Restoration one piece at a time.

SFC Hiatt · Post by **SFC Hiatt** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 18:04

I can't stop flying long enough to do a spinner to tail wheel restoration so, I'm doing a little at a time. The only problem with this way of restoring is you end up with a beautiful firewall forward that make the rest of the plane look like crap. Plane seems happy; it flew faster today

Post by **joea** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 19:31

Chris,

Looks great, so keep going backwards!

Joe

Post by **bwmatz** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:42

Did you build the cowling yourself or buy it? I need to do that to my Chief...

SFC Hiatt · Post by **SFC Hiatt** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:24

I started out just wanting to clean up the top cowl that had two rough looking repairs and many dents. Wag-Aero sells the top cowl piece (without fastners) for $322. That's about $300 over my budget so I went to one of my mentor - Ed Jones (Ponca City) and asked him about making the top cowl. He is in the process of building a Tri-Champ and has built several other airplanes, he said it would be easy to make the top cowl. Another mentor - Merle Helt (Ponca City) had a good top cowl for a Chief project he is going to restore, so we used it as a template.

Once made and test fit, I took everything firewall forward to another friend who was a Cessna factory painter.

Post by **joea** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:35

Chris,

Sure does look nice!

Good work there. Now dammit, get to work on the firewall aft!

Joe

SFC Hiatt · Post by **SFC Hiatt** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:44

I have spend the past 22 years taking orders.......request permission to postpone the rebuild until the snow comes back SIR!.

Unless of course, you can send one of your extra airplance to Oklahoma that I can fly why the Chief gets rebuilt.

Post by **joea** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:10

Chris,

Fall out and enjoy Easter!

I wish I had a extra airplane I could loan out while one of us dives in a restoration. There are two people on this forum who are doing it right.

Jody Wittmeyer now has a Chief and Champ. The Chief is about to come out after a total restoration and he flies the Champ in the interim.

Brian Safran is in the lead as he has a Sedan, Chief and a Champ. Man after my heart! I just wish that my bank account and hangar would accomodate!

Pls take more photos of your progress when you have time. If the rest of the work is as nice as the cowl, then you will have a very nice looking airplane!

Hope you can make it to Middletown. As someone who as well wore a US Army uniform a long time ago, the first round is on me! Thanks for your service.

Joe

SFC Hiatt · Post by **SFC Hiatt** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:20

I can't make Middletown this year because of Military Duty. I have to go Ft. Benning 30 May -14 June. I do plan to make the journey from Ponca City to Brodhead and Oshkosh with two Baby Aces, PA-11 and hopefully another Aeronca.

I have never been to Oshkosh, I heard it was a pretty big fly-in

I have Middleton on my 2009 "tenative" calender. Maybe I'll even have more restored by then.

Post by **joea** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 15:12

Chris,

Hope to see you in 2010. Middletown is held every two years, so we are not meeting next year.

You will enjoy Oshkosh!

Joe

National Aeronca Association Bulletin Board

Restoration one piece at a time.

Restoration one piece at a time.

cowling

Made with a little help from my friends

Was that an order??

Duty Calls