Requested Blog on N3322G Paint job and Annual

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Blog part 31 on paint job and annual

Oct 9, 2008: It was dance of the airplanes first thing this morning. Dick was bringing up the Colorado 210 as I walked up to the paint bay. Chris was headed down to the hangar with 22G parts. Meanwhile the Twin was being unmasked in the big reveal. It looks lovely. Cathie didn’t even wait to start doing her magic; she was sitting on the right side as the left side was still being unmasked.

The more paper that came off, the more the trash piled up and even the trash had great color. I can certainly understand why shops charge more to paint a Twin, it is definitely more complex. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention but this is the first time I’ve noticed that the paint shop had to re-spray an area of white.

Dog has demonstrated a new talent. As the weather has gotten cold, the flies are moving inside. Dog likes to catch them – he’s pretty good at it too. It makes for fun entertainment when I’m waiting for the next step to happen.

Might even get to fly sometime – the props are on. The governors were a challenge to identify. Dick was with a client and Darrin had taken the governors off so Chris and I checked the last overhaul logbook entries to determine which went on the counter-rotated engine. I thought the F-6-3AL would but the overhaul done and entered in the logbook by the shop that hung the overhauled engines showed the F-6-3AL is for the left engine and the F-6-3A was for the right counter-rotated engine. This just didn’t seem right to me so I checked the maintenance manual which showed the F6-3 for a PA30. I called Hartzell to verify and sure enough the previous shop had erred in their documentation. Because they do so many types of aircraft, Chris uses the manual to make sure the procedures are followed. I like that. He made sure the prop torque was correct – it varied dramatically by model. And just for the record, 7 of 8 Lord mounts were within the torque spec and the 8th was only out a bit. Enjoy the photos below of the work as it progresses. More tomorrow.

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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[MULEFLY]

I had to truncate... "I can't tell you how much I look forward to your posts".

The subject line couldn't handle it...

TBS... (that being said)... I appreciate and understand your frustration with the outfit that starts with "A" and ends with "S". However, not in fairness, but as a counter post, I have installed "-11" filters on SN 39-147 and never had an interference problem... these birds are all unique and need to be pampered as such... but -11 filters (the longer ones) work on mine. In an effort to totally quelch this problem in the future, my Christmas present to the airplane is that I am going to install Airwolf remote filters on the firewall and eliminate all of the friggin mess at filter change in the future.

Pat you and you hubby are doing a phenomenal job and tribute to your mother with this paint job... I can't begin to tell you how much I respect your efforts both at preserving your aircraft and sharing your experience in doing so with all of us..

(Can I get Ken to speed up my laptop?) (Edited... I mistakenly had mentioned Kevin rather than Ken ... sorry... Ken now has his due!)

All the best!
Jim

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Blog part 35 on paint job and annual

Oct 15, 2008: In response to the previous post. Hey Jim, good to hear from you and it is nice knowing you enjoy the blogging. As far as Ken making your laptop faster – he is expensive - tell you what, you pay for the paint job and I volunteer him to deal with your laptop. Smile. Smile. Wink. Wink.

With the stab still on horses but positioned aft of the plane, the photo below shows what the plane will almost look like when it is assembled. Only 39 parts are in the hangar and not on the plane now about 1/3 of what had been removed. At least that’s where the day started -That means it is time to get serious about paperwork. Ugh. Each year I’ve tackled a new area of accumulated documents. Last year in Newton, I got a new logbook binder so I could have the things referenced during annual in a single location. As a fellow owner, you know that this is easier than it sounds. I put in added tabs. There’s a tab for maintenance instructions for those items that are unique to 22G. A new section with sub-tabs for STCs that used to be in the POH and I found last year that I was missing some that I now have. There’s a tab for 337s with contents list in front that I may move to the home filing cabinet as I don’t use those often. This year I’m doing the 8130s and yellow tags in the same manner as the 337s, putting a contents list up front and then putting them in descending sequence and putting an asterisk by the yellow tags stapled in the logbooks. I used these this year to help with which governor went back on which engine. As happens with Twins, it was backwards so I verified with the Piper service manual and ultimately Hartzell.

Photos: Check out the before and after photos of the rotating beacon housing. Notice how empty the table is looking. There’s a very nice finish on the bottom of the rudder – just another indicator of the the paint shop thoroughness. The inside of the tip tank fuel covers got painted. Here’s a good picture of the newly painted door jam. Wing is taped for wing walk surfacing. And finally, there’s a peak at the rudder balancing process.
More tomorrow. Cross your fingers and hope for the best – might get to start the engines for the leak test.

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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Blog part 36 on paint job and annual

Oct 16, 2008: By the end of the day we only had the engine cowls on the quilt and Oh My Gosh, the rudder and stabilator look fabulous. We sweated over these two surfaces and their paint designs more than any other area. The stabilator was a true group effort which is polite-speak for nobody got what they really wanted and we crossed our finger that it would look good on the plane. It was designed on a conference call with Craig Barnett of Scheme Designers with Ken and me just two days before we left for Ohio. We had to have done 6 or 8 iterations over and above the 6 earlier attempts. For me it still looked ‘too fussy, too swirly’ and too ‘artsy-artsy’ on paper. However, on a larger surface and the way Mark laid it out, it is perfect. From the photos below you can se how it coordinates with the wing. I expected the outer curves to go well together but what surprised me is the interior starting points and curve also complements the interior of the engine nacelles and those starting points – they aren’t on yet but I think you can get a fair idea.

More tomorrow. I will get to start the engines for the leak test. We’ll do a retraction test and likely do a test flight as we always do after an annual - Weather permitting.

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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