Lower Instrument Panel
After moving the plane and a good part of the shop to the hanger in Junction City / Fort Riley for the winter we started on the first big project – replacing the lower instrument panel placard and installing new prop and mixture controls. The panel placard was largely cosmetic while the new controls were…
Moving The Shop
With N6221P flyable we could move the shop to our hangar in Junction City Kansas near our Army duty station for easier access. Not having to drive 4 hours to the plane is a bonus. This meant moving tool boxes, jacks, and parts from the hangar in Missouri to the hangar in Kansas. Here is…
First Cross Country Flight
Last week we made our first cross country flight in 21P and moved the plane from Mexico MO to Junction City KS for the winter. Weather was outstanding with clear skies and stable air. The only downside of the trip was the 14KT headwind but still made better than 120 kts accross the ground. We…
Fun Project
Owner Produced Parts – Visor Upgrade After the interior work I didn’t want to put the orignial 1959 visors back in nor did I want to spend 400 bucks on Rosen Visors. So I decided to make my own and install them as an owner produced minor alteration. Please note I did not do drawings…
Flying N6221P
The First 10 Hours – My first flight in N6221P following reassembly was thankfully uneventful. I did a quick turn in the pattern with the gear down and a full stop landing. I shut down, gave things a quick look plus one more gear swing and after finding no issues headed back up. I flew…
The Operational Flight Check
Preparation & Planning According to FAR 91.407(b) an operational check flight is required any time an aircraft has undergone maintenance “in a manner that may have appreciably changed its flight characteristics or substantially affected its operation in flight.” While this is open for interpretation I approached my first flight in 21P as an operational check…
Panel and Interior Clean Up
Finishing the panel was tremendously rewarding. The “new to me” stack went in with out issue. I constructed a new avionics bus with klixon 7284 series breakers and some .0625 aluminum plate. The overhauled and freshly painted instruments look way to nice next to their friends that did not get sent for overhaul. We’ll redo…
Landing Gear Transmission Service
Service of the landing gear transmission should be done at annual and is covered in section 6-44 of the PA24 service manual. Lubrication and inspection is key. The dura transmission pictured above is lubricated with MIL·G·23827 (Aeroshell 7) and the dukes transmission requires the Dukes lubricant. (see here on instructions for making your own) Special…
Panel Upgrade Part 1
While we’re sorting out the propeller I decided to dive into the panel. As you can see in this original plane interior shot there’s plenty to repair and improve. I mostly do VFR and some “light” IFR flying and want a pretty basic panel to support that mission set. Cost has been a significant factor…
Propeller Update
We left off with a complete lack of propeller pitch control during our run up and taxi Memorial Day weekend. The short version of the below story is that we need new clamps for our prop or a different prop. This was a challenging problem to diagnose and here is how we did it. More…
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