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A year ago—November 3, actually—we started tearing into the 1977 Cessna Cardinal that we're refurbishing for this year's sweepstakes.

And now the airplane is back in Griffin, Georgia, where the work began.

A laundry list of final items to complete, our team is still working hard on this project, and that's a testament to its dedication. So what is there left to do? If you saw the airplane at AOPA Expo last month, you might not have noticed much left. But we want this airplane to be as perfect as possible for our winner—that could be you.

The trip south
After a week's rest following the show, Dan Gryder, of the AvNet and our field project manager, came up to fly the airplane back down to Griffin. We've been watching closely the airplane's performance since the wheel pants were installed just before the show, and between us, Gryder has had the best luck—okay, well, we had a dynamic balance performed on the propeller along the way—and the result is paying off. Cruising at 4,500 to 5,500 feet, the Cardinal turns in 128 to 130 KTAS at 75-percent power. Not bad! That's a 6-knot increase over the top true airspeed at that altitude we saw on the ferry flight last year in the pre-refurbishment airplane.

A lot of the time, when an airplane gets a new paint application, it picks up speed just from the drag reduction fresh, smooth paint brings. In addition to the new paint, Advanced Aircraft Refinishers also used the same lap sealing process it does on its regular jet customers—another drag reduction step.

As for other modifications to the airplane that helped bring up the speed, we installed the tuned exhaust from Power Flow Systems, and a tailcone fairing from Maple Leaf Aviation/RS Designs. Some say that the Micro AeroDynamics vortex generators can take off a knot—but we'll never know for sure, since all of these modifications were performed prior to our first flight with the souped-up airplane in June.

All we know for sure is that we came out with a faster airplane.

The project continues
So now that the airplane's back in Georgia for the final time, we have a list of items to address before we consider it ready to deliver to the lucky winner.

We started with the airplane back at Don's Dream Machines, where Jeff Swords uncowled the airplane and took a close look at all the firewall-forward connections to ensure everything was hanging together well. With a little more than 65 hours on the airplane since the refurbishment, and four hours since the dynamic balance, the powerplant is humming along.

Next, we have moved the airplane over to Air Wrench for airframe touch-ups, after which it will go to Precision Avionics for final avionics items and final hookup of the essential bus. David Chadwick, of DC Aerospace, is the designated engineering representative (DER) heading up the engineering and paperwork effort for us. More on the process behind getting the blessing on the essential bus in next week's update.
—Julie K. Boatman

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

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