rottydaddy
En-Route
Finally, after about 5 months and 600 or so man-hours, the club's SGS 2-33 returned to active status today. We pretty much re-did everything except the wings... the primary goal was putting new fabric on the fuse and tail feathers, but there were minor repairs and we made quite a few improvements, including the outrageous nose art (for which I proudly accept responsibility, LOL). We basically had this bird completely apart, except for the wings.
The ugly wings, BTW, will probably be next winter's project... they are no longer worthy of being seen with that now-gorgeous fuselage.
She actually weighed in a few pounds lighter than last time, and performed well on three test hops after getting "blessed" by our club's IA, and the paperwork, placards, etc., etc.
Those of us who put so much into this project are pretty damn pleased with ourselves, and our brave test pilot, "Gus" the 2-33 guru, is pretty damn pleased he didn't have any unpleasant surprises.
We knew she'd fly fine, especially after the official "blessing" (actually the culmination of many prior progress checks), but it was a bit dramatic to see it under tow, etc. after I have had my hands on every single piece of it ("did I forget a cotter pin somewhere?").
But very satisfying, of course, to see her come home safe, with a smile and thumbs-up from Gus.
If I didn't know better, I'd swear I learned a thing or two about this resto stuff during my 200+ hours...
Most of the pics, except the "before" and "after" shots, are video grabs- I was in the back of JP's L3 with the camcorder, flying "chase" for the first hop, and pretty much stuck with that on the ground for the next two.
I didn't resume my lessons today, but I will probably do so this weekend, weather permitting.
The ugly wings, BTW, will probably be next winter's project... they are no longer worthy of being seen with that now-gorgeous fuselage.
She actually weighed in a few pounds lighter than last time, and performed well on three test hops after getting "blessed" by our club's IA, and the paperwork, placards, etc., etc.
Those of us who put so much into this project are pretty damn pleased with ourselves, and our brave test pilot, "Gus" the 2-33 guru, is pretty damn pleased he didn't have any unpleasant surprises.
We knew she'd fly fine, especially after the official "blessing" (actually the culmination of many prior progress checks), but it was a bit dramatic to see it under tow, etc. after I have had my hands on every single piece of it ("did I forget a cotter pin somewhere?").
But very satisfying, of course, to see her come home safe, with a smile and thumbs-up from Gus.
If I didn't know better, I'd swear I learned a thing or two about this resto stuff during my 200+ hours...
Most of the pics, except the "before" and "after" shots, are video grabs- I was in the back of JP's L3 with the camcorder, flying "chase" for the first hop, and pretty much stuck with that on the ground for the next two.
I didn't resume my lessons today, but I will probably do so this weekend, weather permitting.
