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When we returned to Griffin, Georgia, with the 1977 Cessna Cardinal we're refurbishing for this year's sweepstakes after its date with the interior shop two weeks ago, we'd finished off all five of the major work packages associated with the airplane's journey from average to unforgettable.

For those just joining us, we've undergone a complete airframe disassembly to rebuilding the Cardinal with all new parts from Cessna, a complete rewiring and installation of an avionics suite to delight most any pilot, a pristine paint application, a newly overhauled powerplant, to the latest milestone — rich new interior upholstery and plastic.

Changes
The next waypoint in the journey seems almost trivial in comparison, but on the morning of September 12, I taxied over to Don's Dream Machines, the engine specialists at Griffin responsible for our powerplant installation. I'd hoped to warm up the oil with a quick flight around the pecan trees, but low scud throughout the Atlanta metro area stymied those plans.

It was time for the Cardinal's changeover from mineral oil to its "regular" oil, Phillips 20W50 XC multigrade ashless dispersant oil. With a case of 20W50 and an oil analysis kit courtesy of Young Petroleum at the ready, Jeff Swords uncowled the airplane and got to work.

With 52 hours on the airplane since its return to service flight on June 20, we had changed out the mineral oil once, at 12 hours, and cut the filter to look for metal with nothing significant noted. Now, with stable cylinder head temperatures and minimal oil consumption, we were ready to officially take the airplane out of the break-in period.

Swords drained all the oil from the sump and oil filter attach points using a tried-and-true angled pan. The oil had served us well, and only in the last ten hours had we noticed a slight up tick in oil consumption, consistent with the fact we approached 40 hours with this particular round of oil. Never did we burn more than a quart every six hours.

I stood with Swords as he cut the filter this time around. We were looking for metal — specifically iron, which might signify abnormal breakdown of engine components such as the cylinders, any rotating shafts, and the valve train. Trace bits of aluminum come from pistons, piston pin plugs, bearings, and the case itself. He opened up the filter paper from its accordion profile, and used a magnet to check for ferrous metal. We found a couple of specs, and some tiny flakes of aluminum within the crevices of the filter, but Swords was pleased with the results. We passed this test.

Next, Swords installed the shiny chrome valve covers, provided by Lycoming to dress up the firewall forward compartment even further. We left these until close-to-last to give us one more reason to uncowl the airplane once we get it on display up at AOPA Expo. More on that in a moment.

Time to put on some pants
Another item we left until last? The wheelpants. And why? Well, if you've ever been around an aircraft display, you know that things close to the ground are easily tripped on — such as tiedowns, stakes, signs, and — yes — wheelpants. We wanted to keep the paint on the pants as pristine as possible, so we held off. This also allowed us time to refurbish the pants to like-new condition.

Once again, the incredible efforts from Advanced Aircraft Refinishers kicked in, as they dove into the detailed work on rehabilitating and painting our stock pants. Click through the pictures posted with this update to see the process step by step. Thank you, Tony Dias! We also had great assistance this week from the technicians at Air Wrench, who fitted and installed the pants and fairings to bring the Cardinal one step closer to completion.

We might have kept them off longer, but for two reasons. First, I am dying to see how fast this Cardinal will go! And second, we need to shoot the photos for our final cover feature on the Catch-A-Cardinal, in the December issue of AOPA Pilot. Stay tuned!

Speaking of Expo...
If you've been able to join us at Sun 'n Fun Fly-In, or EAA AirVenture, maybe you've had a chance to catch one of the forums that we've held at the airplane at selected times during the show.

AOPA Expo is no different — in fact, it's even more special since, frankly, it's our show! So we're hosting informal gatherings at the Catch-A-Cardinal on the static display at Hartford-Brainard Airport each day. Here's the schedule of folks who will join me and Field Project Manager Dan Gryder of The AvNet at the airplane to talk about all the cool things we've done to it over the course of the past year:

Thursday, October 4
2 p.m.
Dave Brown, Garmin

Friday, October 5
2 p.m.
Craig Barnett, Scheme Designers

Saturday, October 6
11 a.m.
Ray Crist, Lycoming

We may also have a surprise special guest, so come on by while you're in the midst of checking out all the cool airplanes on display.

But don't take my word for it — see you at Expo!

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

The VG kits are developed and flight tested for each model, then manufactured, marketed, sold, and supported by this small company. The VGs, such as the kit installed on the Catch-A-Cardinal, reduce stall speeds and improve controllability, particularly at low speeds because of energized airflow downstream of the VGs on the airframe and control surfaces. Call 800/677-2370 or 360/293-8082, or visit the Web site.