Update on new paint job and leather seats - Trip back home

We flew our Cardinal from the AOGPaint in Mena, Arkansas back to New
York last weekend. Both the paint job and seat reupholstering work
were done on time, a month from delivery date.

We were quite pleased to see the paint scheme looked exactly like
the photoshopped image which we emailed to Linda. The airbrushed
Cardinal in fight on the tail section looked gorgeous. It was very
hard to imagine how the colors that we picked from the tiny patches in
the brochure would look on the plane. I was somewhat concerned that
the Navigator Tan might be a bit too gray and the Cabernet Red might be
a bit too dark. The real thing looked fabulous.

The new khaki leather seats also looked very nice. It's amazing how
a new coat of paint and new seat cover completely transformed the
plane. Now we can travel in style as my nephew said after seeing the
before and after images which we posted here

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...&x=0&y=-oqbro3

We lucked out and had great VFR weather flying back from Mena to New
York. We did not depart Mena until 11am after carefully inspected the
plane, preflighted, flew around the pattern, landed and inspected
again. Linda told us that a Bonanza owner just hopped in his newly
painted plane with his father and flew away. The next day, he emailed
and chewed them out for not removing a piece of tape from the static
port!

Rick immediately noticed that the aileron controls seemed much
tighter than before and were somewhat concerned. I told him that as I
recalled, all the planes that I had flown had tighter feel that our
plane so it was probably a good thing. We refueled at 2I0,
Madisonville Kentucky. The FBO manager happened to be at the
self-service pump. He gave compliments to the plane look. We told him
that it had just come out from the paint shop. The next stop for the
night was at Parkersburg, West Virginia. While waiting for the
shuttle bus from Comfort suites hotel, I chatted with the night shift
FBO guy. He zoomed his security camera to have a close look at our
pretty plane. He also told me the story of zooming in on a plane and
found a pair of legs and a stream of water. Then the pilot's wife
entered the FBO and was treated with an instant replay ;-)

The overnight stay at Comfort Suites (at $71 a night) was relaxing.
The wireless Internet connection worked instantly. We were very happy
to see that the huge high-pressure centers stayed over most of the
country for at least the next 36 hours. The next morning, we got up a
bit late and called the front desk to delay the shuttle bus for half an
hour. This gave us a chance to load up on the huge breakfast selection
with fresh fruits, yogurt, rolls, bagels, eggs, cereals, oatmeal etc.
for the trip home. With the wind from the Northwest at 45kts and us
going northeast, we had just a bit of a tailwind at 9000ft. In less
than 3 hrs, we were back to our own backyard.

With shorter days and change in daylight saving time, we did not
have a chance to fly our plane for a whole week. Yesterday, we had
planned to go to a fly-in to 'show off' our bird but I had some
last-minute emergency work and had to cancel the plane. We flew to
Columbia this morning to meet with some friends for lunch. The buffet
lunch at Meadowsgreen restaurant was as good as Steve had advertised.
After lunch, we flew to Wurstboro to visit our old training ground.
The moment we landed, some spectators standing near the fence started
snapping pictures of our bird. Of course, everyone wanted to see our
plane & all were amazed at the transformation.

White I was tying down the plane at KPOU, a group of people walked by
heading to the nearby restaurant. All heads were turned to look at
shiny bird. I wished there was a Cirrus nearby so that I could ask
them to vote on which plane was the better looking one. I'm certain
that I would get more than one vote ;-)

Hai Longworth

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...&x=0&y=-oqbro3

Beautiful paint scheme, Hai. Nice color selection.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...&x=0&y=-oqbro3

Gorgeous, Hai! Show us more of the interior!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

It looks great! It was a nice looking plane to begin with (but then I am
partial to Cessnas), really a fresh paint scheme. Get us a couple of
close-up of the seats?!

A Bonanza owner didn't notice tape over the staic port till the next day.
Hello, preflight?

Well, happy flying, you are one lucky fella.

Well, happy flying, you are one lucky fella.

Except he's a she...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Smokin!!! Absolutely Smokin!! Looks like it just came out of the factory!
Jim

Jay,

I think Michael's statement was for Rick ;-) He is just darn lucky
to have an instrument rated copilot. We take turns flying every
3-4hrs. This really helps in long cross-country trips.

Believe it or not, I just did not have the time to take pictures of
the seats. Leaving Mena, we were occupied with inspecting the plane
and details of the flights. We had several alternative IFR flight
plans with different stops pending when we can leave Mena and wind
conditions. My original AOPA flight plans indicated that we would have
40kts tailwind. Then the wind changed direction and I had to use the
plans for the longer durations. It was perfect VFR weather, but we
always prefer to file IFR plans to be in the system so that we don't
have to watch out for MOA, TFR areas etc. all the time.

Last week, Rick made two attempts to go to the airport to put the
plane cover back on and to measure the pilot's side window but had to
retreat due to howling wind and bone-chilling temperatures. Yesterday
was the first time that we flew. With the long lunch, flying time and
visits at two airports we got back to KPOU at 5:00pm. This gave us
just enough daylight to fit the window template behind the plastic
panel for measurement and marking. We had all the windows replaced
except the pilot's side awaiting form 337 approval for the camera
window. It was a simple design (based on one provided by LPAero) and
yet it took 6 months for the darn paperwork. First the FSDO office
returned the form for some additional information after holding it for
two months. Then an additional 4 months for the final approval which
just came last week. We had postponing the paint job for months
waiting for this. Then we decided to just go ahead with the job.
AOGPaint gave us some extra paint to paint the rivets for this new
window. LPAero initially wanted us to send them the actual pilot's
window for template. Not wanting to be without our plane again, we
asked them to accept the copilot side and a marked template. Just hope
that we can finish this last window before the end of the year.

If the weather permits, we will fly to Connecticut to spend
Thanksgiving with my sister's family. We try not to fly in IMC in
cold weather and the airport near their house does not have IAP (due to
terrain - next to a hill with several tall towers). I will try to
remember to take pictures of the interior.

If I have the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I will
assemble few pictures of our plane project with all the gory details
;-) and send to you for the Rogue's gallery.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John, Dan, Michael and Jim

Thank you for checking out our bird in its new plumage. Believe it
or not, the paint scheme was decided the last minute, the night before
flying down to Mena. We had thought of retaining the original scheme
with some minor modifications like making the black strip smaller and
have to dividing line going through the tail number. Just before
sending out the photopshopped image, we decided to go through all the
Cardinal pictures posted in Cardinal Flyers flyin reports. I was
interested in two European planes with very simple and clean designs.
Rick thought the one from Switzerland (white with two geometric red
stripes) was too simple. He agreed that the one from New Zealand
(white/tan with blue stripes) was nice. We then made the decision to
drastically change the look of our bird. I convinced Rick that red is
move attractive color than bluely. I also don't like the solid tan
stabilator/tail which I thought looking a bit military transport
planes. So we use photoshop to convert the color and to change the
tail to half white, half tan with a red edge and sent Linda the image.
When Linda printed out the picture, she knew right away that it was a
modified Cessna 1986 paint scheme. I did a search later and found
that the Cardinal from New Zealand was modified from a Skylane 1986
paint scheme.

Of course, we had second thought about the design in returning
home. The final version had the tan section in the tail became a
wedge. We also expanded the tan area above the fuselage to balance the
Cardinal's nose section and added details to the wheel pant. I checked
out a scheme designer website and they charged something like close to
$1K for a new scheme, $600 for scheme adaptation and $500 for rendering
an existing paint scheme. I was amazed that AOGPaint shop could just
paint the plane the way we wanted from a small photoshopped picture
even with part of the tail section obscured by the wing. Linda Goodner
was quite an accomplished artist. They had been in the painting and
design business for many years. I very much doubted that they would
need to render the image into drawings and specifications for the paint
project.

Hai Longworth