On February 14th the rest of the parts arrived.
Here's the largest box containing the long tubes like the wing spars. There were a couple other large boxes and packages, too.
What am I gonna do with all these tubes?!
Well, here's the first thing I do with 'em. When I built my first ultralight back in 1984 (a Teratorn Tierra) I read that it was a good idea to coat the inside of all aluminum tubes with hot linseed oil to protect them from corrosion. It turns into a wax-like coating that water just rolls off of. I did that to the Tierra, then to my RANS Coyote in '93, and now to the Aventura. It doesn't add much weight, and with a seaplane it seems like an especially good idea. It's a messy job; I sure hope it's worth it.
Another thing I did was paint all drilled holes where steel bolts would be touching aluminum with zinc chromate, hopefully to forestall any corrosion due to dissimilar metals in contact.
Finally I unpacked all the rest of the parts and got the shop organized. This is a 10'x24' room on the side of my garage. The board on the right wall holds the plastic bags containing the various sized bolts, which are sorted by size to save time later.
This is the room I spent most of my non-working, non-sleeping life in for the next 5 months. (Come to think of it, I actually did sleep in there a few times!) Remember that this is February in Michigan, and it's about 20 degrees outside. The garage is uninsulated and unheated except for one electric and one kerosene space heater. Later I was able to borrow a kerosene "bullet" heater for the main garage when things got too big for the shop. For the most part, though, it was either too cold or too hot.
