Tail kit has arrived!

The empennage/tail kit has arrived! Two big boxes, one larger than the other. I believe the total weight was listed at 78lbs. Boxes showed up in great shape (these days you just ever know!). Ordered on Thursday, shipped Friday, received Tuesday. Pretty darn quick!

Day 1

5/5/20 – I’ve begun the process of inventorying everything. Day 1 I made it through the first, smaller box, with the exception of the giant bag of hardware.

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Day 2

5/6/20 – Opened the larger box today, which contained all the skins and larger ribs. After the initial “how cool!”, I noticed a scratch on the top facing skin. The scratch was under the tape, so thinking it may have happened prior to being packed. It’s a pretty big one too, went right through the protective film and visible damage to the skin surface. I wasn’t too worried as I’ve heard nothing but great remarks about Van’s customer service, so I’d bring that up later.

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The duct tape that is used for packing, although does an excellent job of keeping everything in-place and safe, had essentially fused to the blue protective film. I was as careful as I could be, but couldn’t help but pull some of the film off. No harm to the skins though. Van’s tells you to take the plastic off as soon as possible anyway, so I was just getting a head start!

I completed my inventory and happy to say every single item on the list was accounted for. There was only a few pieces of small hardware where there was an extra item. Very impressive.

Having been given some good advice ahead of time (thanks Grant!), I labeled each of the hardware bags with the respective part numbers within them.

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Day 3

5/7/20 – I contacted Van’s today let them know inventory had been completed successfully, as well as sharing the issue with the one skin. They were quick to assess the issue and agreed to send a replacement. Can’t ask for more than that! Very pleased!!

Update

5/15/20 – Van’s was super helpful in taking care of the damaged skin. They immediately agreed to replace it and shipped a new one out, received yesterday and it looks great.