He was about 80% done. The assemblies were still Cleco’d together, so he was able to take it apart. He was being extremely meticulous in its construction. For example, the polished all of the lightening holes in the wing spars – even though no one would ever see them once the skins were on.
When he moved, he ordered special shipping and extra insurance. As he told it, one truck needed a longer ramp, so the took the longer one from the truck Dad’s airplane was in and tossed their 200-pound short ramp onto the flat spot in the other truck. The flat spot was my dad’s disassembled BD-5.
Dad didn’t want to start over, so he contacted another builder in Long Beach who said he could buil a BD-5 pretty much to the point dad had his for $10,200. That’s what the insurance company paid, and dad bought a used, flying ‘four-seat BD-5’… a six-year-old 1970 Cessna 172K Skyhawk.