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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 |
#2
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Update on new paint job and leather seats - Trip back home
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...&x=0&y=-oqbro3
Beautiful paint scheme, Hai. Nice color selection. |
#3
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Update on new paint job and leather seats - Trip back home
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" |
#4
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Update on new paint job and leather seats - Trip back home
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. |
#5
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Update on new paint job and leather seats - Trip back home
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" |
#6
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Update on new paint job and leather seats - Trip back home
Smokin!!! Absolutely Smokin!! Looks like it just came out of the factory!
Jim |
#7
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Update on new paint job and leather seats - Trip back home
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 |
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