Fuselage repair

Replaced both left and right horizontal tips with Mc Farlane tips using 8 32 screws in place of rivets. The idea is that you can easily change out the tip if damaged, one thing is that if you operate a seaplane you need to put some corrosion protection on the nut plates and screws on…

There is an STC for these but it has long since become a floating STC. I installed these as a minor alteration but used the STC as my data for installation. It is a pretty simple sheet metal project but you have to be careful. I do have these louvers coming available soon as a…

 Everything can be repaired but some things take longer than others. We took on this job with an idea of how much time but that usually changes as you disassemble. We were lucky that the nose gear survived and the firewall was still in good shape, it does have a few creases but still serviceable….

Like many things when it gets old the dents start to show and the only option is a face lift. When this is done it is almost like new, your wife may not notice but you will. 

 When repairing a cowl I try to balance the repairs out and it is important to make the repairs look as if it is part of the original cowl or nice enough to make the cowl look better if not stronger and most important last. One thing is these cowl repairs are time consuming and…

 After removing the tail we found that an earlier replacement of the tail bulkheads with a later model 180 bulkhead, probably because of the plane going over on its back, was not done very well…….