Tear Down Begins

Tore apart my donor aileron today.  What a gold mine of parts!  I also tore apart the left flap.  Only the bent areas I should say.  I cut a piece of the donor aileron's spar in hopes to do a spar splice, but it didn't work out.  Tomorrow I'll bend up a spar doubler and splice in a new section of spar for the additional four inches of flap required for the flap to be extended inboard when I get my new fuselage.  Progress made me feel good about the project.  Its so far from being done again, but still brought a smile to my face.  I wish it were someone else's cub I was fixing, but I believe God is teaching me a few lessons through this.  I think the biggest lesson is patience.  The next lesson is how lucky and privileged I am to be able to fly.  Tomorrow will be another good day, hopefully completing both flaps so I can move onto an aileron or even the floor boards.

Here's the donor aileron being torn down.

Left hand flap damage.  Wasn't hit too bad, but I'm removing the damaged parts and extending it inboard four inches.

This is what 29A might look like the next time around.  So far, everyone likes this out of the many concepts drawn.  Thanks Ian for another great concept... now if he'll just help with all the taping and painting!

A Day at the Lake

Spent the day at the lake today.  Went through a bunch of hangars looking at other people's wrecked parts and what I could use to help put the cub together.  Felt like a scavenger, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.  Stumbled into some aileron parts and a possible lead on some used exhaust.  Felt good to be out on my legs today.  A little swollen tonight, but nothing a beer can't cure!

I hope to wake up early tomorrow and start working on tearing apart my donor aileron and replacing bent/broken parts on my flaps.  Also, time permitting, hope to start building a map pocket or floor boards.  I found that I had some spare aluminum from the last rebuild still hiding at the lake.  I'll post pictures of my progress tomorrow evening.  Hope to have two flaps ready for cover!

Below is one of the last pictures I took of 29A in one piece.  I sure miss her.

New light and new beginnings

As many of you know I had an accident on May 6, 2011.  It has changed the way I look at life every day.  I was very fortunate to get out as well as I did.  I'll post pictures at a later date of how close I really got.  As I was told as a young child, "You never realize how lucky you have it, until it's all gone," I now realize how much I really miss my cub.

I'm building a blog so the world can watch me rebuild her, yet again.  I'm looking for comments and hints as I go.  Also looking for motivation... its tough to do after I just got done rebuilding her less than half a year ago.  I plan on updating this blog every day I work on the plane.  For now, "Lady Alpha" is sitting in pieces in my shed, and my dad's garage.  He's going to be thrilled to see it back in his garage yet again.  I've tore her old skin off the damaged ailerons and flaps and started using a donor aileron a new friend donated to me to rebuild both flaps and an aileron.

Another thing I learned as a young child, "Something good always comes from something bad."  I think this crash will make me a better pilot once I'm able to get back "in the saddle."  My ankles are healing quite nicely, and hip is giving me very little feedback these days.  I'm hoping with physical therapy and spending time out at Lake Hood when I can, to be back flying by the middle of June.  I also have met a few new friends out of this crash.

While Tommy, my brother, was down dismantling the cub, two guys landed on the beach and offered to help him.  They stayed with Tommy for 3 days and helped fly pieces out and dismantle the cub and eventually flew him out.  I owe these guys greatly and they have been very fun to talk with.  Jerry, one of the fellows, also owns a few cubs and a Cessna 185.  He dropped off some spare parts from his collection to help me with my rebuild process.  I owe him big time.  I hope to help him this fall with some hunting trips he has planned.  Jerry's brother Trace was also there to help with my wreck on the beach.  He's new to Alaska and seems to enjoy all these adventures his brother has been bringing him on.

Back to the main purpose of this blog, the cub.  I've dug through the shed this weekend to figure out what I have and what I'll need.  Tommy did a good job tearing Lady Alpha apart, don't let him know this though, I don't want it going to his head.  He saved me quite a bit of money on all the little parts and what not.  I originally figured I'd be spending in neighborhood of $8000 to put the wings back together, but now with an accurate list of parts I have, I'm in the neighborhood $5500, minus a few mods I want to do to improve her the second go around.  My goal is to have the wings and the control surfaces together minus their finishing coat of paint by January 2012.  I think this is a fairly achievable goal with work and all.  I'll post pictures tomorrow of what I'm dealing with.