Kit Delivery

In all the years that I thought about an endless list of details of building an airplane, I never realized how big of an issue just receiving the crates would be. The Lancair ES Fastbuild kit comes in two very large crates. Both are a little over 20’ long. One is approximately 1600 lbs., and the other is approximately 1300 lbs. So... these boxes are very large, and very heavy.

I contacted Vern Pifer in the Lancair shipping department while I was planning for the arrival. That is when I learned about a few additional challenges. The first is that the crates are delivered in a closed bed truck (as pictured here), not the open bed trailer I was hoping for. This makes it more challenging to get the crates off the truck. The second is that the trucking company does not bring a forklift or a rigging crew, and will not make those arrangements for you. It was up to me to arrange for those myself.

I rented a forklift from NationsRent for one day at a rate of $130 per day. I believe that there are NationsRent outlets throughout the US. Some of the NationsRent outlets operate out of Lowe’s stores. They also charge a fee for delivering the forklift and picking it up. For me (given the distance from my home to the NationsRent outlet) the delivery and pickup fee was $50 each way. I confirmed with Lancair that the crates could be lifted from the center with a forklift.

I reserved a standard warehouse forklift from NationsRent. The morning of delivery, NationsRent called me stating that the forklift I reserved was having mechanical problems, and they asked if it would it be acceptable if they delivered a larger forklift at the same rate. The forklift we used to unload my crates is pictured here. I made arrangements to have an experienced forklift driver for that day (Troy Rodriguez). Troy drives a forklift daily moving HAZMAT loads, so he was able to do an outstanding job. Getting a person with recent forklift experience is critical. After Troy had left for the day, others in our group drove the forklift to move the remains of one of the empty crates. We learned that Troy only made it look easy. Although almost anyone can drive a forklift, it takes experience to be able lift big loads very carefully. It can be difficult to avoid quick jerks which can cause the load to fall. It is also very easy to do things like crush dollies, saw horses, driveways, etc.

The first step we took for unloading each crate was to pull a crate out of the truck about three quarters of the way with the forklift. The first crate is pictured here about one quarter of the way out of the truck. A long heavy duty chain would make it easier to extract the crate from the truck, but is not mandatory. Once we had the forklift arms substantially under the crate, the forklift arms were tilted so that the crate could be pulled. Without tilting, the forklift arms were just pulled out from under the crate as the forklift backed up. We only needed to pull the crate out far enough so that the forklift would be able to reach the middle of the crate once the forklift was maneuvered to the side.

The next step was to use the forklift to set the crate on some form of support that was approximately the same height as the bed of the truck. I used a heavy duty saw horse that I designed and built just for this purpose. Pictured here, the forklift has just set the first crate on the saw horse. The forward end of the crate was still supported by the bed of the truck. The heavy duty saw horse did hold up each crate successfully for my shipment. I would build the saw horse a little differently if I were going to do this again. When the larger crate was resting on the saw horse, I believe I saw very slight bowing in the vertical upright boards, and the top cross beam. If the forklift driver had been less experienced, and set the crate on the saw horse harder, it is possible that the saw horse would have failed. I believe improvements could be made by changing how I oriented some of the boards. I would not necessarily have had to use more wood. I did not see any signs of stress with the lighter of the two crates.

Once the crate was resting on the saw horse, we were able to maneuver the forklift over to the side of the crate to lift it from the center. This is where all the friends I had arranged to be on hand were most valuable. The forklift operator could not see everything because the crate blocked most of his view. We had people positioned to watch from almost every angle. They helped instruct the forklift driver each step of the way. They also spotted a few situations that could have lead to real problems. One was that we were all focused so much on the forks and getting them under one of the crates, we were not noticing that the mast was getting very close to hitting the top of the truck. Someone called it out before any damage was done.

Once the crate was lifted and it was reasonably balanced on the forklift arms, the truck driver drove the truck out from under the crate. Pictured here, the truck is almost clear of the the forward end of the crate. Also, the saw horse has been removed in the picture. As soon as the truck was clear, it was important for the forklift driver to lower the load to be just high enough to clear all obsticals. The lower the load the better. Also it was important to tilt the forklift arms so that the crate leaned slightly toward the forklift. This made the crate less likely to fall off the front of the forklift.

Then it was a simple and careful process of driving the crate up the driveway. We placed it on two of the heavy duty dollies I had built, and are pictured here. My plan had been that once we moved the crate, we would be able to raise the crate with a pallet jack, remove the dollies, and then reuse the dollies to position the second crate. I now know that I should have built 4 dollies. We substantially tore down the fuselage crate to the point that it is now just a long flat cart. I have the fuselage in my garage on that cart with 2 dollies underneath it. Now I can move it as needed. We also substantially tore down the wing crate. Now enough of the crate remains to make a nice wing rack for safe storage once I have finished the wings. I have since built the forth dolly so that I was able to place them under the wing rack so it can be moved as needed too.

These dollies turned out to be even more helpful than I had imagined. Once we set the crate down on the dollies, one person could literally move the crate. However, two people pushing did make it easier. We moved the crate farther back to make room for the second crate. Before the crates arrived, I
had wondered if I really would use the dollies since I had a forklift. I am very glad I made them, and highly recommend them to almost anyone getting ready to receive their own crated aircraft kit.

Shipping Lessons Learned

I had learned some important lessons even before the kit arrived. For those of you that are considering building, kit depositors, or someone that is preparing for their delivery, you will want to read this information. Most others will likely not find this information very interesting.

Builder Note:

Shipping Fees

When you order your Lancair kit, there are “Crating Fees” included on the order form. One of these fees is for the “Wing Crate”, and the other is for the “Fuselage Crate”. These fees should not be confused with “Shipping Fees” that are actually collected on delivery. You pay these charges to the trucking company Consolidated Freightways ( CF ). The Crating Fees are exactly what the name suggests ( fees for building and loading the crates for the shipment ). The shipping fee will likely vary depending on distance, actual shipping weight, etc. My shipping fees were a couple hundred dollars more than the total Crating Fees. You need to have that money on hand when the crates are delivered. Be sure you confirm with CF the exact amount before delivery, and determine how payment can be made.

Also, if you plan on ordering some of the additional options that Lancair offers, you can save a significant amount of money by ordering them with the kit to be delivered at the same time. Those items are just packed inside the kit crates. If you order them later to be shipped independently, you will pay separate shipping fees. For example, the cost for shipping a pair of 12’ fuel probes for a Vision Microsystems fuel gauge independently is about $95. These extra shipping fees can add up very fast. There are a few factors that tend to drive up the shipping costs. One is that some of the items that are being shipped, such as some of the epoxy resins, are considered HAZMAT materials, and special HAZMAT fees are charged. In other cases, shipping is higher because these items are AIRCRAFT PARTS. The possible drawback to this is that this could somewhat delay shipment of the kit. However, Lancair may ship a few remaining items after kit shipment without charging you additional shipping fees.

Builder Note:

Potential Shipping Delays & Shipment Tracking

Once CF picks up the crates from Lancair in Redmond OR, the crates are taken to a CF facility. For most parts of the US, that facility will likely be in Portland OR. CF will assign a tracking number to the shipment. They refer to this number as the “PRO Number”. Lancair will provide you with the PRO Number once it has shipped. Once you have that number, you can go to the CF website http://www.CF.com/ to track your shipment. You will use the PRO Number in the Tracking section of their website. It may be a few days before your shipment registers on their website, and on the CF computers if you call one of their offices to make inquires.

When your shipment arrives at a way point, the shipment tracking report you get from www.CF.com will list a shipment status item with an “ARIV” code. It will also names the city. Once it starts moving to the next way point, that item in the report will change to “ENROUTE” and name the next city. If you notice from one day to the next that the website continues to report “ARIV” status for the same city, your shipment is likely sitting in a CF warehouse in that city. In most cases, the hold-up is due to the fact that CF is holding the crates until they have enough other items to include in the shipment to make it a more complete load. Those other items will need to be small enough to physically fit in the same truck, and if those items are going to ride on top of your crates, they must be light enough to ride on top of our crates without causing damage. This means that those items have certain size and weight limits. This further slows the process because there are more factors than just common destination. My shipment was held up for 4 days in Portland OR. Once the shipment moved, it was transferred very quickly to Salt Lake City. It remained in SLC for about 2 days. Then it moved to Dallas for a portion of a day, and finally on to Houston. As the shipment gets closer to the final destination, most of the segments will start getting shorter. This also typically means that the delay duration will also become shorter because they will accumulate additional items going to the same destination more quickly.

Since you will likely be coordinating with helpers, a forklift rental, or possibly a rigging crew, and who knows what else, you will want to check on the shipment each day to get current status and arrival estimates. You likely won’t know with a very high level of confidence what the real delivery date will be until about 24 hours before it actually happens. Once the date has been locked in, you will want to know approximate delivery time. CF will likely give an 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM possible delivery time window. For an extra fee of about $60, you can get that down to a 2 hour window. Some CF facilities can do a Saturday delivery, but they charge a significantly larger fee for that service ( about $500 ).

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