Hey guys. Have any of you guys done or seen a 206 with a utility interior similar to what Greg and Rob have done with their 170/180s?
Also, I've never seen a polished 206... Has anyone? I'd most likely got with silver painted on all undersides, polished on top. Am I crazy?
Reason I ask is that I think I just fell into ownership if a 206 project and am super excited for it! I'll definitely have a build thread going.

David

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Nice, congrats! Now you're going to have to make more kids.

I don't dig on polished birds, personally. I say paint it, all silver if that's the look you like. I have never seen a polished 206, but I'd wager that's because most are working birds and nobody's got time for that.

Zzz wrote:Nice, congrats! Now you're going to have to make more kids.

I don't dig on polished birds, personally. I say paint it, all silver if that's the look you like. I have never seen a polished 206, but I'd wager that's because most are working birds and nobody's got time for that.

Easy there... one more is going to he arriving in a month!

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Zane...Don't dig on polished birds? What, your eyes are busted, haha!!! [emoji3]

As a polished plane owner, lemme tell you, it is no more work than waxing a painted plane once a year, excluding showplane perfection polish. Stripping it, and getting it to the nice polished look, yeah that is a ton of work! People him and haw over how much work it is to keep one nice, IMO, thats b/c they haven't maintained one, or didn't know how to maintain one. If you operate regularly in salt air/water, then I digress. Not saying mine is nice, it's a workhorse, but after a 1 hour hose and wipe down, looks like it was polished for hours. I Polish sorta once a year, in patches.

Good luck and keep us posted, sounds like a fun project!

As far as utility interior, same as any other plane, elbow grease. Flyinbeekeeper has a utility interior in his U206.

Thanks Luke. I had a 150 that was polished and it was fairly easy to keep looking good. It's pretty dry here in Alberta, no saltwater here. And I figure if I paint the undersides, the hardest part doesn't need doing.
The plane will be coming home on a trailer with wings and tail off. Interior is already stripped as it was a jump plane. So a lot of the hard stuff is done already. And stripping the paint off the plane will be easier as I can do one piece at a time as I have time.
I'm super excited for the project. Came with a cargo pod as well. No engine, but all the fuel, exhaust, baffling, and stc for the bonaire 550 conversion. So I'm looking for a IO-550 core that I can rebuild as well...

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Skalywag wrote:Zane...Don't dig on polished birds? What, your eyes are busted, haha!!! [emoji3]

Oh gawd.... After I posted that I did think "I hope Luke and Greg don't read that." Haha.

Get a paint job, kid!

Zzz wrote:

Skalywag wrote:Zane...Don't dig on polished birds? What, your eyes are busted, haha!!! [emoji3]

Oh gawd.... After I posted that I did think "I hope Luke and Greg don't read that." Haha.

Get a paint job, kid!

whats the word? 'Busted' i believe may be appropriate!

I love looking at polished birds, but my theory is I wouldn't want a timber boat because all you do is look after it, would a polished plane be the same? that said I also love the look of an maintained bare metal work horse but I'm also that guy with so much cow shit on his plane its now structural so probably don't pay to much attention to my opinion .

"I love looking at polished birds, but my theory is I wouldn't want a timber boat because all you do is look after it, would a polished plane be the same? that said I also love the look of an maintained bare metal work horse but I'm also that guy with so much cow shit on his plane its now structural "

Well said!
Wish I had the patience to have a good looking plane.
I just try and fly mine as much as possible so you can't see how ugly they are parked.

I almost got run over by an unpolished bare dull aluminum 206 while flying a PA-12 into OSH if that helps.

I was chatting with the owner of a polished Ercoupe at OSH last year, and I commented that I would never have the time to keep a polished airplane looking good. He echoed the previous comments--a serious job getting it that way initially, but not difficult to maintain it afterwards. His biggest annoyance was people who put their hands on it to see if it showed fingerprints--it does. So of course there he was constantly wiping it off. But he said for everyday use, it just wasn't an issue.

Personally, I have a hard enough time keeping my polished aluminum spinner looking good!

Cary

Lots of work. Some of our U206 is utility interior. If you have the side panels with fabric on them they are very heavy, FYI.

behindpropellers wrote:Lots of work. Some of our U206 is utility interior. If you have the side panels with fabric on them they are very heavy, FYI.

Thanks for the comment. I have no interior panels for the plane and know carpeted ones are heavy. I also love the look of the utility interior. Glad to hear I won't be the first.

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I'm really excited for this project! When's the build thread start?

CamTom12 wrote:I'm really excited for this project! When's the build thread start?

I'll pick the plane up within the next 2 weeks. Probably won't really start working on it until winter though. I'm not in a huge rush to get it flying, but the thread will start soon to help gather ideas.

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Well for some of us it's winter now so better get right into it hey?

Something very important to note about a polished plane, it's a mirror, they are invisible. All my buddies gripe about how hard I am to see. Recently installed Aero LED strobes, suntail, n pulsing taxi light, helped a lot. I've had the HID landing light for quite awhile, great forward visibility, even more so with pulsing taxi light. Anyway, visibility is something to consider if you go that route.

Selkirk sells a very nice pre-cut closed cell foam insulation kit. Saves many hours of making patterns, cutting foam, etc.
Very happy with my utility interior. My TU-206 had an empty weight right at #2200.

Skalywag wrote:Something very important to note about a polished plane, it's a mirror, they are invisible. All my buddies gripe about how hard I am to see. Recently installed Aero LED strobes, suntail, n pulsing taxi light, helped a lot. I've had the HID landing light for quite awhile, great forward visibility, even more so with pulsing taxi light. Anyway, visibility is something to consider if you go that route.

This is very interesting Luke. Thanks. We had the exact opposite repose at flight school. All the instructors loved how far away they could see our polished 150 when we were doing air work because it glinted in the sun.
In either case the plane will be getting strobes and pulse lights. Probably in th new sportsman tips along with the LE.

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flynbeekeeper wrote:Selkirk sells a very nice pre-cut closed cell foam insulation kit. Saves many hours of making patterns, cutting foam, etc.
Very happy with my utility interior. My TU-206 had an empty weight right at #2200.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out.

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A1Skinner wrote:

Skalywag wrote:Something very important to note about a polished plane, it's a mirror, they are invisible. All my buddies gripe about how hard I am to see. ....

.... We had the exact opposite repose at flight school. All the instructors loved how far away they could see our polished 150 when we were doing air work because it glinted in the sun. ....

Maybe it's because I live in the gloomy PNW, but I have had trouble sometimes keeping my two buddies' polished C120 & Luscombe in sight.
They're there, then all of a sudden they're not. The polished exterior seems to really blend in to the background, esp the sky.
FWIW I think yellow is the best for hi viz.