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#5
03-11-09, 09:55 PM
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Herb has been busy, and gone, so I know he hasn't seen any progress. However, there has been some. I have been working with his A&P/IA, and we actually have gotten a few things finished. The new winglets are on. These really are huge, but very light. They are made out of carbon fiber. There is a lot of matching holes, to make sure they line up, but they are now on.
As part of the upgrade, Herb got new LED position lights, and brighter strobes. Or maybe his old ones were just weak  In any event, the position lights use clear lenses, and rely on the LED to give the correct coloring.We also got the boom fairings on. These are also carbon fiber, and huge. There is quit a bit of work involved with getting these in exactly the correct position. Then fastened. We observed that in some places the boom fairing edges would lay up against a rivet. Herb talked to Owen Bell, and he gave advice on how to remedy that. The end result is very clean. With the comments on the Skymaster that went down in the Artic, Herb got cold weather inlet restrictors, and these are mounted. As well as insulating the crankcase ventilation line. One of the pieces that connects the stut to the wing (strut fairing) was cracked, and generally in poor shape, so that has been replaced. Getting the old one off was easy. Getting the new one on, was very difficult. We still have to mount the window in the door, and a couple other things, but we are close. 
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#6
03-11-09, 10:04 PM
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Here's a picture of the strut fairing piece. It really looks nice.
The insulation for the engine vent came out really well, too. I can sit in it now, because the new interior has been removed so the paint shop doesn't mess it up. Last edited by hharney : 03-11-09 at 11:53 PM.
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#7
03-16-09, 11:17 PM
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To the Paint Shop
Friday 2JF got a test flight. All went well when I finally got it started. After sitting since November and many times cycling the master switch for various tests and flaps etc. the battery has taken a beating. Even though we had charged the battery it was still not 100% when I arrived to perform the test flight. So after I did a thorough pre-flight, I pulled it outside the hanger and jumped in to start the engines. I used my normal technique and it fired but just didn't stay running long enough for me play with the throttles and work the mixtures to try to keep it running. When I tried it again there was not enough juice left to fire it. OK back to remove the cowling and the battery box cover to hook up the battery charger and wait for the charge to complete. After finishing some tasks I decided that the battery should have enough and re-installed the battery box top and cowling. Back in the saddle I again used my normal technique and again it would not cooperate. So back to the same routine to charge the battery again. Third try is the charm, right? Well by this time Larry had shown up coming home from work and I told him my dilemma and I said that I was just going to use my normal technique one more time. I hopped in and it fired up so quickly that it was like I had never had a problem. Anyway I think we will check the battery a little closer when we finish the annual after the paint job.
It was fun to fly with all the new stuff. Wing tips, boom fairings, nice comfy seats, lots of other things and it all worked fine. After a couple of landings and take offs it was apparent that it was handling different. In a good way though, very stable in slow flight. One observation was a heavier elevator with the boom fairings. I could tell when the rear engine was producing power by the feel of the elevator. Not a bad thing just a little different than before. I will need some more time before I can really give a good report. I took Larry around his runway pattern for 2 landings and then my IA went around with me once while Larry took some video and pictures. Enough for the test flight, we came back and pulled the cowling for inspection and readied the aircraft for the trip to Sturgis Saturday morning to the paint shop. Flight was great on Saturday to Sturgis. I had Doug my partner in the Twinco pick me up. I will return to the paint shop on Wednesday to see the starting progress. The paint tech says 3 weeks and it's done. I told him it had to be ready for Branson fly in. That's my deadline. I have decided on paint scheme #3 see below and a picture outside Larry's hanger before we went to the paint shop. This is the end of this thread and stay tuned for the new paint thread to come soon!
__________________
Herb R Harney 1968 337C Flying the same Skymaster for 47 years Last edited by hharney : 03-16-09 at 11:22 PM.
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#8
03-17-09, 12:10 AM
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Herb,
Wonderful job. If I may, I would like to offer one last piece of advice: Have you considered permanently installing the wires of a BatteryMinder to your battery? I have taken the cowling off one too many times, and finally I installed the wires. The connector piece is now tie-wrapped to the oil dipstick stalk, so that it can be connected very easily without removing the cowling. The rest of the wires is securely tie-wrapped along with other wires running towards the firewall. I put my battery on the Minder about 3-4 times a year. One request: I would love to see a pic of your new wingtips from the FRONT, please.
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To the Blue Room!! Jakes Dekker
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