a mistake with the rivets. According to Zenair, there is also the option of sending them your rivet heads and they will machine them appropriately so that you get the right kind of dome.

The evening continued with the mandatory inventory check to ensure that all the parts in the manifest were included in the shipment. So far, all good!