Some advice from this old Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME) / Pilot and A&P. The best investment you can make in your aircraft and future as maintainers is though and meticulous maintenance records / log books. Keep them neat and accurate. Reference previous certifications and tags. Your future employers / customers will appreciate it. I spent over 20 years as a Civil Airworthiness Inspector and always started with the paper work. Good paperwork is a good indication of good workmanship. Good luck on your project. Bee Safe.
AV8TOR thank you, rest assured we are meticulously logging, and recording detailed drawings and measurements of all repairs along with everything else we’ve done. We’ve got some IA friends inspecting all of our work and were submitting 337s when applicable as they come along. But you are right, it’s not so much our skill with tools but the paperwork that will make or break this project.
Man, I miss fabricating! I was an airframe mechanic in the Army 20 yrs ago and this brought back many memories. Good call replacing the Cherry max even though it’s a pain trying to get a good shop head in tight places like that.
Fantastic HOWTO video. I like a couple things. 1. Sharing the work. Not just making one person watch... 2. Speed sequences inter spaced with real time slowdowns for the details. I'm a 68 year old student pilot training in a 150 (tricycle) which is what brought me here. Thanks for making this available, I really enjoyed it.
looseparts thanks for the feedback. It’s totally a team project however it’s her plane and I’m just her helper 😁. But we’re both mechanics and have worked at the same company flying together for years so we get along ok. Congrats on starting your flight training, the 150 is a great way to learn. Best of luck in getting your private!
Mike great to see your project. This plane belonged to my Dad from the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s. It was still a trike then but brings back some great memories!
Great stuff guys! What would help greatly is to weld up a fixture before you start drilling fasteners. It helps keeping geometry and jt works way easier! I saw someone was holding it down on the bench while you guys were removing fasteners, which is a pain in the backside
Sky Dive thanks, we juggled the idea of building a jig for the horizontal, but because of the simple construction (it’s really just a sheet of sheet metal bent twice to form the forward spar) it wasn’t necessary. We did fully assemble and fit the entire horizontal back into the aircraft before final assembly just to make sure everything still fit correctly. Then we just removed what was necessary to reach the leading edge while we rivited it leaving as much structural stability intact during the final assembly. We will however need to build a jig when it comes to fixing the wing spar.
How did you bend the new leading edge, and get the proper radius? I missed that part. The shop where I used to work, always sourced skins from Cessna and Piper. Never made in house. Looking forward to part 2. I learned to fly in those a lifetime ago.....
We measured the radius on each end (turns out the radius isn’t tapered) then formed a radius bar for the break out of wood. Made the bend and then tacked it onto the horizontal with clecos. Once all in place we were able to finalize our lines and cut to finish. Little bit of filing and edge rolling and done.
No those are Cessna factory parts. I don’t even want to say how much they cost but yeah, they are pressed parts, we don’t have anything close to the tooling to do that.
I'm shocked you guys didn't run into a billion blown out/wallowed out holes. Also, no sealant on those rivets? not familiar with this particular aircraft but every platform ive ever worked required sealant on all structural fasteners. They really drummed it into us.
We did run into a few walloed out holes and were forced to upsize to the next larger rivet. In this case a -3 to a -4. Also no, we didn't use any sealant, I work on otters on the off season and when I make a repair on a float I will use 5200 before riveting it back together. In this case the manufacturer calls for sealant of anything that may be below the water line.
Ryan. I’m curious about the applications that you were trained on that required sealant. I’m a first time builder of an RV 10 and we have been instructed to use sealant on trailing edges and the fuel tank. I wonder what I’m missing. Thanks in advance.
@@toddjohnson9528 I did aircraft structural work for the navy and everything had to conform to opnavinst 4790.2a, which is the naval aviation maintenance program (namp), and 01-1a-509, which is the cleaning and corrosion control tech pub. Just Google the 509 PDF and there's a section on sealants and sealant application.
Soon! I just finished up the fire season and she has been working her normal schedule on medivac plus a side float job and instructing and wrenching so we’ve been super busy. But we’ve made a ton of progress and I’m going to sit down and edit episode two when I get home... probably 😂
Sure, first step was figure out the bend radius. We measured both of ours before we took them apart and measured a couple others on the field that were the same model. Then we drilled out the rivets and removed one leading edge. Hammered it flat with a dead blow and made a rough pattern, roughly 3/4” larger than the original. We made a radius bar to the measurements we took and made a bend down the center of the pattern. Then using a few hands made a couple pilot holes and used a hold finder to find the rest of the holes. Lots of clecos in clecos out, hole find then back in. Very time consuming. After it was all patterned we made our finish lines (edge spacing and all) cut and filed and slightly rolled the edges also then rivet it all back together. Easy peasy 😬
Great video. Were you allowed to fabricate the leading edge and front ribs and sign them off on your own, or did you have to have an IA sign them off. I was under the understanding that you had to buy them if they were available and I guess I was wrong. I hear they allow people in Alaska to do more on their aircraft as a&p's then in the other states due to the lack of IA's. Is that correct? Thanks again for the video.
The long rods are they just placeor hole pins cause they would be massive rivets or huck bolts otherwise....if I had the money i would have you folks do my plane and I would be happy to fly it after!
Very cool. Would love to restore my 150 but since I am not an A&P I am just building a Zenith instead. When is Part 2? Are you currently doing this in the UAF hanger? Would love to check it out, I am in fbx.
Part 2 is coming very soon. No we’re down in Juneau, we went to UAF a few years ago, I miss Fairbanks though. Good luck on the zenith, they looks badass!
They did prime it after test fitting. But it’s not required, the interior structure on most old Cessnas were just bare metal. Priming was an extra option from Cessna and Beechcraft which added cost and weight to the aircraft. Back then no one though we would still be using these aircraft 60 years later so priming was very low on a buyers list of wants. Piper was the first manufacturer to make fully priming the interior of airframes a standard option included for all.
Holy hell, I thought you were trying to do the entire restoration in one video. It is too hard for me to watch. Plus if you want to make music videos go to a music channel.
why repair old damaged cessna because you can buy 2000-6000$ full good condition same plane. you waste only time and money lot repair expensive. cheapen have buy good condition old 150. cost normal 2-6K and new model 4-12000$ max. but no newer cost more than 16000$ must be this max price have totally new and not fly many hour.
First off, why repair anything? What’s the point when you can just buy something new? For us, it’s not about buying an airplane. We both fly professionally so it’s not about getting something that flies. This is about taking a cool little plane that was rotting away in a hangar and making it fly again. And it’s about spending time with my girlfriend doing something we enjoy. Besides, you’re a little off on your prices. A good condition 150 is worth between 20-45k. I’m not sure what our time is worth or if we would make money going to the lengths we are, but it’s fun and that’s all that matters.
@@mikebristol6466 ok,i understand fun is fun, but true 150 not ewer cost ower 20 000k only new, 20-30000$ you can buy 170 and 180 serie biggest cessna today. normal 150 if cost 16 000$ have lot ower price.