Radioactive?? 14-13-2 oil temp/pressure gauge

V

vh2q

Member
"Regarding your Oil Gauge cluster; since its radioactive it will take a month to complete work, it will finally be on the bench Monday, then they will call with price since they have to decontaminate then work on it, possibly beginning of September is the expected return. "

Am I being conned here? They have had it for a month already.
 
I have no experience with getting maintenance done on aircraft gauges, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt; but back in the 40s and 50s, it was common to use Radium-based luminescent paint on aircraft gauges (and watches, hence how I'm familiar with it). Radium is pretty radioactive, and has a half-life of a long time (over 1000 years, iirc). It's not particularly dangerous to be around, but it was very, very dangerous to the factory workers who painted the dials. It was banned in the US when the health concerns became apparent. After that, Tritium-based paint was used for a while. That was better, but not perfect. It got restricted eventually.
 
Well it sounds like this outfit wants to strip off the old paint and repaint the face, for which they will no doubt charge a handsome price. I think that's unnecessary and devious.

It's a oil temp/oil pressure/fuel pressure gauge for a 14-13-2. If anyone has one I would be interested.
 
Lockhaven charges $200 hazmat fee to strip and repaint face .. or maybe replace face not sure which. Seems like a racket to me.
 
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