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It was time to put an important theory to the test — that an airplane on display halfway through assembly would attract a lot of attention from your typical airshow crowd.

Back in December, we determined that we would show off the 1977 Cessna Cardinal we're refurbishing for this year's sweepstakes at the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In at Lakeland, Florida, in a completely different way. In keeping with the theme of total disassembly, we'd display the airplane with floorboards out and guts exposed, both to teach about how an airplane is built and also to feature the incredible work done so far on the airplane.

So we put it up on a custom-built deck and waited for the crowd reaction [see photos].

"You guys are doing it right"
If I had to pick one comment I heard more than any other from the pilots and aviation enthusiasts who swarmed the airplane pretty much continuously all week during the show, it would be this: "AOPA is really doing it right this year."

AOPA member Greg Hyatt has been following the refurbishment and stopped by the airplane to check on our progress. He e-mailed me afterward and noted several areas where we'd accomplished corrosion proofing around the spar, and gave us a pat on the back for its "great shape." He's an A&P with some Cardinal refurbishment experience of his own, so the praise felt great.

We held forums on Thursday and Saturday, and to give the 40 to 50 people gathered around the airplane more information on Cessnas and Cardinals we invited representatives such as Pia Bergqvist and Van Abel (project manager for the Next Generation Piston) and Scott Bengtson (manager of propjet product marketing) from Cessna Aircraft Company, and Keith and Debbie Petersen and Paul Millner from the Cardinal Flyers Online type club, to speak along with me and on-site project manager Dan Gryder of The AvNet. Kirk Fryar, from Sarasota Avionics also came by on Saturday to talk about the avionics installation and electrical system overhaul that the company performed.

Cardinal kudos
Members of the Cardinal Flyers visited the airplane throughout the week to check out what we'd done with your Cardinal, and to draw parallels with their own wide experiences. It was highly informative for me to talk through specifics on various aspects of the Cardinal with these owner-experts — especially considering we had a 1:1 scale model to refer to during our discussions!

I wondered how many current Cardinal owners we'd meet, and I was happily surprised by the fact I nearly always had a Cardinal pilot on hand at the airplane. Although the Cardinal was produced in somewhat limited numbers (when you consider its stablemates the Skyhawk and the Skylane — 4,296 compared to the Skyhawk's 40,000-plus and the Skylane's 35,000-plus), its compelling design, ease of flight, and utility has helped it endure when lesser aircraft may have been relegated to a footnote in Jane's All the World's Airplanes.

One of the best flybys by a previous Cardinal pilot happened to be one made by a former flyer in your Cardinal, back when it was N18729. This member flew for the aerial photographer who first owned the airplane when he could no longer keep it flying on his own. He took the opportunity to tell me more about that pilot/owner, and what meticulous care that owner took of 729 when it was his. I invited him to join the many members who had already signed the forward cabin floorboard, which we had on display at the tent for people to sign — and he wrote a special note for the person who eventually wins N778RD, your Catch-A-Cardinal.

I might add here that the floorboard is covered with what looks like a thousand signatures — what are the chances one of those folks will get to keep the airplane for good?

Another road
For the first time in a long time, we didn't fly the airplane to its first public display, so we had a little different set up than in year's past. Quite a few folks questioned me about whether I'd flown it in...the Sun 'n Fun attendees in general were a very observant lot and figured right off the bat that we hadn't.

The airplane was delivered to Lakeland by a combination road trip and flight executed seamlessly by Atlanta Air Recovery & Storage (AARS), of Griffin, Georgia, and The AvNet. Todd Thaxton, of AARS, managed the road portion for the trip down, and Ronnie Powers Jr. expertly handled the pickup and return to Griffin when the show was over. These guys are my heroes for moving the airplane safely and capably. But it was to be expected, since they do this a lot.

Although watching an airplane fly down the road at 6 feet agl is fun to watch, even better was loading the wings, control surfaces, fairings, and other aircraft parts into the project's dedicated cargo hauler, N143D, the Douglas DC-3 owned by The AvNet and generously sponsored by Herpa Miniaturmodelle GmbH, of Germany.

Once on site, Gryder's DC-3 crew made quick work of building a special platform for the airplane, which we topped with pearl gray, red, and black RibTrax tiles from Swisstrax Industries. Then, they set to work under the supervision of our lead IA, Classic Aircraft Maintenance's Danny Rexroad, to reassemble and prepare the Cardinal for its big debut. For the first time in months, we had an airplane that looked like a real airplane again. Seeing it up on the display ready for show was a moment we'll never forget.

As absolute icing on the cake, that same Herpa DC-3 was given the honor of opening the Sun 'n Fun airshow on Tuesday and Wednesday, the first two days of the fly-in. Gryder began his seven-minute routine with a low pass with the right engine feathered — a spectacular maneuver in the grand old lady. From workhorse to airshow star in 24 hours — only a -3 can do that!

Easter eggs
Back at the display, and just for fun, there were a couple of what computer programmers and designers call "Easter eggs" — those hidden tricks and clues within a graphic or a program that you can seek out, kind of like you might hunt for colored eggs at an Easter lawn party. I use this term to describe the hidden clues around the airplane that made it clear we did not fly it in.

A couple of concerned observers noted that we'd left the ignition switch turned to the right mag position — and dutifully warned us that the mag in question was hot. A noble concern — but we had grounded the mags with a separate strap prior to leaving Griffin.

We had safety wired the control surfaces into place on site once we'd installed them, and they began to droop a bit after a while on site — no, these weren't special STOL ailerons!

The observant might also have noticed that the primer control was not installed, nor were the cabin heat and defrost knobs and cables; those will come with the final engine installation.

On to the next phase
Well, the theory panned out better than our wildest hopes — the airplane was mobbed with people throughout the show. Success!

Now that the airplane has made the journey safely back to Griffin, we begin the next phase, engine installation and firewall forward completion by Don's Dream Machines, in preparation for the first flight. Stay tuned for more progress on the pointy end of the airplane.

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

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