bigrenna wrote:Good work. I love that we are all cranking on these Skywagons at the same time. I got a bunch of media blasting done today. Hopefully we can all meet this summer.

Keep the photos coming!

Johnson Creek!! I'd like to see these skywagons too!

Looking good!! Can't wait to get some tips on installing a headliner.

Selkirk Wool Headliner

Lunch time. Headliner is in the bows. Headed back to the hangar to finish installing the headliner. Two hours to this point.



Step 1 - make sure you have the correct headliner. Selkirk shipped me a two window headliner, my bird has three windows. Count your bows and the number of pockets across the headliner and be sure the numbers match. In my case there are seven bows, so I needed a headliner with seven pockets. I'll give a better description of the actual install in my next post. Looking very cool. And the Selkirk wool headliner is excellent quality.

Looking good Phil! Can't wait to get mine back. Hopefully have her in a few weeks. Like to run up your way soon. I like that co guardian! Really like that DA feature. Didn't know they did that.

I too am a big believer in the CO Guardian. After nearly getting snuffed in a C-206 enroute from Bettles to Fairbanks, I installed one in my airplane, and have never regretted that decision, though it's never had to alert. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, and frankly, I'm amazed that every airplane doesn't have one.

And, ditto on the Airtex wool headliner. Put the second one in my airplane after 16 or 18 years on the first, and top quality.

MTV

Jason, looking forward to getting together. And everyone else, count me in on a summer meet up, will be great to see all our project birds - and any others!

Okay, let me back up just a bit and talk about the install of the headliner (aka Step 2).

First is getting the old one out. Patience is the word here, little screw drivers, razors, and tiny needle nose helped me. Two words of caution:

1. Watch the bow ends carefully, they are spring loaded and if your attention is on one side of the aircraft the other side may be scribing not-so pretty patterns on the inside your windows (experienced that, fortunately it was on a back window and I think I can buff it out). Ditto when putting the bows back in. A second person is a blessing when handling these things.

Mark each bow so you know where they came from as they are different lengths. I used short pieces of blue painters tape, one for the first bow at the front, two for the second, etc.

2. Try your best not to damage any of the teeth that hold the headliner in. Enough will already be broken, no need to destroy any more.

Once the old headliner is out look at each and every tooth and align as necessary - VERY CAREFULLY so as not to snap them off. I used a very tiny pair of needle nose pliers. Take your time.

Also measure and mark the center (forward facing) of the roof supports the bows were attached to. This will be used to center the headliner.

Lay the new headliner out on a table, bow pockets up. You'll want to mark the center of each bow pocket, JUST THE BOW POCKET NOT THE HEADLINER MATERIAL ITSELF. Mark the side facing the front of the airplane. You'll align this with the centerline you marked on the roof supports. You mark the side facing towards the front of the airplane because you'll install the headliner from the back of the plane to the front.



On my plane the back bow was attached to the ceiling via little loop looking wires, forward of that each bow was held as you see in this picture.



As we moved forward with each bow we worked to keep the seams as straight as possible. Once we had all the bows in place we moved to the back of the plane again, adjusted seams as required, and used a blunted and rounded (on the ends) putty knife to push the headliner up into the teeth. We went from one side to the other, one section (between seams) at a time.

Once the headliner was in it was time to paint and install back vents and shoulder harness plates.



Back at it in the morning.

Phil,

Excellent post! Keep em coming.

Been steadily working on the bird, thought I'd share a few photos.

Lemo connector
On my Aoudad hunting trip the batteries in my Zulu headset began to wear down causing my bluetooth music to fade in and out. I had plenty of spare AA batteries but they were out of reach in the extended baggage area. Once back home I decided to install some Lemo connectors in the panel and purchase some Zulus with Lemo plugs. The Lemo is a single com plug that also includes power for the headset, no more AAs needed. Here is a photo of the new headset plugged in. The traditional headset connectors still exist and still work. The new panels will have these three plugs stacked vertically all the way to the left and right of the panels. I've now flown about 5 hours with the Zulu/Lemo combination and am very pleased.

Precise-Flow vents

I've replaced the soup can vents with Precise-Flow vents and again am extremely pleased with the outcome. When in hand they don't look like they will install without taking out the V-brace, but they will. Tons better then the soup cans.

Accessory plugs
I've always got my iPhone with me, and use Foreflight on a mini-iPad, and when flying high I fire up a Stratus ADS-B for weather and an inReach to stay connected with the office just in case I'm needed NOW. The single accessory socket (cigarette lighter) in the panel isn't enough to power all four. Plus I'm tired of having power cords draped across the panel and yokes.

Since I'm putting in a new panel I figured I just put in two accessory sockets, one on each side. That would solve my power issue but not the draping cord problem. Then I thought of this:





Each socket is holding a twin 2.1 amp usb adapter, so now I can power all four of my devices when needed, or my front seat passenger can plug in their iPhone. I wish I'd thought of this before putting in the headliner, I could have added two of these next to the back seats. But then again, just like you don't want to make visitors to your home too comfortable (they'll never leave), perhaps I shouldn't make the back seat passengers too comfy either.

Great idea on the accessory socket. The interior looks great!

My 8.50x6's have a couple of bald spots. Thought through my mission, which puts me on paved runways occasionally.

Also want to keep as much speed as I can, but gain a little more improvement off airport.

Decided 26" Goodyears would be a great compromise, their harder rubber compound should wear well on pavement.



Not quite a fair comparison since their is no weight on the 26's. So here is a shot of the two with the 26's on the plane.



And here is how she looks. I'm pleased, not too ostentatious. Better for the mission and better for ramp appeal.

Looks good!

It is looking really nice! We are running neck in neck on the project. I have to put my headliner in this weekend after I finish sticking on all the soundproofing. I just got the panel back from the powder coater's and I rather like the color. I am going to use some labels and then decide what to have and where to put silkscreening.

I also shed the last of the Cessna non-pull circuit breakers. What a monumental pain. It would seem that the little washers like to fall off just as you stick the tiny screw through the connector. Amazingly enough they seem to hit you right on the eyeball 60% of the time. Then bounce off to the localized black hole of the center console and vanish. After I finished, many split washers later, a suggestion was made to cover the console with a towel.

Now for the blasted headliner and the last bits of plastic to get fitted and I'm almost done. I did like flying it around in the commando mode. I had to use it a bunch to get the Caravan dispatched from Gallup to Kodiak. In a fit of weakness I ordered up a set of the Lakevue Aronautics seats. I'll fit them when I have a free moment, sometime after al the other stuff. I was convinced by the Doc in the neighboring hanger, has them in his really, really nice '56 182 (with an IO-550 I might add). They look nice, are sturdy and weigh next to nothing, thanks to their reliance on using hummingbird usiks as the primary structure.

Dogpilot, sharp, clean looking panel. I'm most likely going with some king of gray on my panel. We are still in the design phase making sure everything will fit and clear. Mine will look more like a steam locomotive then yours.

Final Selkirk should go in today or tomorrow. Then some final trimming and the wind lacing install.

That will leave the new panel project, and I'm going to fly her down to San Antonio and have AeroComfort (the folks that did the upholstery) measure and make another half dozen or so pockets that I'll mount on the Selkirk panels throughout the plane.

Speaking of upholstery, one thing I might have done differently is not putting the arm rests back on the door panels. So far they are more of an annoyance then functional. Would recommend others going through this process try the panels without arm rests first, they can always be installed later.

Phil,

I had some pockets made up for the front kick panels that snap in. I have found some off the shelf organizers from West Marine and Case Logic that work well and cost only a few bucks. I'll post some pics later.

I do agree with you about arm rests. I have patrol doors and some folks did fit them, but the location would be beyond useless. The 185 is narrow, so protuberances from the side are just annoying. I have found that the bubble windows are perfect not for just the view, but acting as an actual arm rest. They give a bit more shoulder room as well.

One item I saw on a 185 in Oklahoma was a mod to the baggage door. The fellow used a hatch hold open spring to make the door stay put in the open position. It is $10 from West marine and looks and works better that the stupid poodle chain. I'll get a pic of it as well today.

I did go kind of over the top on the panel, but it was more of a; pay it in taxes or use the write it all off this year as a deduction. So in a effort to support US manufacturers I opted to take the deduction. I am still working out how I want to mount the 796 on the right hand, now blank, panel.

Looking forward to the pics, snap in pockets are my intention as well. Dont have a chain or anything on my cargo door.

26" tires test flight
Took her flying to "test" the 26's, so thought I'd report on that. There is nothing scientific about this report. Flying 23 squared, 2,500 feet, 75 degrees, indicated airspeed varied between 145 and 150mph (was bumpy today, and windy 15 to 30). This is what I got with my 8.50x6 tires. Happy about that. Had just a little bit of wheel/gear shake once, might have been slightly uncoordinated (the plane, not me, I'm always uncoordinated - the ball gave up a long time ago trying to center on me).

But what a big difference the 26's make landing and on the ground. Landing feels like a big pillow (can't imagine what 29's and 31's would feel like). Rolling along the turf over at FLF, which in this part of Texas means cracks and holes and clump grass, was effortless and required minimal power. With the 8.50's over at FLF I could definitely feel resistance and a fair amount of power is needed to get rolling and stay rolling. I'm speaking of back-taxiing here. I have 18psi in the 26's and 22psi in the 8.50's. So far I'm very pleased with the 26's (but only two turf landings).

MaxPulse update
Works great, but it will kill regular Landing/Taxi lamps in no time. Mine are both dead in just a couple of hours. So LEDs or HIDs? What do you guys think?

Barnstormer wrote:Works great, but it will kill regular Landing/Taxi lamps in no time. Mine are both dead in just a couple of hours. So LEDs or HIDs? What do you guys think?

Looking good!

RE: lights... Go with Aeroleds. They have a solid state "pulse" right in them. No expensive MaxPulse needed.

The rear seat organizer is from Case Logic, cost me about $12 with shipping. The side pocket is from Oneballhunglow manufacturing, I got on eBay for $4. They both strap around the headrests and tie to the lower seat yoke. The grey side pockets I had my interior guy make up. He did them for free, took him all of 20 minutes to make. I have yet to install the snaps, as my snap kit was missing the crucial tool, so a new one has just arrived. Use screw in snaps on the panels. The blue ones are from West Marine, they hold two drinks, and have a pocket behind them as well. They have suction cups installed and they can be removed and snaps put in their place, or screwed directly to the panel.They cost like $15 each.

I went for the Teledyne Alphabeam LEDs in the Cowl. They seem much brighter than the Prometheus as they are a different color. Additionally, the pattern is better, they both overlap in taxi and landing. I have RMD wingtips with just good old incandesiants installed. Since there is not the vibration of the engine there, they should last a while. I use them for really dark places and high density traffic. Frankly the lights didn't seem to make any difference the last two times I nearly got center punched. I think the other side was not looking out of the cockpit. (Caravan in the middle of nowhere in Oregon, going around a thunderstorm and a Malibu over Lakeland VOR Florida, both where at the worng altitude for the direction of travel).



Sorry, the website will not let me rotate the image, apparently I don't have permission to do that to my own images!