Requested Blog on N3322G Paint job and Annual

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[Hansmeister]

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[Kristin Winter]

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Blog part 16 on paint job and annual and Hurricane Ike

Sep 16, 2008: This will be my last blog for awhile due to Hurricane Ike which I’ll talk about after the Twin progress. The stripping in the wheelwells continued as did the repair on the cowls. See photos. I was running out of battery so I couldn’t run the flash and the photos are a bit blurred. The stripper staff feels my pain as they find quarter sized hunks of old stripper in various places around the plane. It has been so frequent; I have tried to take a positive attitude. Since I can't change the past and the old stripper is being removed, I figure my useful load just continues to climb with each hunk removed.

With respect to Ike. Batteries and fuel are hard to come by as about 50% of the folks are without power so I’m starting to conserve. Schools have been shutdown for two days and likely a couple more. All the spare crews were sent to Gustav and Ike locations that had direct hits. We merely had wind and it was enough. Compared to New Orleans and Galveston – the damage is negligible but the impact is widespread.

We attended our Grandniece’s baptism on Sunday with lunch afterwards. As the afternoon went on the wind got higher and things started flying by – like the top to their light fixture. When we drove home we dodged flying corn husks, falling tree limbs and someone’s gutter – can you say Wizard of Oz-like experience? We fortunately had extremely minor damage and only lost power for Sunday evening. I read the Ohio tour book by candlelight to husband and brother-in-law where we learned the State of Ohio official beverage is not beer as suspected but Tomato Juice, Ohio has sourced 8 of our 43 Presidents and Marietta, Ohio was named for Marie Antoinette.

In the meantime the airport was safe but without power until late Monday afternoon so they lost a day because they couldn’t paint the plane ahead of us and couldn’t see in the hangar to work on ours. They have bifold doors and couldn’t raise them. Now as the person whose plane was damaged by rolling doors falling in on it, the bi-fold doors sounded good to me. The the paint shop staff had their own share of problems at home – no injuries though. Wind, no rain, so the paving continued and more pipe means the sewer project is continuing and the FAA is sending an inch thick document to sign before Wednesday if the airport wants some of the expense for the runway project funded – just another day in the life of the airport manager/paint shop owner. Dick handles it well.

Monday I spent at the Hartzell Service Center where my props and governors had been overhauled. Got quite an education as we examined the out of spec parts. Right prop and left governor were good and their opposite numbers were bad. The blades themselves were within spec and they gave me copies of the reports showing max and min and they appear to be good for several more overhauls. When I have sun tomorrow, I’ll take prop part pictures.

Hartzell ‘only’ has 300 different props in the field and the machine I show below is the only one in existence. It ‘static’ balances props similar to car tires but to a more precise level. As Steve waved his hand over the top of the machine, its balance numbers changed with just that airflow. I touched it with my fingernail and the balance changed. This is where my props were balanced and I’ll bring them back for dynamic balance after they get back on the plane. As shown below, they have just a few manuals on props and governors. The photo with the keys show what we referenced for my props and governors. It was worth the tour and the 2 hour drive west. Hope to have some more to add soon.

Wishing all Blue Skies and Tailwinds,

Pat Keefer ICS 08899

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company
All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted.

[N3322G]

[Monica Rehkopf]

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[N3322G]

Blog part 19 on paint job and annual

Sep 19, 2008: We’re getting close to the really exciting part. On Monday the plane will move to the paint bay where repairs will be finished and we should see some paint back on the plane as early as Wednesday or as late as Friday. This, of course, forces the final decision on the width of the stripes on the fuselage and any other details.

Over the objections of the paint designer, I know – sounds risky already, doesn’t it? - I’ve decided to go with the stripe widths close to the previous paint job and use the designer’s start design and tail swoop design enhancements. I studied the Twin Comanches on airliners.net for about 4 hours and saw many, many examples of different striping approaches. I found that I was happier looking at stripes that surrounded the N number on top and bottom by at least an inch of color and both my husband and I preferred that the N number look ‘clean’. The least cluttered N number look had a larger stripe that silhouetted the majority of the N number. If you’ve looked at the planned design, you might be laughing that I’m concerned with it being busy because we are one of the few planes with so much color on the fuselage, wings and among an even fewer group to have color on the stabilator. And then there’s the brightness of the colors – the colors of sunrise: red, orange and yellow. As I’ve said before, this paint job may not be for everyone but we like the excitement of it, the connotation of speed and sense of the beginnings of a new day with the colors of sunrise.

The new version of the LoPresti hub caps came today. Chris suggested looking at them when he removed the old ones at annual. I got the new bigger opening for the LoPresti Hubba Hubba caps at the upgrade price vs the net new price as long as I return the old ones – which we hadn’t gotten around to painting anyway. We gave the cowl fasteners to the paint shop and we all decided it would be better not to have them painted as the paint would just chip off.

I remain astonished at the detailed work. When they told me they would be scrubbing each rivet in two directions to make sure the old paint was off, I thought – yikes, that is a ton of rivets. Next week I might count a section just to get an idea of the magnitude of the work that has been done. In the meantime look at the photos.

The photo of the honey is no accident – just another thing that happens at the airport – beekeeping and the resulting all natural honey. Husband Ken who came with me today is a happy guy as he knows his sweet tooth will enjoy some nice treats with honey on top. Even better was the sweet sound of arriving and departing aircraft as the airport opened to daytime VFR traffic yesterday at Noon. The delighted Vtail Bonanza owner took his plane home – I can hardly wait to do the same. More on Monday.

Wishing all Blue Skies and Tailwinds,

Pat Keefer ICS 08899

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company
All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted.

[N3322G]

Blog part 20 on paint job and annual

Sep 22, 2008: It was a great day in Cadiz, the Twin had the graduation walk from the stripper bay to the paint bay, the Debonair moved from the paint bay to the south hangar for re-assemble and a Cessna from Colorado moved from the hangar to the striper bay. Compared to the Debonair and the previous Vtail Bonanza, the Twin is tiny – sleek though. The rest of the day was taken with repair work as expected and tomorrow will be as well so I’ll be back there on Wednesday. All morning I felt like I’d eaten a pound of chocolate I was so excited. It is actually going to happen, there will be paint on the Twin again.

Just for fun I counted some rivets and found 136 on the bottom of one side of the trim tab so you can just begin to imagine how many rivets were double cleaned by the staff here. Dick Guenther has given me unprecedented access to his shop. Customers are generally under escort when they visit their planes at the stripper and paint bays. I try to be careful about staying out of the way – after all, I would only be delaying the Twin paint job. I am extremely cautious about not touching anything – including my own plane. While we were waiting for the plane shuffle to start, I borrowed a ladder as Hans suggested and checked out the top of the tail. I took photos and viewed them tonight and found no cracks anywhere and while I didn’t remove the horn, it looked good too. I also spent some excellent time on a creeper under the plane. Since all the inspection panels were off and starting to be staged for painting, I had a clear view of bungees etc and I examined the wheelwells at my leisure and then took lots of pictures. Notice in the photos below the tiedown rings were even removed.

Dick told me we will be going over the repair allotment because the tail cone was damaged in areas that weren’t visible until they were removed, screw holes torn apart on top and bottom sections and the engine scowls had more than the cracks we could see on the surface. The nose cowl was significantly more damaged than expected. The rest of the plane is looking good.

And then out of the north, we hear a something, it’s a bird, it’s a plane and it’s Dave. It turns out Dave Fitzgerald’s airport is literally less than 20 miles north and he and his Grandson Nathan came to visit today. The staff was on lunch break so we got to stand next to the plane in the paint bay – it has a floor drain in the center so the plane appeared even shorter than usual – Dave wondered why he could reach the top of the tail easily. It wasn’t just the floor - with the props still off, the center of gravity has shifted back – this would be something to think about if we got the composite props that are 30 pounds lighter … should they ever become available.

I am re-copying the PA39 Maintenance manual as the pages are starting to crumble. I am fortunate to have one and got it courtesy of Hugh Hunton who only asked for the $4 to ship it. I have found the section on balancing the stabilator. Does anyone know where the aileron balancing data is?

Filled up the weekend with fun stuff but there is no denying I’m getting homesick. Last Tuesday was 1 month to the day of the start of work on the Twin. I knew it the way the pioneers knew a month had passed; it was a full moon again when I drove to the paint shop. I did scroll around the ICS website a bit and learned to find new posts faster by clicking on the ‘view unread posts’ in the upper right of the screen and it lists all the new ones since I last logged on. Then I read someone else’s posts about color and changed my profile to SmartBlue and that did two things, it changed the color and also put the page numbers below a topic that has more than one page of postings and that speeds my access to the end of the thread where I start the next post on my blog. Maybe everyone else knows these already but if not, hope they make your use of the Forum easier. More on Wednesday.

Wishing all Blue Skies and Tailwinds,

Pat Keefer ICS 08899

All rights reserved by RTW, Round the World, A Motivational Company
All photos taken by Patricia Jayne (Pat) Keefer unless otherwise noted.

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[Bruce Thumann]

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