44 Vol.3 No.10 / October 2014
HOMEBUILDERS' HOW-TO
RECENTLY I WAS PRESSED into service to help my brother Bob
and his friend Kevin, who were repairing a wrecked Navion
for a mutual friend. Seems the Navion owner got invited
to land in a farmer's field that wasn't quite big enough.
The plane went through the fence, down a hill, and ended
up in a ravine. The gear was damaged, wing destroyed,
and the nose, including engine and prop, were bent. The
going-in position of the insurance company was that the
plane was not economically repairable, so the salvage
operation was not done carefully. The wings were cut
off with a chain saw!
Bob and Kevin repaired the engine (500 hours since
new TCM IO -550) that needed, among other things, a new
crankshaft. They found a suitable used prop for $4,200, and
they found a used but serviceable set of wings. The wings
on a Navion are held on with six bolts! They disassembled
the landing gear, repaired, repainted, and reinstalled it.
Most of the hydraulic lines had to be remade since the old
ones were either damaged in the crash or by the salvagers.
When I arrived, they had mated the fuselage to the wings
and installed the tail surfaces. I got to help install all the
flight control surfaces and "rig " them. (See photo.)
Rigging Tricks
For homebuilts
BY RICHARD KOEHLER