Picked up the wing kit today--very exciting. I heard and read so many builders talking about the excitment of picking up their kits. It's been so long since I picked up my tail kit that I forgot the feeling. Also, when I bought my tail kit I knew I wasn't really ready to start building yet. No garage, not even a workshop, and lots of house building to do before I'd have them.

But now I have started building, and suddenly having the wing kit is really motivating me. Even though I'm still on the tail, I'm finding it easier to get in the workshop. Rather than unconsciously finding excuses for not working on it, now I'm consciously finding excuses for not doing other things, so I can work on it!

Anyway, for those of you who haven't reached this stage yet, this is what the two boxes the wing kit comes in look like. One's about 10 inches by 10 inches and 15 1/2 feet long. It holds the spars, some fuselage longeron material, and other long bits. The other is about 32 inches by 8 inches by 8 1/2 feet, and holds skins, ribs, wing tips, and many small packages of hardware.

They're fairly hefty, but two reasonably strong people can carry them. I'd say they're about 250-300 pounds each, the long box being the heavier of the two.

Everything was packed very neatly. The crates themselves are wood, and quite sturdy. I found everything in perfect shape inside, dry and happy. You can see the wing tips on the left of the flat box, and the spar center sections (with cutouts) in the long box.

Hmm... where am I going to fit all this stuff?

Actually, the stuff in the wing kit didn't take up all that much space. But I wanted to have everything nicely out of the way and protected while I finished the tail.

As it turns out, I had a little space left in my office, at the other end of the basement from my workshop. So, I made some legs out of landscape tie material I had lying around, and turned the flat shipping crate into a table. I re-attached the lid with a piano hinge (no, not from the kit--from the hardware store).

Most of the pieces that came in the flat crate went right back in. I kept the wing tips out, because they didn't quite fit, and I didn't want anything to get squished.

Voila! Kit parts safely stored, and I have a big, handy table in my office. I think I'll keep it even after the wing parts are out of it.

I did a similar thing with the long crate holding the spars. I put everything back into it, and mounted it along one wall, just below the ceiling. Now I have as much room in the workshop as I did before I picked up the wing kit, and all the bits are safely stored.