Hank

Cheesy reporting, but the video was interesting! Nice 3-point landing (mains and tail) before bouncing high and nose heavy, collapsing the nose gear with a simultaneous prop strike. No way would I want to take that ride, anything but gentle. Also don't want an airframe repaired after a chute pull. glad nobody was hurt. Will be interesting the first time one parachutes onto someone . . .

There are also places that can texture the panel itself. If you're going with new, you can avoid all of those screws. Not sure of the price, I've not textured anything recently. It depends on the texture you want, the material and to some degree your location. Google "mold tech," they're one of the larger texturing operations.

I beg to differ. My nose tires are generally treadless (or durn close to it) when I replace them, and I've yet to flat spot one. My mains were bald on the outside,with a little tread in the inside, when I replaced them. No dry rot. So both happen. I do keep mine in a hangar, twice the price here in Alabama compared to WV. But the winter is worth it!

Good Lord! How are you burning through tires that fast? I bought my plane in June 07, replaced the nose tire with another Condor in the fall of 08; then replaced all three in Dec '12 or '13 (I forget, need to check the logs). My mains are GoodYear Flight Customs, either I or II, as the III is horribly expensive and the only benefit I could see was a 140-knot speed rating but I can't land that fast or even lower my gear . . . I've been averaging 80-90 hours per year, and about 125 when I was taking Instrument lessons. None of the tires were new when I bought the plane.

Just had my first ever 3-day-weekend annual since I bought her in 2007. IA pulled his trailer to my hangar. All inspection panels and belly were already off. On Day #3, he was doing paperwork, I was greasing the landing gear and putting the belly back on (cowl, spinner, wing and tail panels were already back on). Wonderful experience, I'm used to spending 3-4 weeks in the maintenance hangar. I guess not having any other jobs, both of us there together all day, really helped.

You still have the W&B concern, as well as cranking amps and the ability to power the plane for the specified time if the alternator goes out. And probably a few others I'm forgetting, maybe temperature and altitude effects, etc.

I'd put them on my C in a heartbeat, if the price wasn't so ludicrously high. Over a thousand bucks for two lights??? Not from me . . . I'll live with my dinky incandescents a while longer.

I buy my SS screws from Spruce. Measure only the ones you need, they are pretty cheap in bags of 50. Never buy the "kits," you'll never use them all (plus they are badly overpriced!). While you're at it, go ahead and order screws for all of your inspection panels, too. The Teflon washers to go under them are about 2¢ each in bags of 100. Then you'll be ready to replace any that don't look good at every annual, and you can throw some in the back in a baggie in case some come up missing or lost away from home. Here is the quantity of screws I just removed at annual. The last guy put them in with a screw gun, against my direct request; I replaced all belly and about half of the spinner screws, plus a few others here and there. Spinner 27 Belly 48 + 5 Wings 48 Tail 30 The belly, wing and tail screws are the same size, but belly screws are flat heads.

My truck???

My wife has enjoyed going places in our C since the day after I finished my insurance dual. You'll like yours too.

Looks just like the one on my 1976 Chevrolet truck from high school.

Just the standard warning: when adhering things together, the strength of the joint is directly proportional to how effectively the bonded areas were cleaned prior to application of adhesive. Hope it all goes well. I just had new seals out around my door and baggage door, and love it.

Banner ads aren't too bad, they're everywhere. But pop up ads like this that not only cover content but are targeted towards you and not towards me (I don't have any websites now, didn't have any in the past) are a showstopper. Just like the other ads, these just started today, and only appear on the individual forum pages, so I can't see the freaking threads. Ads are not why we come here, but while here we may see some that are interesting. Optimizing my website isn't, I want to see the threads behind it.

nels-- I used Attitude Aviation, they have shops at both KHTS (Class D) and KHTW (uncontrolled, 4nm away, where I was based). Their phone is either 740-894-4144 or 740-894-4414. I think the first is the A&P, and the second is the FBO, but I never could keep them straight even when I was based there. Hope everything works out for you.

That's how you got to BE old, Gus!

I'll agree completely to the first, but you've got to CONVINCE ME of the second . . . I'm just not a believer.

An F is 10" longer than C & Es, split 5" of back seat legroom and 5" of baggage space. I generally slide my seat forward to the first notch, and sit in a 2" cushion; my 5'3" wife sits on three cushions and can't touch the rudders from the same spot. Smaller people are perfect for GA travel.

Hmmm, interesting thought. Wonder how that big towel bar thing would work? Mine has a post coming out the leading edge of the vertical stab to the loop, which circles both directions before going back into the sides if the stab. I bet something could be done there. Hmmm. . . .

Isn't Farmingdale towered? I've been turned downwind at Class C about 1500 agl, over six miles out, then given airline traffic to follow in to land. Don't remember how long final was, but I turned base as soon as I saw the dots on final, and they were on the ground before I could turn base; it was a long final approach for sure.

Joe, this looks like an amazingly steady mount. Bet it would attach to the wing tie downs, unless they're in a baggie on your hat rack. Should still give a good view there, miss anything kicked up by the prop on the ground, and not cause any ground clearance issues.

Glad everyone is okay. Will be interesting to see what caused this event. Thought this was an interesting thing to say: "Officials say they were both shaken up, because once that parachute deployed, there is no way of knowing where you will land." There's been much debate about this on many aviation forums, pulling the chute and landing wherever the wind blows you, but this is the first I've ever read in an accident write up. To think that they were shaken up by their inability to control the landing point, and not by whatever made the engine stop eight miles from landing . . . This says volumes to me, but won't affect the "put a chute in every plane, cost and weight be damned" crowd at all.

"I am not a mechanic..." but you sure know your industrial equipment! Very succinct account of thermocouples, Anthony. I'd expect JPI use J-type thermocouples myself. The manuals somewhere should say this. I've seen equipment set up for J get used with K, and it just doesn't work right. This is something else to doublecheck.

The B also left the factory with a wooden tail, but were all converted to metal tails like the C, by AD in the 70s.

Cool! Ya'll taught me something that's not in my Owners Manual. I'll remember this, even if the door hasn't popped open since Labor Day '07.

Hey, Mike. My wife and I love our C. It's an incredibly versatile machine. You'll need to slide the seats pretty far forward, somyiur kids in the back will have lots of room. Just learn to pack small. We always run out of space before weight, and my only W&B challenge was taking three of my wife's cousins flying, as I was limited to 34 gal of fuel. Thankfully one of them was only 160 lbs, the other two were each 200+ lbs.