Twice as much fun?

After amassing over 1100 hours flying around in single engine airplanes, I had my first hour of dual instruction in a twin engine airplane today. I used the Beech Employee Flying Club's (BEFC) Beech Duchess. As an officer in the club, I get a little free flying time each month. So, I thought I would put that toward a twin rating some day. It is really different flying the Duchess compared to a Bonanza. With the weight of the engines and fuel out on the wing, the inertia's are quite different. We did some slow flight and stalls today as well as simulating engine failures and determining which engine was "dead." We also pulled the mixture and feathered the left engine at one point. Its really strange to see the prop stopped in flight, though there were a few times I did that in my dad's Stinson when I was in college. We did a simulated engine out landing at El Dorado and then returned to Beech Field.

So, is having two engines twice as fun as one? It definitely is a lot more work. Of course, I am trying to learn the handling characteristics of the plane, where everything is, and what everything does all at once, so it is a busy, fast paced time. But, I had a lot of fun, too. Guess I'll get another hour next weekend and continue on from there. I'll answer the "is it twice as fun" question when I get a few more hours under my belt.

Blast Away!

I took today off for a mental health day and journeyed to the Soft Strip company in central Wichita. I took the horizontal tail and rudder I had been stripping on one side with paint stripper, as well as the left elevator. The left elevator has a lot of damage and will need to be replaced, so I figured that would be a good part for the Soft Strip guys to demonstrate their skills on. They did a small area and showed me the results. It looked good so I turned them loose on the other parts and came back home to get more (guess I need a bigger vehicle). I packed up the vertical tail, right side elevator, both cabin doors, and the baggage door.

I took this shot when I returned to drop off the second batch of parts. I was really impressed. Ray is the guy in the hood holding the horizontal tail who did all the work, and his boss, Randy, holds the rudder. They were great guys to work with. I think the economy has really hit them hard, so they were happy to have a customer. While this is not cheap, it is fast. If you think about how much stripper you will use, the personal health exposure, plus the odd chance of accidentally getting some stripper on the wife's car, its probably money well spent. Hey, I may be the one to have started the ball rolling on the country's economic recovery!

I need to wipe these down real well now, as there is still a light coating of sodium bicarbonate on the parts. That is the media they use in the blasting. So, if any of my Kansas readers need some paint removed, keep these guys in mind. They have two stalls, one big enough for a semi truck and trailer to fit into, so they can probably do about any size job.

After the cleanup, I'll take a closer look for cracks and other issues. Ray did say the crack I saw previously on the horizontal had bondo in it. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

The Archaeological Dig Continues

You have probably seen movies where archaeologists are removing sand and rock a layer at a time to get down to some precious artifact. I have had that feeling lately as I strip paint on some of 98K's metal parts. I have been removing paint a layer at a time from the horizontal tail and the rudder of 98K. The most recent coat was white. I have found an orange-red layer and also a blue layer. I believe blue was the color leaving the factory. I'm not sure what was used for primer, or if they even used any back then. I also know from photos Al (owner # 11, see last April's posts) supplied of the airplane during the early 60's the top of the rudder was orange and the rest appears cream.

My "dig" has been slow due to the weather. The paint remover says it needs to be 65 degrees F or higher to work. Of course, I tried it with temperatures in the garage at 50 and it sort of worked. I have decided to try and speed the process up and not wait for spring. A local place called "Soft Strip" advertises they do paint removal with a process called soda blasting. They work on car restorations among other things and also have a Cessna 185 on their web site they removed the paint from. I am planning to take some parts by on Wednesday and see what they can do. I will take one of the elevators that is in need of replacement and let them demonstrate their ability (or lack of) on that part before turning them loose on anything else.

As you can see in the picture, I did find a crack in the horizontal center section that will need repair. Doesn't look too difficult with the right guidance.

New Year - New Start

Well, if you follow this blog at all, you know progress has been very slow on 98K for the past several months. I have been waiting on the welding repairs on the fuselage to happen, and using that as an excuse to not do much else. I don't know about you, but I have had a general motivation problem for the past few months in several aspects of my life. So, its a new year and I decided it was time for a new start on 98K, or maybe a re-start is more accurate.

Today, I built some saw horses and then cleaned up the garage. I had tools scattered everywhere except where they belong. Also a lot of leaves and other stuff that had blown or been drug into the garage throughout the fall. Now it is clean, saw horses built, and I have decided to work on the horizontal tail for awhile. You can see it in the picture. I made the saw horses wide enough to support the wing chord, so the horizontal looks small.

I e-mailed fellow Stinson restorer Wade for some advice on removing paint and pointers on what to look for. I think the weather will be warm enough to actually strip some paint tomorrow. You can see some dark blue in places on the horizontal where the other paint layers have flaked off. I believe that is the original color of 98K. There is a post from last April 23rd (Make Mine Blue) that also made that determination based on the serial number and a web site Wade had provided.

I'll keep you posted on the progress. The plan is to work the tail feathers and then bring a wing panel home from the storage unit and start on that. I'll work other parts until the welding is done.