Complete interior re-furbish

[WebMaster]

Me too, Ernie. I think the one on the left looks 'SWOOPY', stylish, while the one on the right, looks, well, plain. Not nearly as stylish. As a Plus, the Brown is more pronounced, and compliments the very nice interior.

[SteveG]

The curvilinear trim of the left design study does look slick but I dislike the visual disconnect between the body and the boom/tail structure. For that reason I like the more unitary right study better, however, it needs to have both the brown and the gold trim colors carried onto the tail. Perhaps yet a third iteration could combine the design concepts of the curvilinear trim on the left with the fusalage/ empanage unifying elements of the right.

[Todd Gessel]

I concur with Steve. The rendering on the left accentuates the short and tall fuselage of the Skymaster. Extending the colors onto the boom and possibly creating a more narrow and longer band of gold along the lower fuselage and adding an accent color (gold or brown) to the top of the front cowling might help create a more sleek look. I'm taking a particular interest in the paint scheme because I too an planning to have my Skymaster repainted soon. Not to mention an interest in general in all Skymasters looking the best possible. I printed out the two proposed paint schemes and took an unscientific poll of friends and fellow aviators. The paint scheme on the right was preferred 7 to 1. Keep us posted with the latest revisions, and thanks for sharing all the detailed information on the restorations.

[hharney]

Attached is a word file that has all 4 paint scheme versions on it. once you open the file zoom in to about 200% for good detail. Also looking at them at 100% would be about what one would see if the aircraft was on the runway taking off while you stood on the ramp. It is a good contrast to look at the designs that way.

Scheme 4 has been changed to provide an extra color stripe, Maya Gold and also the design on the vertical stab. Scheme 3 has taken the original belly colors and stretched them out to give a longer fuselage look. I think it worked on scheme 3. The template also is a non-pressurized cabin to provide the correct window configuration.

With scheme 3, would the all white cowling cause glare in the pilots eyes? I know that some of the pictures of Skymasters I found had all white (or what appeared to be all white) cowlings. Do they use a different sheen up there?

[Dale Campbell]

Hi Herb,
The top of my cowl is all white and I never noticed any glaire. Bottom line is it is your aircraft and go with what you like the best. You have to pay the bill and live with it not the rest of us. Good luck with your 337, it is sure looking great. Dale Campbell

[WebMaster]

I think No 3 is HOT!!

[hharney]

Thanks for all the input on the paint scheme, I am still trying to tweek the designs a little working with number 3.

Interior progress is still progressing. My interior guys continue to give me finish dates each week but they run into roadblocks that never allow the date to be correct. I still haven't seen the seats but maybe today!!! Some of the roadblocks have been the fault of others, like all of a sudden I decided that we need to replace the map light switch on the left side column by the pilot. My interior guys tried to make it work but it looks like the best avenue is replacement. So now they couldn't finish that trim work around the emergency exit window until I got a new switch. Another order from Cessnaparts.com and the switches are on the way. They were in stock at $6.17 each. When they arrived they are a little different than original but they were direct from Cessna. Actually different in a better way. As of last Saturday the new switch was installed by my qualified IA. Also the new Rosen visors had to be mounted, and after reading their procedure we realized that the visors mount to the Royalite trim over the pilots. At first this was quite a surprise, and we scratched our heads on this one. Rosen's design for the mounting of these units in a Skymaster is a little Mickey Mouse for a better term. I called Rosen and they were no help at all. On top of that their instruction sheet was not clear enough to see the photos of the figures they kept referencing in the procedure. They said that they didn't have the original photos anymore and were sorry they could not help me. Well, I understood how they wanted them to mount so through a process of elimination we got the visors mounted. Has anyone ever installed these? Interesting but once I got the up, WOW these are going to be nice. Oh and they do have an STC for the Skymaster so all the paperwork can be legalized. Now we just need to get the interior guys back.

As some of you may have seen in a post from Larry we made a trip to Nashville to visit Owen Bell. What a great trip and Owen was there with open arms welcoming us. See the Sky-Monster post for details on some real excitement at Owen's Aviation Enterprises. It was a real pleasure to meet and talk with Owen, his son Chris and their employees. He has a lot of things going on down there and it all has something to do with Skymasters. After trying to pry Larry out of the 700 HP P337 we loaded up our goods and flew north. You know you're living when you have tailwinds going and tailwinds coming back. What fun!

Last night we pulled off the old wing tips and started to fit the new Lightning Wingtips from Owen. It's going to be fun and effective. What difference. I'll fog a little Boeshield in there now that this access is open too. More to come on the wingtips later. Here are some progress pictures, one of the interior shots shows the removable panel that provides access to the main gear components inside the cabin. They used velcro to attach the panel and it works really well. The annual is complete except for the gear swing and performed to perfection by my qualified IA. We are winding down and now before I know it we will be at the paint shop. Then a new thread will be posted on the trials of painting a Skymaster. Stay tuned.