By Michael Haney, EAA Lifetime 1133354
This piece originally ran in the June 2024 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
The story begins June 2021 in Mojave, California. I bought the aircraft from longtime friends and customers. The husband died, and the wife’s health was deteriorating. I flew the airplane for 11 hours and decided to make it new again with some updating mods.
I completely disassembled the airplane. Everyone I knew said that I was crazy, as the airplane was in great shape with a factory-new engine with only 185 hours on it. I installed the Air Plains Services 300-hp conversion and literally renewed or replaced everything from the firewall forward. The engine, a Continental IO-520-D, slightly modified and built by Ly-Con Aircraft Engines of Visalia, California, was installed along with a new Hartzell three-bladed scimitar propeller.
Inside, the instrument panel was fitted with all Garmin glass to include all the engine instruments and a GFC 500 autopilot, new engine and environmental controls, leather seats and side panels, wool headliner, carpet kit, SoundEx insulation, all new electrical wiring, Bogert battery box, Selkirk extended baggage compartment, all interior plastics, Knots 2U door post vent system, CiES fuel transmitters, Avion ram’s horn yokes, and Rosen sun visors.
The exterior was fitted with Hoerner-style wingtips, Knots 2U flap gap seals, Micro AeroDynamics vortex generators, all new fiberglass exterior caps, and all Whelen LED lighting. The paint scheme was designed by Scheme Designers, Cresskill, New Jersey, and applied by Corona Air Paint, Corona, California. The whole process of restoration lasted until April 2023, just less than two years.
There were some issues in the way the airplane flew, as the CG was near the forward limit, until the Selkirk extended baggage compartment was installed and the allowable ballast weight (50 pounds) was positioned as far aft as possible. On long trips, remove the ballast and put your suitcase back there — that’ll do the same thing. This along with the vortex generators made the airplane fly like a Cessna. It was faster, too!
All the new wiring was labeled throughout the length of the wire with Dymo labeling shrink tubing as per the current revision of the Cessna wire diagrams. So any mechanic can troubleshoot any electrical problems.
About the performance: The airplane was all original when I bought it. There were two things that most dramatically changed it. Of course the engine, with its power, makes the airplane climb like a homesick angel even at gross weight. Climbing through 9,000 feet, it is still producing 800 fpm at 120 mph indicated. The Hoerner-style wingtips combined with the flap gap seals help in the climb but really made a difference in the descent. Flight tests before and after these mods revealed an increase of 10 mph from the same altitude, outside air temperature, and rate of descent. Awesome! The increased performance in the climb to altitude and the increased speed in the descent really cuts our en route time. In cruise at 9,500 feet, I run at 20 inches of manifold pressure, 2450 rpm (57 percent power), 100 degrees rich of peak (I am not a lean of peak guy) with an outside air temperature of 65 degrees, and burn 13.5 gph with a true airspeed of 165 mph. Not too shabby for an airplane with the gear “down and welded!”
The airplane is an awesome IFR platform. With all Garmin avionics, no mixed and matched units, this airplane was approved for all types of approaches. It would fly the approach, ask if you wanted to do the missed, perform the missed approach, and get in the holding pattern all by itself with hands off the controls; all you had to do is apply power and raise the flaps on the go! For you folks who have not flown Part 121 or 135 equipment, this airplane does it with all the latest bells and whistles, bar none!