Right on Allen! I'm curious what your starting empty weight is?

Just a thought: you might keep the aft panel that covers your new extended baggage.

I did, and found it handy to keep in place to turn that extended baggage into a kind of hidden compartment while parked. Out of sight, out of mind. People look into a parked plane and see an aft bulkhead and an empty baggage area.....no problemo.

I know...sounds dumb, but it works. And that piece of thin alum with matching interior material weighs not much and if you need to load long stuff, the bulkhead lays on floor or alongside baggage area.

FWIW

MTV

Rob - The current empty weight is a good question. We're working of the weight on the Weight and Balance sheet, and it's listed as 1429. I doubt it's accurate. If I remember right, it was weighed in the 90's, but I'll have to go through the logs to find it. We'll weigh it when we're finished and see what it really is.

Ummm...guess you won't be playing much anytime soon. Going to have it ready for Ibex next month...or HSF? Excited for you though!

Grassstrippilot wrote:Ummm...guess you won't be playing much anytime soon. Going to have it ready for Ibex next month...or HSF? Excited for you though!

Hahahahahaha..... Good luck Allen!

robw56 wrote: Hahahahahaha..... Good luck Allen!

Dude, I now understand why your plane took so long. I'm only doing the interior and it's a nightmare. Any idea what this black stuff on the side panels is?



I'm calling it the excrement of Satan. Between that nasty black crap and the glue they used to hold the carpet down on the flap tunnel, I don't know how I'll ever finish this project. At first when we pulled the interior out I thought that we had it pretty easy. Our floor isn't painted and a lot of the panels are fairly clean and won't take too much work. But that carpet glue and this black stuff is pure evil. You can see the small section I cleaned off in front of the ELT. That took forever. Oh well, I didn't have anything else to do with my spare time anyway.

The good news: We got all the interior out that is not going back in. All the aluminum clips for the headliner, the carpet on the firewall, the carpet on the floor, etc. I weighed it all today, and we've pulled 70lbs out. The carpet they had in the plane was just regular house carpet, and it was heavy.

Cory - because we fly the plane for work, it's actually still in a flyable condition. We're not doing any avionics or panel work (other than pulling out wire that is no longer used from radios in the past), so if I put the inspection ports back on and the seats back in, I can still fly it. It will be a little louder than before though.

Is there anything in the logs that people may of screwed with the empennage? The black stuff looks like a "Drive by" with an airless sprayer and tar!

Cessna interiors are artwork. I have worked on many!

Ask Greg for tips on the black goo.... I didn't have any of that in my plane. I did however have glue all over the flap tunnel with foam stuck to it. It was a total pain in the ass. Paint stripper, a scrapper, and about 12 hours of your time is all it should take.

I had great luck with 3M General Adhesive Cleaner. You can also use Mineral Spirits (much less expensive, but way stinkier and not as effective.) That black stuff is a total pain... As Rob says... glue sucks more.

Good luck bro. Im sure you have already found out that it looks much easier in the web photos. Just keep on truckin. You will hit a wall pretty soon, (maybe lots of walls.) Just force yourself to motor thru. Try to do at least one job on the airplane EACH day as it is the only way to get to the other side.

Love seeing these birds getting fixed up and used for what they were designed for!
BTW Bigrenna, we need an update on how you're liking your 180.

Edit: nevermind Bigrenna, just saw you updated your thread.

Thanks Rob and Greg - I'll try the 3M adhesive remover on that black goop. Also, that is good advise to do at least one thing on the plane everyday, it's easy to get frustrated with the carpet glue and then leave it and work on something else. I need to force myself to clean one section of it everyday or it will never get finished. What kind of scraper did you guys use? The wire or nylon brushes are useless on this stuff, it just fills up the bristles and turns the brush into a ball of sticky nasty goop.

Does anyone have the instructions or drawings for the 180hp Avcon Conversion - SA806CE? We have the STC, but not the instructions. I want to move the battery up to the firewall (it's currently in the back where the extended baggage will go) with one of the new lightweight sealed batteries, but our IA wants to make sure it's not specifically called for in the engine STC to have the battery in the way back. I don't think it is, but I can't find the paperwork that says so.

amacbean wrote:Does anyone have the instructions or drawings for the 180hp Avcon Conversion - SA806CE? We have the STC, but not the instructions. I want to move the battery up to the firewall (it's currently in the back where the extended baggage will go) with one of the new lightweight sealed batteries, but our IA wants to make sure it's not specifically called for in the engine STC to have the battery in the way back. I don't think it is, but I can't find the paperwork that says so.

STC instructions usually are not public domain information and the STC holder issues the instructions under copyright laws. Have you check with owner of the STC?

I have, and the general consensus from all places is that the owners no longer answer their phone or reply to emails. Lame.

amacbean wrote:I have, and the general consensus from all places is that the owners no longer answer their phone or reply to emails. Lame.

That is bad. Plan "B" is needed for sure. Hope it works for you.

BTW I like your shows.

8GCBC wrote:BTW I like your shows.

Thanks!

I'll find the paperwork I need through the 170 Association probably, I was just hoping someone here had it.

amacbean wrote:

8GCBC wrote:BTW I like your shows.

Thanks!

I'll find the paperwork I need through the 170 Association probably, I was just hoping someone here had it.

Sorry to act like big brother. Just wanted to make sure you knew, no big deal.

Made some progress on the black, nasty tar-like stuff last night. Paint stripper seems to soften it up, but you have to scrape it off while it's pretty wet, otherwise it just sticks to everything.



Got a good start on the right side door, too.

Nice work Allen, brings back bad memories . Keep on trucking.

So..... No AOTF any time soon?