Member Benefits

As our team in Griffin, Georgia, delved into the airplane, each system underwent a thorough inspection, led by our chief inspector Danny Rexroad. Most areas held up well under the microscope, especially when viewed through the lens of the airplane's three decades of service.

But some components have been replaced in production aircraft over the years with better materials and solutions. For example, the Cardinal's ventilation system uses two- and three-inch-diameter tubing to route fresh air from the forward scoops to the cabin vents, and this gets brittle over the years. Plus, the black cat tubing, made from fiberglass-coated neoprene rubber, has been replaced in new-generation aircraft with orange scat tubing (the S stands for silicone), which stands up better to the moisture of condensation inherent to such systems. When we put your airplane back together, new scat tubing will handle the job, and help minimize the possibility of corrosion near the main spar.

Once the efficient team from Air Wrench pulled the Cardinal's floorboards and instrument panel, on-site project manager Dan Gryder, of The AvNet, saw a big place for improvement — the electrical system's hundreds of feet of wiring, piles of connectors, and rows of well-used switches and circuit breakers. In conjunction with our avionics installation folks at Sarasota Avionics International, he'd address the components clearly ready for retirement after years of dedicated service. In fact, we promptly decided that we would take the opportunity to replace the airplane's entire wiring scheme. With the best-in-show level of refurbishment we planned, what good would a new panel be without new wires to faithfully deliver the juice?

Gryder's talent for strategizing the overhaul of aircraft electrical systems and developing innovative panel layouts began to take shape during the restoration of a Cessna 210 that he undertook 12 years ago, and hit full stride as he envisioned the best possible changes and updates for our sweepstakes airplane. For the 210, he built a new one-piece all-metal panel, as well, and his experience led us to another concept we'll discuss in an upcoming installment — the absence of "stickers" in your Catch-A-Cardinal.

Tearing our wires out
Even though what lay behind the old panel looked in places like a rat's nest when we pulled out the equipment, there was truly a method to it all — one we wanted to preserve as we took the airplane apart.

As the nav and com radios, long-dead autopilot, stalwart transponder, and every other component came out of the airplane's front office, they were catalogued. Of the functional hardware, we have plenty, and we'll soon post a list of the items for sale to offset the costs of the project. But we need to get everything up and running before we hold the yard sale.

Scott Collins and his staff at Precision Avionics in Griffin helped Rexroad with dismantling the Cardinal's avionics and instruments, ensuring everything was in order as it came off the airplane.

Stamp it, and lace it
Aircraft wires are required to be easily identified so that technicians can locate the correct wire for a component. Typically, on an aftermarket avionics installation in light aircraft, most shops label new wires in a couple of places along their length.

What's truly unusual about this refurbishment is that we're completely restoring the electrical system. Sarasota Avionics removed every inch of original wire for replacement.

This allows us to take the concept of labeling wire a step further and doing what manufacturers of production aircraft do now — we have used a wire-stamp device to permanently mark each wire at four-inch intervals along its entire length. Sarasota Avionics has this capability, and it means that down the road, a technician can identify any wire on the airplane in seconds, at virtually any station on its length. The time savings and increased accuracy during maintenance that this makes possible will be a boon to our winner.

Sarasota Avionics also chose to beef up the wiring, and replace it with heavier-duty copper-core wire (see "Tool From the Trenches" sidebar to this article). Cessna specs call for 18, 20, or 22 gauge wire for various applications within the Cardinal; we primarily used 16 gauge wire throughout. You can go heavier, but not lighter, and the overall impact to the airplane's basic empty weight is negligible.

We're also taking the install one step further. If you look within the innards of most production airplanes made in the past few decades, you'll find flat plastic tie-wraps. Although they are quick and easy to use — and inexpensive — tie-wraps bind the wires like handcuffs and can, if installed improperly, cut or break wires over time.

A better practice for wiring enclosed within the airplane is lacing, which aircraft manufacturers used to do, and which high-end shops and craftsmen have continued in quality restorations and homebuilt aircraft. The lacing process involves securing together a bundle of wires by way of a continuous cord forming loops at regular intervals around the bundle. Traditionally, cotton and linen cord have been used, but in the Cardinal we're lacing with nylon cord. It's fussy and time consuming, but it looks fantastic, wears well, and sends your airplane to the head of its class, from a wiring standpoint. And the guys at Sarasota have really gone the extra mile to make this install unique among those we've done for the sweepstakes.

E-mail the author at julie.boatman@aopa.org.

Rexroad, based at the Newnan Coweta County Airport in Newnan, Georgia, is a single-engine Cessna specialist, who has on his client list a variety of airplanes for which he is responsible on an ongoing basis. "I really like the 206 on down," says Rexroad, who owns and flies a 1966 150F. Rexroad also has considerable experience overseeing the maintenance programs on a couple of very special Douglas DC-3s. Call 678/372-6346 or e-mail n522dr@hotmail.com.