First post, but many more to follow.
[you can blow past this next part]
Introduction
This past Friday I took possession of a 1965 7ECA Citabria which has been brought up to 7GCAA status, and brought it home (Tacoma Narrows, TIW). "Home" in this case has some meaning because it is the same airport I learned to fly at exactly 20 years ago (my check ride was July 1997). I moved away from Tacoma but it has always been that airport that I compared to every other place I've landed.
A little over a year ago my girlfriend and I bought a house in North Tacoma. I've had that itch I don't need to explain to anyone here to have a plane of my very own, and it finally happened. Last Friday I picked up the plane and after a short flight on a nasty day I pushed it into a 40' T hangar and closed the door.
I've known the previous owner for many years, and I also know the guys who have been maintaining it. In narrowing down what kind of plane I was going to bring home I was all over the place from picking up an unfinished kitbuilt plane (some nice RV and Glastar projects out there for a good deal). Or not mess with building and pick up a C-120, C-140, Taylorcraft or Luscombe. Considering the audience who might read this I won't go over the comparisons of all those, nor the considerations of rag & tube construction (a deal breaker for many people).
Well, super long story made just a bit shorter: blah, blah, it was under my nose the whole time. One day I reached out to see if the plane was for sale, because the last time I asked it was not.
The agreed upon price leaves room for covering, spars and the typical ugliness found once the covering comes off.
It's got a great engine with about 440 hours since major and a new-ish prop, solid radio setup, EI engine guages, etc.
[end side story]
The first thing I want to make an owner entry about is the interior. Specifically, there is an upholstery covered sheet metal piece which goes along the upper left side of the interior. Both of the throttle/carb heat control covers are mounted to this piece.
The smurf blue upholstery material which is glued to this piece has peeled away along the lower edge along its entire length and it is hanging. All I want to do is glue that back up in place. The best way of course, is to remove the offending trim piece so I can access the back of the sheet metal and clean the old adhesive from the sheet metal and the upholstery and glue it properly.
So!
Questions for the gallery:
1) Is this legal? In my reading it would appear that under FAR part 43, Appendix A, Paragraph C I am good to go. From the AOPA website, item 11
Repairing upholstery and decorative furnishings of the cabin, cockpit, or balloon basket interior when the repairing does not require disassembly of any primary structure or operating system or interfere with an operating system or affect the primary structure of the aircraft. When repairing or replacing upholstery, you are required to meet the original type design requirements. Use only material that has met the burn test requirements. The supplier of the aircraft interior will provide you with the needed paper work for your logbook. Do not buy materials from a local upholstery shop because your mechanic may ask you for the certification paperwork at the next annual.
I'm not even replacing, but I would like to remove/replace the piece so I can get it to stick properly (it appears that it's been attempted before with less success, though the rest of the interior is stuck down pretty well. Where some might raise their hand is in regards to dismantling "any primary structure or operating system". However I don't need to disturb the throttles or carb heat controls, all I have to do is get the knobs off and put them back on.
2) What adhesive should I use? Regarding materials, my day job has quite a bit to do with certification of aircraft so I'm quite weary of the limitations regarding materials considered safe. I don't want to slap household contact cement on if it is one of those "OMG don't use that!" things, which I suspect it is. By the way, there is no way that smurf blue upholstery would pass flam testing in a modern plane. No way in hell.
3) How do I get that piece of trim out? My plane is one of the old ones with a slider window on the left. Not sure that matters much, but I'm trying to figure out if the piece of metal trim between the two left side windows has to come out (it doesn't seem fond of that idea), or if I can wiggle the trim piece out from under it once it is loose. Also not sure if I have to take out the piece which goes across the rear of the baggage compartment from the windows up.
Before anyone says "dude you have no business touching this stuff" I rebuilt the engine in the Porsche I had to sell in order to buy this plane and I design secondary flight deck structures for my day job, so I'm not mechanically inept but I'm freely willing to admit that I'm unfamiliar with the nuances of rag and tube airplane interiors. I can feel up under the piece (it's more or less open at the bottom) and there are a couple of crusty fasteners poking downward along the top. They don't feel like screws, but if they are it means that the piece was put in place and the upholstery glued over the top of it (in which case I can see why it peeled off at the bottom).
If someone feels like taking a whack at explaining it I would greatly appreciate it. If not, I'll live with the condition until the next oil change and have one of the A&Ps help me then.
Sorry, no pics of the offending interior piece yet. I'll probably be back at the airport tomorrow so I'll take one then.
[you can blow past this next part]
Introduction
This past Friday I took possession of a 1965 7ECA Citabria which has been brought up to 7GCAA status, and brought it home (Tacoma Narrows, TIW). "Home" in this case has some meaning because it is the same airport I learned to fly at exactly 20 years ago (my check ride was July 1997). I moved away from Tacoma but it has always been that airport that I compared to every other place I've landed.
A little over a year ago my girlfriend and I bought a house in North Tacoma. I've had that itch I don't need to explain to anyone here to have a plane of my very own, and it finally happened. Last Friday I picked up the plane and after a short flight on a nasty day I pushed it into a 40' T hangar and closed the door.
I've known the previous owner for many years, and I also know the guys who have been maintaining it. In narrowing down what kind of plane I was going to bring home I was all over the place from picking up an unfinished kitbuilt plane (some nice RV and Glastar projects out there for a good deal). Or not mess with building and pick up a C-120, C-140, Taylorcraft or Luscombe. Considering the audience who might read this I won't go over the comparisons of all those, nor the considerations of rag & tube construction (a deal breaker for many people).
Well, super long story made just a bit shorter: blah, blah, it was under my nose the whole time. One day I reached out to see if the plane was for sale, because the last time I asked it was not.
The agreed upon price leaves room for covering, spars and the typical ugliness found once the covering comes off.
It's got a great engine with about 440 hours since major and a new-ish prop, solid radio setup, EI engine guages, etc.
[end side story]
The first thing I want to make an owner entry about is the interior. Specifically, there is an upholstery covered sheet metal piece which goes along the upper left side of the interior. Both of the throttle/carb heat control covers are mounted to this piece.
The smurf blue upholstery material which is glued to this piece has peeled away along the lower edge along its entire length and it is hanging. All I want to do is glue that back up in place. The best way of course, is to remove the offending trim piece so I can access the back of the sheet metal and clean the old adhesive from the sheet metal and the upholstery and glue it properly.
So!
Questions for the gallery:
1) Is this legal? In my reading it would appear that under FAR part 43, Appendix A, Paragraph C I am good to go. From the AOPA website, item 11
Repairing upholstery and decorative furnishings of the cabin, cockpit, or balloon basket interior when the repairing does not require disassembly of any primary structure or operating system or interfere with an operating system or affect the primary structure of the aircraft. When repairing or replacing upholstery, you are required to meet the original type design requirements. Use only material that has met the burn test requirements. The supplier of the aircraft interior will provide you with the needed paper work for your logbook. Do not buy materials from a local upholstery shop because your mechanic may ask you for the certification paperwork at the next annual.
I'm not even replacing, but I would like to remove/replace the piece so I can get it to stick properly (it appears that it's been attempted before with less success, though the rest of the interior is stuck down pretty well. Where some might raise their hand is in regards to dismantling "any primary structure or operating system". However I don't need to disturb the throttles or carb heat controls, all I have to do is get the knobs off and put them back on.
2) What adhesive should I use? Regarding materials, my day job has quite a bit to do with certification of aircraft so I'm quite weary of the limitations regarding materials considered safe. I don't want to slap household contact cement on if it is one of those "OMG don't use that!" things, which I suspect it is. By the way, there is no way that smurf blue upholstery would pass flam testing in a modern plane. No way in hell.
3) How do I get that piece of trim out? My plane is one of the old ones with a slider window on the left. Not sure that matters much, but I'm trying to figure out if the piece of metal trim between the two left side windows has to come out (it doesn't seem fond of that idea), or if I can wiggle the trim piece out from under it once it is loose. Also not sure if I have to take out the piece which goes across the rear of the baggage compartment from the windows up.
Before anyone says "dude you have no business touching this stuff" I rebuilt the engine in the Porsche I had to sell in order to buy this plane and I design secondary flight deck structures for my day job, so I'm not mechanically inept but I'm freely willing to admit that I'm unfamiliar with the nuances of rag and tube airplane interiors. I can feel up under the piece (it's more or less open at the bottom) and there are a couple of crusty fasteners poking downward along the top. They don't feel like screws, but if they are it means that the piece was put in place and the upholstery glued over the top of it (in which case I can see why it peeled off at the bottom).
If someone feels like taking a whack at explaining it I would greatly appreciate it. If not, I'll live with the condition until the next oil change and have one of the A&Ps help me then.
Sorry, no pics of the offending interior piece yet. I'll probably be back at the airport tomorrow so I'll take one then.
