I have placed the order for the new ELT battery. That is important because it signals that we are in the final stages of intitial restoration before first flight.
Hopefully, the battery will arrive this week and we can get it installed this weekend. After that we have a few airshow weekends so work will pause during that time. Then we will be back at it getting ready for the first flight.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Finally getting those wing tips
After months of talking about it we finally put our heads down and started removing the wing tips.
We were able to easily still out all of the screws on the right wing tip (26 in total) we removed the tip itself without any issue and replaced all of the nut plates. We also took the time to clean out any debris that had accumulated inside the wings (fortunatly there was just some dirt) and inspect the wings again for corrosion. Which none was found.
Now at least the right wing has shiny new screws and washers....we are going to try and finish up the left wing sometime this week before the cold sets in.
After next weekend ts going to be several weeks before we get to work on the plane again as we focus all our attention on planning for our airshow in November.
On another note the plane did great during a quick run up and taxi. She's still showing strong engine power and all her mag checks and carb heat checks are in the green.
The struts are still holding just fine and the brakes are strong.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Finally a clear weekend
After some historic rain over the last few weeks we were finally able to get back at the plane.
We got all her panels back on and are in the process of getting her all buttoned up.
We've got her strut covers back on and were able to clean the plugs again. She's running very well and strong and I'm hoping we will be able to fly her in the next few weeks.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Rain rain go away
Well, we had every intention of working on the plane this weekend but the rain just made doing anything outside miserable.
Maybe we will have better luck next weekend.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Brakes are done!
Well I was able to get after it again yesterday and we've got all the brakes fixed up. The senior AP showed us a trick on bleeding the brakes on a Piper, that helped us finally get all the air out of the system. That was the last major hurdle for getting her all ready!
Thursday, September 3, 2015
HOWTO Video ADS-B Build
I was getting notes from people interested in the ADS-B build but unsure of how to get started once they received their kits from Amazon.
I did a quick 10 minute video that should give you a good overview of what to do with all the parts and how to get started on building the final unit.
I did a quick 10 minute video that should give you a good overview of what to do with all the parts and how to get started on building the final unit.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
GPS is alive
Well the gamble of a new battery seems to have paid off. The avionics guy dropped off the KLX135 after a battery change. I had to let it sit for about 30 minutes but sure enough it finally found enough satellites to figure out its position.
She wants to go!
This has turned out to be a great weekend and I'm very stoked about the GPS unit working. While my primary nav will be an iPad, it will be nice to have something of a backup in plane.
The line guys are enjoying having the plane back together as well....
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Finally some major progress...
Wow, what a crazy week...finally after many many weeks of delays due to parts we were able to assemble all needed pieces and get them installed on the plane.
Our first task was to install the new exhaust studs (2 per) into each cylinder to prepare it for the exhaust pipes. Whenever you change exhaust pipes you should replace the exhaust gaskets as well, unfortunately the exhaust gaskets that I had ordered months ago turned out to be the wrong size and would not work. But as luck would have it the place that sells the exhaust is just one town over and I was able to run by after work and pick up a set of the correct gasket.
While all this was happening the avionics guy on the field gave the static system a full run up and test. Everything passed great and he was surprised that after all this time nothing needed calibrating. The airspeed indicator was dead on the money as well. This had been a major concern for me as up until that point we had no clue if the instruments were really functioning properly.
I also convinced the avionics guy to take a look at my old KLX135, as I've said in previous posts the KLX135 is for GPS VFR navigation only, it's an incredibly old unit and currently does not function correctly. We suspect that it's due to the internal non-user serviceable battery. Once this battery dies the unit is unable to 'remember' where it is, and this means that every time the unit powers on it must 'find' itself by getting it's position with satellites. This process however can take up to one hour to complete, obviously not something that's practical in any situation. He said that if I was able to find the battery that he would attempt to swap out the old one and we could see if it worked. I was able to locate one of the batteries on amazon and placed the order at 6PM on Thursday.
I was not expecting that battery for several weeks as I was sure it would have to come out of China, so imagine my surprise when I got a shipping notification from amazon early the next day that it was out for delivery. I still do not understand how they were able to get that thing to me in one day, but sure enough it came in Friday and I was able to get it to the tech. If he gets time we should have the unit back in the plane Sunday. If all goes well I will then have a complete dash with functioning VFR GPS navigation. I have decided tho that if this does not fix the issue that I will opt for a mounted unit (such as a Garmin 496) instead of putting any more money into the KLX unit.
Back in May I was able to get the transponder re-certified, however the AV tech noticed that the xponder wasn't transmitting properly. With it being an old NARCO xponder we didn't have much hope of fixing the unit I currently have which is a AT50. It's a very very old unit and I was freaking out that this xponder was going to derail the whole restoration. But again as luck would have it, one of the guys on the field heard us talking about it at the hangar and said "wait there let me run to my hangar" He returned with a NARCO AT150 xponder and said "here you go, this worked great when I removed it from my Baron years ago...you are welcome to it" The 150 is a direct replacement for the 50 so it was able to use the same tray and was a simple 5 minute swap out. The 'new' AT150 fired right up and gave off a very strong signal. I will call the xponder guy on Monday and get him to come out and re-certify the plane again with the AT150. I am glad that was solved quickly and without much fuss as it could have been a costly issue.
Now for the main event!
After months of not being able to start the plane due to the prop being off, or the exhaust or other issues. We were finally able to reassemble all the pieces, cowling, exhaust, hoses, various brackets and braces and panels for her first high speed taxi.
You are probably asking yourself...what is a high speed taxi and why would you want to do those...
1- Basically a high speed taxi is a take off roll on the active runway at full power and right as you approach speed you pull the power back and roll out. You never actually take off, it could also be seen as an aborted take off.
2- What good does that do? Well, one of the ways you cool your engine is by the air rushing through the cowling which is channeled at the cylinders. This cools the engine down and keeps it nice and happy. However this presents another issue, as to really stress the engine you need to run it at full power. But running it at full power while stopped won't pull enough air through the cowling to really cool it down. Not to mention you won't be able to test how the plane will react as it rolls up to the speed. So what you do is a fast taxi...you give it full power as if you were doing a take off roll and then pull the power out slowly so that the engine cools down normally. This also lets you see how the prop and engine will perform once the prop is 'unloaded' meaning you are letting it bite into the air and pull itself forward.
After a quick snafu, (I had forgot to turn the tanks on) she started right up and we were off to do the taxi. Murphy's law says that as soon as you get to the runway that every plane in a 30 mile radius would be coming in for landing. As a result we spent a ton of time waiting at the end of the runway, as we were going to be hogging up the active I wanted to give all traffic in the area time to get down and out of the way.
Now without further ado I present in glorious 1080p the little Cherokee's first trip to the active in 10 years.
There are actually 2 videos...one external GoPro and one internal.
Our first task was to install the new exhaust studs (2 per) into each cylinder to prepare it for the exhaust pipes. Whenever you change exhaust pipes you should replace the exhaust gaskets as well, unfortunately the exhaust gaskets that I had ordered months ago turned out to be the wrong size and would not work. But as luck would have it the place that sells the exhaust is just one town over and I was able to run by after work and pick up a set of the correct gasket.
While all this was happening the avionics guy on the field gave the static system a full run up and test. Everything passed great and he was surprised that after all this time nothing needed calibrating. The airspeed indicator was dead on the money as well. This had been a major concern for me as up until that point we had no clue if the instruments were really functioning properly.
I also convinced the avionics guy to take a look at my old KLX135, as I've said in previous posts the KLX135 is for GPS VFR navigation only, it's an incredibly old unit and currently does not function correctly. We suspect that it's due to the internal non-user serviceable battery. Once this battery dies the unit is unable to 'remember' where it is, and this means that every time the unit powers on it must 'find' itself by getting it's position with satellites. This process however can take up to one hour to complete, obviously not something that's practical in any situation. He said that if I was able to find the battery that he would attempt to swap out the old one and we could see if it worked. I was able to locate one of the batteries on amazon and placed the order at 6PM on Thursday.
I was not expecting that battery for several weeks as I was sure it would have to come out of China, so imagine my surprise when I got a shipping notification from amazon early the next day that it was out for delivery. I still do not understand how they were able to get that thing to me in one day, but sure enough it came in Friday and I was able to get it to the tech. If he gets time we should have the unit back in the plane Sunday. If all goes well I will then have a complete dash with functioning VFR GPS navigation. I have decided tho that if this does not fix the issue that I will opt for a mounted unit (such as a Garmin 496) instead of putting any more money into the KLX unit.
Back in May I was able to get the transponder re-certified, however the AV tech noticed that the xponder wasn't transmitting properly. With it being an old NARCO xponder we didn't have much hope of fixing the unit I currently have which is a AT50. It's a very very old unit and I was freaking out that this xponder was going to derail the whole restoration. But again as luck would have it, one of the guys on the field heard us talking about it at the hangar and said "wait there let me run to my hangar" He returned with a NARCO AT150 xponder and said "here you go, this worked great when I removed it from my Baron years ago...you are welcome to it" The 150 is a direct replacement for the 50 so it was able to use the same tray and was a simple 5 minute swap out. The 'new' AT150 fired right up and gave off a very strong signal. I will call the xponder guy on Monday and get him to come out and re-certify the plane again with the AT150. I am glad that was solved quickly and without much fuss as it could have been a costly issue.
Now for the main event!
After months of not being able to start the plane due to the prop being off, or the exhaust or other issues. We were finally able to reassemble all the pieces, cowling, exhaust, hoses, various brackets and braces and panels for her first high speed taxi.
You are probably asking yourself...what is a high speed taxi and why would you want to do those...
1- Basically a high speed taxi is a take off roll on the active runway at full power and right as you approach speed you pull the power back and roll out. You never actually take off, it could also be seen as an aborted take off.
2- What good does that do? Well, one of the ways you cool your engine is by the air rushing through the cowling which is channeled at the cylinders. This cools the engine down and keeps it nice and happy. However this presents another issue, as to really stress the engine you need to run it at full power. But running it at full power while stopped won't pull enough air through the cowling to really cool it down. Not to mention you won't be able to test how the plane will react as it rolls up to the speed. So what you do is a fast taxi...you give it full power as if you were doing a take off roll and then pull the power out slowly so that the engine cools down normally. This also lets you see how the prop and engine will perform once the prop is 'unloaded' meaning you are letting it bite into the air and pull itself forward.
After a quick snafu, (I had forgot to turn the tanks on) she started right up and we were off to do the taxi. Murphy's law says that as soon as you get to the runway that every plane in a 30 mile radius would be coming in for landing. As a result we spent a ton of time waiting at the end of the runway, as we were going to be hogging up the active I wanted to give all traffic in the area time to get down and out of the way.
Now without further ado I present in glorious 1080p the little Cherokee's first trip to the active in 10 years.
There are actually 2 videos...one external GoPro and one internal.
We are almost there guys.....
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Exhaust Studs and Some Avionics news
So we were able to get the new exhaust studs in all the cylinders today without incident (which is good) Unfortunately, the exhaust gaskets I have are too small so we will have to exchange them for the correct size. It's not a huge deal, but it does add another delay to the process.
In other news, I got an altimeter and airspeed check and they both came out just great. Everything was in tolerance. I will post the paperwork just as soon as I receive it. But now I know that my airspeed and altimeter are reading correctly and still pressurize.
In other news, I got an altimeter and airspeed check and they both came out just great. Everything was in tolerance. I will post the paperwork just as soon as I receive it. But now I know that my airspeed and altimeter are reading correctly and still pressurize.
ADS-B update
I was able to ride shotgun yesterday to test out the ADSB box and am pleased to report that it works!
Monday, August 24, 2015
Home built ADS-B in
While I'm waiting on the exhaust pipes to come in Ive been following several threads on Reddit regarding the stratusx home built ADSB solution.
I decided to make my own from the parts listed and I'm pleased to say it was a success.
If you want to try this out yourself you can follow the links here:
Part 1: Shopping List
Part 2: Latest Software
Monday, August 10, 2015
Exhaust(ed)
This weekend we started on the exhaust. Luckily the gods were with us and after several hours of very very careful and delicate work we were able to get the complete exhaust out of the plane without breaking any studs.
My old exhaust we found is very thin and some of the ends were a little chewed up. The good news is that I have a whole other exhaust ready to put on the plane. We opted not to tackle that this weekend but the plan is as soon as we have another free day we will put the 'new' exhaust on the plane and get her going.
My old exhaust we found is very thin and some of the ends were a little chewed up. The good news is that I have a whole other exhaust ready to put on the plane. We opted not to tackle that this weekend but the plan is as soon as we have another free day we will put the 'new' exhaust on the plane and get her going.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Vacations over!
Well after a 2 week vacation, we are back at it! We've now replaced all of the fuel and brake hoses in the right wing and all the panels are ready to be put back on!
All that's remaining on the left wing is the replacement of the flex fuel hose that is inside the wing. Once that is done it will be ready as well.
I am hopeful that we will be able to soon start on the exhaust system. Replacing the muffler and the aft stack are the only 2 items remaining to be serviced. After that she goes back in for another inspection, if that passes then she will be airworthy.
All that's remaining on the left wing is the replacement of the flex fuel hose that is inside the wing. Once that is done it will be ready as well.
I am hopeful that we will be able to soon start on the exhaust system. Replacing the muffler and the aft stack are the only 2 items remaining to be serviced. After that she goes back in for another inspection, if that passes then she will be airworthy.
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