Yes, I’m in the final homestretch!! Plan is that I go up this Thursday to do the test flights, engine break in, and then fly her home on that Saturday/Sunday.

Pic from a few weeks ago calibrating the CIES fuel senders and the fuel flow

We are all rooting for you! Please keep us posted. It's an amazing plane from the looks of this thread.

MW

Paul,


Curious if you got the airplane on scales after all of this restoration work. If it has been posted earlier I apologize. I have read this through this whole thread several times and don't remember seeing it. Congrats (fingers crossed) for getting her back in the air. It looks beautiful. I believe this is 3 years in the making.



Josh

Dog is my Copilot wrote:Paul,
Curious if you got the airplane on scales after all of this restoration work. If it has been posted earlier I apologize. I have read this through this whole thread several times and don't remember seeing it. Congrats (fingers crossed) for getting her back in the air. It looks beautiful. I believe this is 3 years in the making.
Josh

It goes on the scales on Monday. My goal was not to build the lightest, but it won’t be the heaviest either. It’s probably going to be in the middle of the range.

The long journey and this long thread which I’m sure you are all tired of is about to come to an end. I’ll be heading up next week to test fly and break in this beautiful beast. Jughead is going to fly with me to help me get back in the saddle. And then I will make the trip back to San Jose on Sat or Sun.

Wow is all I can say!!!! I wasn't sure about the paint scheme but even that looks terrific with the wheels and gear legs. Wishing you good luck for hiccup free first flight.

How about some before and after pictures, that would be fun to see. Great job! Thank you for taking us along on your resto journey.

Kurt

corefile wrote:

Nushi wrote:
What do you have going on under the PAR200B? That the autopilot? Looks fantastic! Love everything, especially that switch panel.

Yes that will be the Dynon Autopilot - once it’s been certified for the 180 - I have the wiring harness already installed - just the Dynon ap module and servos to install once it’s legal too.

And where are they with this? Any progress?

Beautiful aircraft.

skyward II wrote:

corefile wrote:

Nushi wrote:
What do you have going on under the PAR200B? That the autopilot? Looks fantastic! Love everything, especially that switch panel.

Yes that will be the Dynon Autopilot - once it’s been certified for the 180 - I have the wiring harness already installed - just the Dynon ap module and servos to install once it’s legal too.

And where are they with this? Any progress?

Beautiful aircraft.

That was back in the day when I had faith that Dynon was going to certify their AP for the 180. They are like 3 years late on the 182, which they had previously committed to years ago, and they are not even doing the early model 182 that have a stabilizer with a jackscrew, as all the 180/185’s have - that told me all I needed, I no longer believe they will ever certify their AP for the 180. I ended up going with the Trutrak Aerocruz as it worked with the rest of my Avionics. Also, I ended up with a different final panel layout as well based on some other decisions along the way.

Dude, a 3-year annual. I'm really hoping all this time, effort and expense yields your forever plane. Let us know how the first flights go.

Status?

I'll take, "I bet its still not flying" for $500 Alex.

corefile wrote:.... I’ll be heading up next week to test fly and break in this beautiful beast.....

So this was a month ago...Paul, did you get up there & fly it?

185er wrote:I'll take, "I bet its still not flying" for $500 Alex.

Lol I just can't believe three years. The labor hrs must be insane with all the start/stop work.

Beautiful looking airplane though! What did you put on the Acorn exhaust?

AND ITS DONE!






Some before and after:

Sure glad you got to fly it and she is beautiful!!!!! After 88 hrs on my Pponk, I just fixed a couple of oil leaks.

Paul,


Congrats. Looks perfect! it looks done but is it flying ? I keep checking flightaware to see it airborne. Just curious what it is like to fly as close as it gets to a brand new Skywagon.



Josh

Just waiting for weather and schedules to align

It looks great. If you could, I would love to see some finished interior photos.

How does it perform?

Paul, I'm curious when you modified it to the three-side-window configuration?
I don't recall that you mentioned doing that,
and some pics from early in this thread show it as it is now.