Seats

Progress has been slowed by the holidays and the lousy weather. But I did get in a call to Shelby Isham at Tnwings yesterday. We had a pleasant conversation. The new upholstery and carpet has been ordered and should be on its way here sometime next week.

I am still battling paint issues on the overlays, specifically, the right side overlay. I sanded down the orange peel and re-painted. However, I didn't really get the paint properly feathered and will need to re-do, again. Which is OK, because it orange-peeled ... again. I gotta figure out why.

Christmas Report

Progress has been slowed by family events, work and the weather. I have been working on the dry transfer lettering on the overlays. The process is fussy and difficult with a steep learning curve. I am closing in on it and hope to have the overlays completed tomorrow, but we shall see.

The weather here in the Pacific Northwest has been frightful. I understand that some New England folks may not think of 20" of snow as much of a big deal. But we are not used to it. Snow "storms" around here usually dump 3-6" and hang around for a couple of days. This series of storms has blanketed the area with 15-24" and has lasted a couple of weeks.

I went up to the airport a couple of days ago. I had too. I had hidden my wife's Christmas present in the hangar (it seemed a good idea at the time). The snow was knee deep between the hangars and was blown up against the doors. For a bit I wasn't sure I would be able to get the hangar doors open. Getting there had been a chore as well. The access gate was inoperative, so I had to enter at the FBO and slog through the snow to the hangar. Fortunately, the main taxi-ways have been plowed, which cut down on the slog, but gave me the opportunity to fall on my butt!

Prop

I received a call from the propeller folks. There were no major issues. The prop is on its way back overhauled, repitched and painted.

The dry transfer process I am using for the lettering on the overlays is proving to be a bit involved. However, I woke up at 0130 this morning with a flash of brilliance that explains my difficulties.

PROGRESS

A few things have been accomplished since December 10. First, on December 12, the propeller went to Aircraft Propeller Repair Services in Troutdale, Oregon. It was a miserable day and I couldn't find anyone who wanted to fly down, so I drove it down there. The gracious folks there took an initial look at the prop. They were concerned about some corrosion in the hub area. I haven't heard from them yet, which gives me hope that the corrosion turns out to be a non-issue. They will overhaul the prop and re-pitch to 46" from the current 50".

The re-pitch will mean I will no longer have the fastest 150 on the block. With the 50" prop Juliet would cruise at 118 mph at 2500 rpm. After burning off a bit of fuel, I often had to throttle back to 2450 to stay below the yellow arc on the airspeed indicator. But climb performance was nothing short of miserable. Since almost all of my flying is over short distances, and I favor the smaller airfields, the improved climb performance will be very welcome, and I don't think I will miss the higher cruise speeds. I hope it will also mean I can climb out of Sanderson on a warm (not hot) day with two people and full fuel aboard.

During the return trip I learned that my very good friend, Hollister Young, had passed away. It was difficult to weep and drive at the same time. I pulled over and composed myself before continuing my trip home. I spent quite a few pleasant hours with Holly in his Cessna 185, which is the first airplane I ever flew. Holly was a terrific gentleman, and a good, and close, friend.

Panel work has progressed, as well. The left side floating panel and all of the overlays have been painted. I am not as happy as I might be with the paint, but I am running out of time. So it will have to do. During some succeeding winter I will probably pull things apart and re-do the panels ... again. At least I won't be distracted by all the other tasks I am currently undertaking.

You may recall I was originally going to have printed overlays done by PlacardsPlus. The decision to forgoe re-doing the lower panel (in retrospect, a wise decision) drastically reduced the amount of lettering necessary. I can handle the remaining lettering with a dry transfer process.

Once the lettering is complete I will overspray the panel and overlays with a clear, flat protective coat. Today will see the various screws and nuts associated with the panel and overlays painted and all of that will be ready to go back together.

The steel engine parts are on their way back to Dennis Toepke, along with the necessary bearings, gaskets, seals and new nut/bolt kits. I haven't heard back from the folks going over the case, except it is out of the welding shop. Which means (a) it needed some welding, and (b) progress is being made.

There is a lot of work to be done before the airplane will be back in the air. The baffling needs to be stripped and re-painted and the new seals installed. I haven't even ordered the new upholstery and carpet yet, nor have I started work on the interior trim plastic. Holiday activities have slowed me down some, but I need to keep rolling so the rest of the airplane will be ready when the overhauled engine arrives. Dennis hopes the engine will be ready to hang before the end of the year. Which means I need to break free from the computer and do something useful!

The right side overlay is finished. Sort of. As I was thinking about it last night, I was not as happy with it as I might be. The opening for the ammeter is off by about 3/16" horizontally and vertically. The opening for the tach is off by about 1/16" vertically. The opening for the fuel and oil gauges could be about 3/16" larger vertically. So early this morning I was thinking I might abandon this idea and return to the stock Cessna plastic overlays. Looking at this photo now, I am inclined to continue with the aluminum overlay.

Even if I go back to the plastic overlays, I will not completely abandon this project. I could make a new right side overlay. There is only about $5 worth of aluminum here. But I am running out of time.

After I took this photo I removed the left side panel. All of the shock mounts are shot. Even if I decide to abandon the new overlay scheme, this disassembly has had value. Obviously, the shock mounts need to be replaced. I am also replacing the yoke grommets, which were seriously worn.

The changes to the filler overlays in the avionics stack are an unmitigated success. Those overlays are a very large improvement over what was there.

The template for the right side overlay is completed to my satisfaction. Finally. This has been a time-consuming and fussy job. The next step is to use this template to actually fabricate the aluminum overlay.