Water Soaked Citabria

T

Tom Fraser

New member
My 1979 Citabria on Floats was just flipped over and was upside down in the water for a period of time. There is wing damage, some fuselage damage and a little float damage. Does anyone out there have any
suggestions regarding upholstery, seating, radios, gauges etc. The aircraft is insured. Are the radios salvageable? Instruments? It is our intention to send the electronics out for repair, however, I would appreciate knowing anyones experiences with this situation along with handling insurance appraisers etc. If you wanted to contact me directly, my e-mail address is algon@efni.com Thanks.
Tom Fraser
 
Pull the instruments and radios. Flush them with distilled water. Did you flip in fresh or salt? Dry them out then send them for recert repair o/h as needed.
Upholstery I would flush with clean water and air to dry. The biggie is your engine. With dissimilar metals, steel crankshafts etc. in an engine, corrosion will occur quickly!!!!
Drain everything pull the plugs. Replace your oil and put some in the cylinders. Don't forget the oil cooler and lines too. you need to clean out all water in the engine and recoat everything with a nice protective film of oil. Did it sink at the dock or did you dig a float on T/O or landing? The problem here is shock cooling. Shock cooling may have cracked cylinders. Propeller strikes on water are viewed much as on land. did you bend the propeller? Blade tracking is an indicator of the condition of the crankshaft flange. A bent flange means an engine teardown is forthcoming. Did the propeller strike a float? Was the power up, or at idle?
Check for moisture in the tubing too.
 
Thanks for the response nite-owl.
The aircraft was flipped over by the wind. I am on a fresh water lake, therefore, no salt. We did drain the oil and finally got the engine running after a few spark plug cleanings and some fresh fuel. We got the engine oil up to 170 Deg. All radios and instruments are out and presently sitting in two buckets of water. I have A Garmin 250 XL GPS Com, A Garmin 320A Transponder and a B&W GPS 196. I phoned Garmin and they advised these radios would not be repairable? One thing we did not do is drain the oil cooler or the oil lines. I just had the aircraft recovered about 3 years ago. We will be checking the tubing in the AM. The engine was not running. We will be track checking the prop in the AM to make sure it is not bent from the flip.
Thanks for your input.
Tom
 
Good the engine's running! How's the spars? Wood or Aluminum? Once the radios are dried out you might find they're operable. You never know until you try. However I'd have the insurance replace them all the same. It beats them failing in ten hours and then having to replace them out of your pocket. Don't forget to check the battery. Wet cell/ gell cell... if it's a wet cell check your electrolyte levels. If it's down a bit, where did the electrolyte end up? Lubricate all pulleys/ cables etc.
Have a really good look around your fuselage float fittings. High stress area here and Citabrias although adequate aren't the beefiest. Make sure things didn't get bent or distorted.
Was it tied to the dock or moored on a float? Sometimes when floatplanes sink at the dock struts get bent.
Sounds like things are coming along. Best of luck to you.
 
Thanks for all of the replies. Work is progressing well. All good points and added to my lest.
You fellow are great
Tom
 
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