User:Bkamen

This is where I'm going to talk about all the things I have done thus far with my 
'74 AA-1B which after pre-buy was found to be just a bucket of fun.

Here's the short list of all the things done to my first purchased aircraft. I will be adding pictures
and storyline details sometime in the future:

* Paint Job (this was a planned item at purchase time):
   -> Delamination (minor, but required disassembly of A/C)
       (THIS IS NOT A BAD THING. There is now paint protecting parts of the plane that factory didn't originally paint.)
   -> Overhaul of prop (expected) found to be illegally modified (not expected) = new prop.
   -> Investigation of prop now deemed Spinner to be unusable (not expected) = new spinner.

* Since we're doing the paint and the plane is disassembled, you may as well:
   -> Replace the Interior. It's out anyway! This really is a good idea when then plane is stripped out. 
      (I might add the thought that I don't know why people get sweaty leather interiors for airplanes. I've found that a cloth seat deals with summer time heat 
       (to the passenger/pilot) better than the leather Cessna's I've flown in. And the Grumman puts me in direct sunlight where the Cessna Pilot flies in the shade!)
   -> Replace the glass. 
      (old windshield was 1/4" anyway and to my knowledge didn't belong - and the rear windows were crazed)
   -> Install 3 point Whelen strobe system and dump old rudder beacon. (saves 3amps!)
   -> Install fuel flow meter (EI FP-5L) - a pilot's best friend in an AA1 w/O320 conversion!

* Unplanned surprises:
   -> 1000hr Engine was over 12yr inspection interval - thus needed an overhaul.
      I can't stress how important this point was on the pre-buy that the inspector missed.
      It's nothing more than subtracting the year the engine was last overhauled from today
      coming to a difference and mentioning that to the owner.

      In the process of the overhaul:
      -> Mags were shot (have great pics of what bad mags look like. ;)
      -> 2 cylinder tested good compression, but deemed replaceable. So 4 new cylinders were installed.
      -> Followers were shot. - Upside to this whole overhaul was was: Crank/Cam cam back standard!

* Additional Add-ons (after the everything was back to running):
   -> Custom Bow Mount for Garmin GPS296
   -> Connect GPS296 to Fuel Flow (EI FP-5L) for extra features.
   -> Casper Labs Spin-On Oil Filter
   -> Newer/Modernized Oil Pan Quick-Drain. 
   -> (2) New Scupper Drains for each wing.

* Additional Repairs Since putting the plane back into service:
   -> Transponder to Encoder Cable replaced.
   -> Transponder re-aligned (not part of normal pitot/static check)
   -> Wiring cleanup from behind the panel. T'was messy back there!