Challenger rebuild

Challenger rebuild...

Long sad story ...

I was in the process of building a Kolb Mark 3 , but do to other circumstances (ie also building a hangar, a runway, and a new business...) I decided that it was going to take an incredibly painful length of time to complete all projects. The only thing MORE painful was the fact that I had just finished getting my Private pilot license and renting a Cessna 172 was $75 an hour (an it's like driving a school bus...). So I found a local fella that was selling a good Challenger 2 to build a Skyraider and struck a deal. The thinking (or lack of...) was that I would fly the Challenger as is till I finished the Kolb and then spruce up the Challenger to sell and get my money back out of...good plan at least!!! I bought the C2 and started a good inspection at which time I found some things I was less than crazy about. So next thing you know I have the plane tore apart going over it closer and closer (like replacing all the hinge rivets in the tail...they were ALL LOOSE!). Next thing you know someone said, "If your ever gonna repaint it now is the time cause you already have it tore down!" Since that logic sounded good and I had a few days off from work coming up I said, "Why not?" For Pete's sake how long could it take? Right? Shortly after that day I began to hate myself...sob sniffle sob sob...

This is what I started with. This was taken later in the day after the "inspection" started...

This is the point where I realized that THIS fabric was not going to look any better, no matter what I did. Looked like it was time to recover...

This is what the fuselage looked like after I don't want to remember how many hours of scrubbing with a rag full of MEK to get all the old glue off. At that point I had my nervous breakdown (or was it just the effects of a MEK bath? I don't know but I certainly don't remember much from those days anymore and I have a kind of irrational fit anytime someone mentions MEK). Anyway at this point I figured that this little project was going to eat into all the moldy money I had laying around the house so I might as well put on one of those spiffy fiberglass nose cones while I'm at it...so off comes the tube nose...

Here was another "little" thing I found...When I ripped the fabric off I pulled EVERY rivet head off that holds on the brace plates at the rear of the fuselage. Seems they were put on with aluminum rivets and the "flexing" of the tail just cut them in 2. The Kolb kit I was working on is put together totally with stainless steel rivets with stainless mandrels, so I "borrowed" some rivets to redo these plates. Other than this though the rest of the fuselage riveting was in good shape. Now this airframe only has around 200 hours on it so I wasn't expecting any surprises...but it felt good to check.....

At this point the "other project" as it came to be known around my house hit rock bottom. The destruction came to an end, and the rebirth began....hooray!!!

At this point with the help of a local dealer named George Travis, I got the new nose on. I also took the opportunity to snug up all the controls and get all the "slop" out I could.

Well every fuselage needs skin, so on goes the new fabric. This day I was assisted by a fella named Harris McDonald. He has built I think four planes (2 Challengers, a Murphy Renegade biplane, and recently a RANS S6S) . He was a great fabric covering instructor and I learned a ton. Many thanks go out there...

Ironically I was wearing my "Kolb" hat the day I was covering my Challenger...That's probably enough to make Dave Goulat and Homer Kolb pass out right on the floor...

OH THE HUMANITY!!!!

And new fabric means Poly-brush and Polyspray...

Those wheel pants had never seen sand paper before they originally were painted. So I few hours of quality family time was NOT spent at home, but in the paint room with sandpaper and Bondo....sigh , sniffle

I've heard of others having this problem before as well, but I didn't expect it on this low time of an airframe. The 3 3/16" rivets that hold on all the horns on the pedals were all loose and allowed about 1/8"-3/16" movement of the push-pull tubes without moving the pedal. This was obviously NOT acceptable. The rivets were drilled out and AN3 bolts were put in there place.

Moral of this story is simple...CHECK THOSE RIVETS!!!

This plane is a 95 model and as such it had the older cloth sling seats. Since these seats could bring a tear to the eye of all but the most stonefaced (stone-butt?) I decided they had to go. I elected to make a set of aluminum seat bottoms ala the newer model Challengers. I sat in a set of Turbulence Aviation seats and found paradise , so I knew what had to be done. My dear mother took charge of that job and wallah! No numb-butt!!!

I decided that the plywood instrument panel wasn't gonna cut it so I went to whacking on some alum. sheet that was laying around. I also had already decided to upgrade to an EIS unit, so that in itself saved me from having to cut 2 dozen holes in the panel. I made the standard paper template before committing to metal.

This picture was snapped during trial fitting number 76 if I recall (kidding, but it sure seemed like it). Anyway this is what it looked like before crinkle paint. If you look , you'll notice the line of rivets along the bottom edge into the 3/4" alum. angle that stiffens up the bottom edge.

Here's a picture of the finished product (with too much glare obviously...) Anyway the only thing left to do is to find someone with a labelmaker to make switch labels.

Well , I finally got to the point that it was time to start putting big pieces back together. It was a big day to see what , from the right angle, appeared to be PART of an airplane. Life was looking up...

I didn't mention all the time spent , painting , and masking, and stripping, and etc.etc.etc.

Plopping that hunk of Rotax back on there was a big day too. It was good to imagine that it could make noise on its own for a change. And anyone who's built a plane knows what I mean. If you could count those hours sitting in a partially built airplane making airplane noises, I would have an impressive logbook!!!

As everybody knows, it takes twice as long to tie up the finishing details than it does to build the major portion of the airplane. This particular plane had a mylar/dacron wing but the velcro that holds the inboard ends together was pretty ragged. So after a suggestion by my dealer I elected to cut the velcro ends off and melt holes about every 6 inches on the "outboard" side of the innermost rib. Then I slipped heavy zip ties through the holes and pulled the wing taught. This left a gap between the wings though and being a cheapskate by nature decided I didn't want to spend the $300+ for the fiberglass gapseal. I spent 4-5 hours playing with cardboard patterns to get a good fit for a lexan gap seal that meets the top of the windshield. I bought 2 -12' strips of rubber moulding to wrap the windsield with from Aircraft Spruce that really gives it a professional finish. (Their part number 05-01300).

And now I have a few "finished" (is any airplane ever REALLY finished?) pictures...

And here is the finished product...

And here it is doing what it was meant to do!

And right after a smooth landing...(aren't all of them?)

And a shot of the instrument panel in flight...

A good shot out the window...Man, what a view!!!

And under the right wing...

And out the rear...Ain't no doors cool???

And of course, the fearless aviator shot!!! Well it might not be Tom Selleck in "High Road to China" but it sure is fun for me!!! (Can't tell it from the smile... ;-)

Not me flying it but here is an aerial shot of the plane...

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