Christmas in July

The last pieces have now arrived, the exhaust is all here and made it safe and sound. 

I have a vacation coming up so it will be at least 2 weeks before I will get to work on it....it will be a long 2 weeks lol

More hoses

The pre made hoses arrived today and are all ready to go!

These hoses are pre-made and tested and certified.  It's nice to know that the hoses have been tested to make sure they won't blow out on you under pressure.

All the pieces...

I just received shipping confirmation that the exhaust system has shipped.  That along with the hoses (from http://www.aircrafthose.com/) should all be arriving in the next week, and are the final pieces I need to check off all my items on the annual inspection.

Piper 1973 Sales Flyer

One of the cool things I received with my log books with the sales flyer that Piper used in 1963 for the Cherokee.  Some have asked to see the flyer so I took some pictures and thought I would post them here.

Still more lines

Replacement of all the lines continue.  Today the new oil lines were installed.  

We were also able to fill the struts with nitrogen and that brought them up.

A quick taxi and she's sitting pretty now!

Couldn't help myself

Today was such a beautiful day, after almost 2 weeks of 100 degree days I just had to get back in the air.

No work on Cherokee today...all play time!  Check out the videos in HD!

New fuel lines...

The temp dropped below 100 today to a very chilly 88 so we decided to tackle the fuel lines. 

I'm pleased to report that all fuel lines under the cowling have now been replaced.  In addition all of the fire sleeve on all the fuel lines has been replaced.  

She's coming right along! 

More parts!

Rest of the parts came in today..it's like Christmas at the hangar...

New Firesleeve for all the hoses...

 

New oil / brake and fuel hoses

 New Gaskets!

First new parts arrive!

The first of the new parts arrived today and were installed.

Brand new gasket cover valves!  We removed the old cork gaskets which were old and gross and replaced them with brand new silicone gaskets.  

The older cork gaskets were a pain to get off as they "fuse" to the covers and dry out.

Old gross valve covers and gaskets












New valve cover gaskets in place.  so shiny!

Annual inspection complete

Hey guys,  just wanted to drop a quick update to report that the first inspection for the annual is complete. 

I'm pleased to report that there are no major show stoppers that were found.  We've got the expected hoses that need to be replaced, most due to age time out (8 years minimum), the only issue we've got is the muffler has a hole in it and needs to be replaced.

Other than the muffler and replacement of hoses, it looks like we're on track to get her back in the air soon!

Screw these screws

I have never been more frustrated than trying to change out these screws before the annual.

I spent 6 hours and only got 16 screws out, broke 4,  left at least 9 and broke 3 easy out tools. 

Quick Update

I've gotten a few messages about the lack of project updates in the past week or so. 

My apologies, the project is still moving forward but we are now into the "big" items (like removing all the inspection panels or wing tips ..etc) and since I do not have a hangar I can only do these items on the weekend when I have time to tear the whole plane apart and put it back together in one day.

We've also hit our prime airshow season and the crew has been traveling to airshows on the weekend, which also takes away days that we can work on the little plane.

Strut up or shut up

We were finally able to carve out a few hours to service all the struts.  Also we started the official inspections for the annual.

This was a very dirty job...

Here is a strut with the wheel off and with the plane up on jacks.

We were able to totally remove the struts to replace the O ring seals on the top and bottom.

After replacing the struts we had to service them with fluid which prompty sprayed all over me causing a massive mess and an immediate need to chane clothes as the smell was overpowering lol

Afterwards you can see now her struts stay up just fine!!

In addition we were able to do the first compressions on the engine for the official inspection.  I'm very pleased at how the engine is shaping up.

And most importantly with the struts now holding I was able to take my nine year old nephew out for a quick taxi around the ramp.  He's been asking me to take him around for weeks.  

As you can see he was ready to go!