[hharney]

Well I flew 2JF for the last time today, at least for a while anyway. Tomorrow we totally gut the inside to make way for the new interior. What a great time to be involved. I have no job right now so I can participate in this project daily. I will start this thread and continue to update as much as I can the progress of 2JF as the new interior is born. Photos too. Here are some of my plans so far, please feel free to comment on any part of this as needed. I started working with Bill McFadden several months ago. He has a company in Kalamazoo, Michigan that does re-upholstering on all kinds of big boy toys. His specialty, airplanes. All kinds of airplanes. He has even re-done Skymasters before. This guy has quite a reputation in this area. He is known for his premier work when it comes to aircraft interiors. He doesn’t advertise and he is busy all the time. I scheduled 2JF in July to finally get started tomorrow. About a month ago Bill met with Tammy and I at our house with boxes and boxes of samples. We looked, matched, selected and finally came up with a pattern that we thought we liked. Leather, some fabric, wool carpet and ultra leather for the headliner. Tammy and I kept the samples and looked at them for about a week. We had a real sunny day so we took the sample outside and looked at them in the sun real good. Then Bill called back and said that the fabric was no longer available. He said that he would come back up to Grand Rapids and bring the fabric samples so that we could select something else that might be similar and work with our other materials that we had selected. Again Bill spent about 3 – 4 hours with us helping us to match samples. We found a nice replacement and then uses a different carpet to better match the fabric. We were ready to write a check for the down payment. Bill ordered the materials and is checking all the certifications and also having some of the fabric treated to meet requirement for aircraft. Bill has worked a lot with the Bonanza Flyers Club. There is a repair shop on AZO that specializes in Beech. He has gotten many jobs from that shop so his experience is valid. If you can work with the Bonanza guys and make them happy, us Skymaster drivers will be a breeze.

Along with the upholstery I am looking at all new glass. Maybe go tinted, any thoughts on that? The windscreen is still in amazingly good shape for 40 years but now is the time if you’re going to do it. Should it be tinted? I think Jerry’s is? I am looking at Rosen Visors, anyone have those? I think they are the best out there. I talked with Don Nisser over at Commodore Aero and he had a 5th seat for the rear of 2JF. For some reason I never had the right 5th seat. After owning this aircraft for the last 32 years it is time to get the right seat back there. I really don’t use it that much but I wanted the original equipment. Also needed the arm rest that bolts to the wall for that 5th seat in the rear. I plan to put some new strobes on the wing tips. Has anyone used LED yet? Whelen has some nice stuff out there but I would have to get a field approval. This LED stuff is really cool. I switch out the rotating beacon in July with an LED and wow, unreal how visible this thing is. Anyone else have one yet? Mine is Whelen, they have the thing STC’d for 337. As long as we are on lights, I am looking at making some changes on the interior lights in the cabin. LED would be nice here but I haven’t found anything that is certified yet. It’s all kit plane experimental stuff. Pluslight system for the landing lights is a yes too. Well there are a few other things I am looking at and if you have any ideas that I may not be thinking about let me know. For now that’s about all. See ya soon.