Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/254584
34 Vol.3 No.2 / Februar y 2014 WHAT OUR MEMBERS ARE BUILDING EAA CHAPTER 282 WAS founded in the 1960s at Clearwater Airpark (KCLW), located in the Tampa Bay, Florida, area. Since its founding, members have completed more than forty air- craft—plans-built, kits, and the restoration of certifi cated aircraft. The chapter has recently completed restoration of a Stits Playboy and is now working on an open-cockpit aerobatic Acroduster Too biplane. I have been a member of Chapter 282 since the late 1980s. In October 2013 (perhaps in a moment of temporary insanity), I agreed to become a partner with two other Chapter 282 members—Jim Porter, EAA 450902, and Cindy Hardeman, EAA 1000463—to restore a SeaRey am- phibian, N864BW. Why an amphibian? We live in Florida with 30,000 lakes and surrounded by 1,350 miles of coastline on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, so why not an amphibian? There are lots of amphibians to choose from—why a SeaRey? Besides regarding it as a fun plane, we have a lot of significant project support within easy reach. Using SeaRey cruise speeds as a reference: • Support from the airframe manufacturer (Progressive Aerodyne – Tavares, Florida) is 50 minutes away. • Support for the Terra radios (Gulf Coast Avionics – Lakeland, Florida) is 25 minutes away. • Support for the Rotax engine (Lockwood Aviation – Sebring, Florida) is 40 minutes away. Progressive Aerodyne (PA) started producing SeaRey kits in 1992. To date, they have sold more than 600 kits and as- sembled aircraft. Some preliminary research revealed that our restoration aircraft was Hull Number 1. It appears that the fi rst owner and builder, William (Bill) Widden, built and fl ew N864BW for about 500 hours, including some fl ights to the Bahamas. The second owner put about 400 hours on it. The third owner purchased it with the intent of restoring it (and actually completed construction and covering of the tail feath- ers); but he had to move, so he sold the package to our team. Since the SeaRey is an amphibian, we suspected that we would have our share of corrosion-related issues to deal with. As a starting point, we decided to strip the wings to inspect the condition of the structure—and were very surprised at how little corrosion we found on the aluminum parts. The inboard ribs were made of wood and were not in good condition, so we have fabricated replacements from marine-grade plywood. The upside of having Hull Number 1 is that it will serve as a testament to the durability of the SeaRey product line and will serve as the "elder statesman" of the SeaRey fleet; the downside is that, since it was the very first SeaRey kit pro- duced, it has absolutely no upgrades or improvements that were implemented to the fleet going forward! Realizing this shortcoming, Jim Porter and I made an exploratory trip to the PA factory in Tavares. Members of the PA technical team worked with us to review our wing and to recommend those SeaRey 'Hull Number 1' Restoration An outline of its restoration challenges BY BOB GIBSON, E A A LIFE TIME 583744 Photography courtesy of Bob Gibson E A A E X P _ F e b 1 4 . i n d d 3 4 EAAEXP_Feb14.indd 34 2 / 3 / 1 4 3 : 1 8 P M 2/3/14 3:18 PM