All over the Board

I've been busy the past few weeks.  Wish I could say its been on the cub project, but I'd be lying then.  After I was done with my shift at Era Alaska on July 15th,  I was asked to ferry a cub from Anchorage to Medford, Oregon.  Hard to say no.

It was a fun and safe journey through some of the best country in the World.  Also, it was redemption.  I was pretty nervous about the trip, as I very well should of been.  The last real long cross country trip I took was when I wrecked my cub.  I was accompanied with a good childhood friend, Brent Shibe.  We both took turns flying at a grueling pace of 75mph.  The good part about this cub, it had 8 hours of fuel on board.  this made it nice, because we didn't have to make nearly as many fuel stops.  The only thing that limited the amount of time we spent int he plane was our bladders.  We made it in pretty good time to Medford, 27 hours.

Along the way on our trip, I got to see my "Alaskan" grandparents in Wenatchee, Wa.  It was so good to see Howard and Janet Pelton.  Also made me feel proud to fly into Wenatchee to see them.  As I guessed, Howard was at the airport to watch us land, and as usual, I bounced on landing.  Its pretty tough landing a cub on pavement with a set of worn out bush wheels.

All in all, it was an excellent trip with awesome weather.  Makes me wish my cub was further along than it is currently.  I'll post some pictures later on.

Letting the Imagination run Wild

Today, I've been doing a lot of research on tools I'd like to buy to help with my rebuild.  Also been trying to find the cheapest place to buy the best tools.  I'm going to end up getting a bead roller with an 18" throat.  This tool will help tremendously with my interior pieces and my cargo doors.  I want to add some strength in the thinner kydex I plan on using for my interior, so the beaded roller will add a bead to the panels for rigidity and a bit more style.  I know the interior is a ways out yet, but I want to order the beaded roller and practice before I order my interior kydex and mess a $150 sheet up.

I've also been looking at some forums online, about building interior panels out of kydex for aircraft.  I've come up with some pretty cool ideas to try that will hide the pulleys for my flap cables and possibly my aileron and elevator cables.  Anything to add a bit more style in the plane, and minimal weight is worth a shot to me.  I'll be cutting some patterns out of wood and then heat treating the kydex.  I plan on taking a ton of pictures of this so I can share how to do this type of stuff with people.  Also, so I can possibly pick up a bit of side work once I have my project completed.

I have Monday and Tuesday off.  I plan on being at the sandblasters first thing tomorrow morning to finish up my fuselage and a bit of work he might have set aside for me to do.  I hope to be at the welders by July 15th, and start with the modifications and the fixes my new fuselage requires.  Every time I think about this, I get excited.  I hope the fuselage comes out as pretty as I envision it.  If so, 29A is going to be one sexy plane.

My fuselage in the sandblasting booth. 

After the welders, I'm going to bring the fuselage to Lake Hood to start with the interior, panel, boot cowl and cheeks, cargo doors, and windows.  Pretty much whatever I can do before I bring the fuselage back to the powder coaters.

Busy Times

One word sums up my life right now... busy.  I'm flying the Beech 1900 out of Anchorage for 15 days this month.  I thought it might be a bit more relaxing than flying out of Barrow, but it is polar opposite.  I'm averaging about 7 hours a day of flying lately.  I'm not complaining, but wow... 50 hours in a few days.  If this keeps up, the cub will be financially covered.  I'm enjoying the flying.  Its challenging and I'm getting to see most of Alaska from a safe altitude.  My instrument skills are being sculpted to perfection.  I also enjoy flying with my Captain.  He's teaching me a lot about flying, and about life.

I had a semi-slow day Tuesday, flew 4.7 hours and was done by about noon, so I hoped over to the sandblasters and worked on my fuselage for awhile.  I ended up getting about 70% of the fuselage blasted.  I hope to finish the rest up tomorrow.  While blasting I've found some tubing that will need to be replaced.  For the price I paid, I expected this.  But there is not as much tubing as I thought that needs to be replaced.

I'm going to replace both longerons from the tail post forward for about 8 feet.  They both aren't bad, but I figure while I've got it this far apart, it needs the attention.  Also, I have a cross member on the belly near the float fittings that shows signs of some pretty good corrosion,  This will also get replaced.  I've got some fabric formers that are in pretty rough shape, and I figure I'm going to replace these as well.  All the gingerbread about the roof is going to be replaced with new, just because with the L-21 glass conversion it will be more exposed and I want it to look better.  Also replacing most of the gingerbread for the boot cowl.  Around the door I'm going to try and fill in most the holes people have drilled in the past to secure the interior.  Of course, the welder has the final say in all these items I'd like to redo.

My posts will probably be spaced a bit farther apart since I'm back working, but I'll try to update every time I work on the plane.  Also have a bunch of pictures I'll post of the blasting and of flying in western Alaska.

A Wake Up Call

I got woke up this morning by the a phone call from my friend at the powder coater.  He told me that I could come in and sandblast my fuselage myself if I wanted to save some money.  I jumped out of bed and headed right over.  He had me finish up some of his projects before we rolled my fuselage in.  I now have a whole new respect for the guys at the powder coating shop... this is tedious work.  It takes forever to just clean a section and it is extremely messy.

I got most of the tail sandblasted, and some of the front done.  I wanted to blast the tail to see exactly how much I would need to repair in a few weeks.  The left longeron has a few holes in about the last 6 feet of tubing.  The great part is, there is a tubing splice at about the 7 foot mark, so I'll just cut this tube out on both sides and have them replaced.  Better to do both now, rather than one now, and another one in about 5 years when the plane is recovered.  I knew when I got the deal I got on the fuselage, that there would be some repairs required.  So far, so good though.

I plan on going in tomorrow morning early and finishing up blasting the fuselage.  Then I plan on taking it to Lake Hood where I'll build some floorboards and start with some of the interior.  I have a date at the welder's of July 15, and I don't want to waste any time.

Fuselage Time

Today I picked up my "new" fuselage.  Was super excited to get a huge piece of the cub.  It's used, but in pretty good condition.  I brought it home and removed the remaining pieces.  I dropped it off this afternoon at the sand blasting shop to get blasted so I can inspect it further and prepare it for modifications I''d like to do.  I called around to different shops today about modifying the fuselage the way I'd like it.  Most shops would not let me assist in helping, but Dan's Aircraft was very reasonable and said that they'd let me assist the welder.  This will cut the cost down substantially and also allow me to keep tabs on the progress.  I plan on bringing it by about the 15th of July.

I'm planning on rebuilding the fuselage first now.  Once the fuselage is done at the sand blasters, I'll have all my mods installed.  Then I plan on starting with the interior.  I'm going by Plaschem tomorrow to discuss with a fellow the use of carbon fiber with my rebuild.  One the phone last week he told me he has floor boards, rear seat and storage bin under the seat, and a lower extended baggage that just drops right in the fuselage.  With these mods he said I'd save around 20lbs on the average rebuild.  I like hearing this.  We will see tomorrow.

My "newish" fuselage.  Lots of new adventures planned with this thing!

The 180lb/3rd Seat Mod.  Being previously installed, this saved me lots of money.

The X Brace over the roof.  Another mod previously installed that might save my life again, and also saved me tons of money.

This is the only area that will require a bit of attention.  The left hand longeron has a slight bend in it and I want to change the X Brace back here.  Rather than being boxed in, if we X the tail, it seems to withstand the beating the tails get on these birds.

I flew again on Monday with Era Alaska.  It was a heck of a day... 9.5 hours behind the yoke of the 1900.  This is good, because we all know I could use the money for my rebuild project.  I got to visit Barrow on one of our legs.  It was good to see all my friends up there, and believe it or not, I missed that place!  Sure feels good to be based in Anchorage for awhile though.  The trip from Barrow back to Anchorage in the 1900 was 3 hours long!

Time's Flying

As stated in the title of this post... time's been flying.  It's been 6 weeks since the accident, and I can't tell you how much my life has changed.  Some for worse, but mostly for the better.  Still stiff some mornings, but for the most part I'm thankful I get a second chance at life.  God has been good to me.  He has let me go back to work, he's let me continue to fly, and most of all he's introduced me new friends.

I went back to work for Era Alaska yesterday.  I got lucky, I was called mid week last week and asked if I'd like to work out of Anchorage.  You don't have to twist my arm... no commute to work, and I get to sleep in my own bed every night.  I will miss working out of Barrow, and hope to get to work up there again, but right now with physical therapy and still working with the FAA, it's nice to be close.  It felt so good to hop in the Beech 1900 and blast out of Anchorage.  The 1900 I'll be flying out of Anchorage is strictly freight; no passengers.  We went to Aniak, then onto St. Mary's with a very full plane load of supplies for the villages and outlaying villages.  I got the leg home, and was impressed with myself... I picked right up where I left off with call outs and procedures, even greased the landing back here in Anchorage.  I'm looking forward to flying the Beech more this week.

I made a big purchase on Friday... bought a "new to me" fuselage.  Looks like the direction of my project will shift a bit, but all that truly matters is we are making headway.  So far, it seems like it'll be a worthwhile fuselage.  Has quite a few mods I wanted to do, but of course, I want to do a few more.  I plan on picking it up Tuesday, and bringing it to a place to get it sandblasted so I can do a good inspection and figure out if we need to do some repairs.  Once its out of the sandblasters, I'll find someone to weld the mods I'd like then I'll bring it back to Lake Hood and start building some floor boards, interior pieces, etc.  After I get all that done it'll go off to the powder coater for a final finish.

I made a new panel for 29A.  I made it out of lexan, so I can install the gauges and see if they'll rub against the fuselage or anything else.  Super excited to cut this all out and see how it looks.  It is the same size as my old panel, but I changed a few things up.

I ended up getting a call from a friend tonight wondering if I could go help another friend.  I got to borrow a cub and fly out about 15 minutes from town and replace a piece of exhaust on a cub with a piece of mine. The fellow who owned the cub was super impressed how quickly I got out there and how quickly we changed the part.  He wondered how he could repay me, and told him its all about karma.  I've had many different people help me over my career, and when given the chance to help I need to as well.  I also need to build up that good karma bank, as I'm sure I'll need help again some day.

On my way across the inlet for tonight's rescue mission.

Making Noise

The past few days I've been extremely busy.  I finished up on the prop strike AD on the motor for 29A.  Seems to check out just fine.  VERY exciting news, as it only cost me about $20 for the parts.  The engine is now put back together in the hangar and I'm working on rebuilding the baffling.  Its going to fit a lot better the second time, as I have an infinite amount of time to fix it.  My goal is to have the engine together for hunting season, that way if a friend needs to borrow the engine to keep up with their schedule, it will be ready and waiting.  I have an engine mount that I'm going to dig out of the shed and install after I get the baffling figured out.  Going to have to start putting some money at her now.  I need to buy an oil cooler, valve cover (which I'm currently bidding on on eBay), mag harnesses, and an air box.  About close to $1000 worth of goodies.

With the need of money, and having no money, sounds like I need to go back to work.  I let Era Alaska know that I'm fit for flight, and they were extremely happy to put me back to work.  I start work this upcoming weekend, then I have a few days off, but then I start up again the 1st of July and continue work until the 15th.  The best part is, I won't have to travel very far this time, unlike the commute to Barrow.  I'm being based out of Anchorage in the company's straight freight (no crabby passengers) Beech 1900C.  Hearing this brought a smile to my face.  I will miss Barrow, but being based at home I can continue to goto school this fall, and most of all, work on the cub!

I passed my 135 check ride on Monday in the Beaver.  It was very last minute, but everything went well.  I had two FAA examiners on board.  One was getting checked out in the Beaver so they were just along for the ride.  Both very nice people and surprised with my ability to man-handle such a beastly machine. I was all smiles the entire flight.

My plans for the near future on the cub are to finish the engine section up, then start with fabricating a new panel.  I'm going to build it out of plexiglass first, and install all the gauges.  My idea behind this is to see if everything fits where I'd like it to go.  I also found a fuselage that I deem worthy of using.  I plan on trying to grab it in the next day or two and bring it to the sandblaster to get it sandblasted and figure out which tubes need to be repaired/replaced.  Once done there, I'll bring it to the welder and have the mods installed that I want.  I think I might change my course, instead of starting with the wings, I'll build up the fuselage first.  Going to cost more, but in the long run, I'll have something to sit in and make airplane noises!