Most Recent Posts
Well - the weather was great yesterday (5/4) although a bit of a bumpy ride. Craig Lesinski (Mansfield based) gave me a ride up in his Zlin:
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/mansfield_airport_local_pictures/picture360.aspx
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/mansfield_airport_local_pictures/picture358.aspx...
Got the call today that the plane could be picked up this coming weekend. We will watch weather and make the decision on which day is best. The plane could have been completed a few weeks ago but with Sun-n-Fun we decided to wait and get the plane at...
Well the painting is done - the interior has been painted and the covers are starting to come off. Here are some great shots:
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture330.aspx
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture331.aspx...
I got some more pictures today. The airplane is completely painted white and they are laying out the masking for the paint scheme. The masking is computer generated to get the curves perfect. I picked a Cessna 2006 172SP paint scheme to use on our Hawk....
Got some more pictures to list today. Here is a shot of the fuselage all ready to prime:
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture285.aspx
They should be priming it this week.
Here are some pictures of the...
I just received some more pictures after the second full week.
The fuselage is down to bare metal and almost ready for etching and alodyne. They are now working on all the control surfaces and the cowling:
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture281.aspx...
I got some pictures today from the paint shop. They have removed all the control surfaces and started the paint stripping process. A messy job to get the airplane back down to bare metal.
Here are a few shots taken 2-19-2007:
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture274.aspx...
We dropped off the Cessna today in Northern Vermont, Franklin County (KFSO):
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture271.aspx
The paint shop is Prestige Aircraft:
http://www.paintaircraft.com/
They told...
We have been pushing the last few weeks to get the airplane flyable before we needed to be at paint. The paint date is 2-15 and we wanted a few hours of flying before we headed off to northern Vermont.
The radios were built up on the bench and installed...
Well the new year is here, we are back to work at our real jobs and progress on the 172 has slowed down again. Last weekend we were up in Manchester NH for the kickoff of the FIRST 2007 event. and did not get too much done on the Cessna. For those of...
Well I have to say what a blast it has been working this past week on the Cessna with Jerry. We got a lot of the heavy work completed and should have her flying in the next few weeks. The paint is now scheduled for February 15th so we will have some time...
The new panel finally came out of the machine shop last Friday and we installed it with all the instruments this weekend ----
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture242.aspx
Because we shoved the DG and AI...
Well, it has been a few weeks. The rebuilt flight instruments (Alt, VS and Turn Coordinator) took forever from the instrument shop. I did not want to release the new instrument panel until we got these and confirmed that we had the right measurements....
We did not get a lot of work done again this weekend because we were still working on painting at the airport. I can see the end of that tunnel so hopefully we will start making real progress on the Cessna soon.
We did complete the final (for the 5th...
With all the electrics torn down to basics, getting the main circuit panel installed and working was a big milestone.
Here is the old panel. Note the breakers and rocker switches which were common on all the Cessna models until they came out with...
The original marker beacon and transponder antennas were removed and replaced with nice new antennas. The transponder is a King antenna and the Marker is a Comant antenna.
Here is a shot of them -
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture177.aspx...
After seeing the bubble windows on Jim Horan's Cessna 185 I decided I needed them and it was short money to add to the budget.
I ordered a pair of 6" bubble windows and Jerry installed them. The windows were fairly cheap ($150 each) but it is a real...
I have replaced the Vacuum pump. I have all new hoses and filters to install as well.
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture180.aspx
I have ordered a backup vacuum system. It is fairly short money to have...
It has been a few weeks and we have been busy painting the condo office / pilot lounge. Not a lot has happened on the Cessna but hopefully that will soon change.
I have a date of 1/15/2007 scheduled for me at the paint shop and we need time do do a...
We have been working on the floor of my hangar. I am a little funny about that so we spared no brain cells putting down the best floor. Much thanks to Sue, Jerry and Matt who spent many hours breathing fumes to make it happen.
The floor is 1 coat of...
One of the things we will do to this aircraft is replace the old antenna cable (not allowed on new production anymore) with the new approved RG400 cable. All the antennas with the exception of the Nav antenna on the tail will also be replaced with new...
Today Jerry and I were working on what needed to be done with the top of the instrument panel and frame to accept the custom panel. Cessna used a solid aluminium panel covering the instruments behind the glare shield. It was hard...
Well today I pulled the original instrument panel completely apart. Anythign that could be ripped out - was.....
Here is a shot of the original panel in N19662 -
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture151.aspx...
As you may know the seat rails on most Cessna aircraft have an AD, 87-20-03 that requires inspection of the rails and seats at every hundred hour or annual inspection. You may also know that this is because these original rails were prone to...
With the airplane safe in the hangar we started to pull it apart. Nobody is being shy here as the goal is to pull it down apart far enough that we can see everything and fix it before it goes back together. When complete we want this airplane to be clean...