Let's face it, a Stinson is no speedster fairings or not. And I've been thinking a lot recently about some of the pros of doing away with some fairings. Why? here are some of my thoughts

1) Some of the stuff hidden by them is pretty important and rarely gets looked at besides at annual i.e. attach points/ bolts etc.
2) Getting rid of them would lose a pound or 2 (admittedly few of us are REALLY gonna need that lb but its a pro anyway)
3) less things to rattle. Even with a fair bit of attention paid to making them snug, some of my fairings always seem to be shimmying around out there
4) and of course, living in the bush, you fit in a little better with the REAL utilitarian crowd -no interiors and the like.

This beautiful bird is not mine but serves as inspiration. Don't know the owner but if you're on here, Bravo! NICE STINSON



I have no illusions that running without fairings will make my bird better or more capable practically speaking but I really do like the ability to regularly inspect stuff without pulling fairings and reduce the number of things that can vibrate.

For those with experience in the matter, would this be a logbook entry type of thing? The only STC that I'm aware of for removing stuff from a Stinson is flying with one door removed.

I welcome your thoughts, what are the cons of such things? any other pros?

SD

I fly two stinsons for work with all the fairings removed and I think they look stupid like that. I'd keep them on unless they are cracking or something.

I'd like to ditch the ones on my wing struts, but unfortunately the last paint job she got didn't bother with under them. Sad, since they're really falling to pieces but the 60+ year old tan paint won't match very well with the 30 year old silver...

Heck, it’s your airplane….if the person signing off the inspections is good with it, go for it.

MTV

Its YOUR toy, play with it any way YOU wish within the rules.

Got a good bit of 108 time, I don’t see why you would remove them.

Guess it kinda makes it look less Art Deco and more like a wannabe supercub, but seems like you’re going to get more dirt and water in those places and those planes have been flying clever and those fairings are seldom removed

Asa- it’s definitely not for everyone and I agree that many that I’ve seen with bare legs look awkward

Trevair- that’s a bummer that they didn’t even take the fairings off to paint it

MTV & Mapleflt - I’d like to be able to think like that but I don’t yet have the depth of GA mech/ppwk experience necessary to know just where that line is. What sort of stuff you can “just do", and what exactly I can comfortably do "within the rules"

NineThreeKilo- it's a good point that there's more opportunity for crap ingress and the fact that they HAVE been flying for 70+ years in this configuration gives points to leaving them on (ain't broke don't fix it). It also though makes me want to take em off to watch for things since they are so long in the tooth.

I definitely appreciate the input. I'll get in touch w/ my IA but just wanted to pull from the wealth of knowledge/experience here first.

SD