Hello everyone
Let me introduce myself and give you some background info.
I'm a long time lurker but haven't posted here before.
I've flown for 50 years and built a Glastar 20 years ago that I still maintain and fly.
For a 2nd project I purchased a disassembled Skybolt 15 years ago that already had 150 hrs on the hobbs meter.
5 years of work got most of the subsystems rebuilt.
However, because of work commitments, I had to park the project at the back of the hangar for a decade.
Now that I'm retired I've restarted the project.
Considering the fabric is 40+ years old I've decided to recover the plane, essentially making it a ground up restoration.
I'm considering some of the options I will have to make changes once the plane is bare.
I've read a lot of the discussions here and talked to people over the years.
I would like to crowdsource some thoughts, experiences and advice here.
I'll ask forgiveness ahead of time for any redundancy to past discussions here.
I've already answered a lot of my questions by reading extensively here.
What's left is what I didn't find, didn't provide what I wanted or isn't current.
A few details of the plane:
Thanks in advance.
Mike H
Let me introduce myself and give you some background info.
I'm a long time lurker but haven't posted here before.
I've flown for 50 years and built a Glastar 20 years ago that I still maintain and fly.
For a 2nd project I purchased a disassembled Skybolt 15 years ago that already had 150 hrs on the hobbs meter.
5 years of work got most of the subsystems rebuilt.
However, because of work commitments, I had to park the project at the back of the hangar for a decade.
Now that I'm retired I've restarted the project.
Considering the fabric is 40+ years old I've decided to recover the plane, essentially making it a ground up restoration.
I'm considering some of the options I will have to make changes once the plane is bare.
I've read a lot of the discussions here and talked to people over the years.
I would like to crowdsource some thoughts, experiences and advice here.
I'll ask forgiveness ahead of time for any redundancy to past discussions here.
I've already answered a lot of my questions by reading extensively here.
What's left is what I didn't find, didn't provide what I wanted or isn't current.
A few details of the plane:
- 1st flight 1978, last flight about 2000
- one piece upper wing, clipped to 22 ft by the 2nd owner
- Upper wing tank
- hinged plexiglass canopy
- 0-540 engine with a pressure carb, zero hrs SMOH
- inverted fuel and oil system
- smoke system
- 2-blade CS prop
- Older shorter std gear with bungees
- I've talked to people that like the grove gear legs but it seems the drift here is that they aren't worth the effort? Thoughts?
- Is it better to go with fuel injection instead of fussing with a pressure carb?
- Is it really feasible to change a one piece wing to a three piece wing and is it worth the trouble? Anyone with experience at this?
- I like the T3 tailwheel system on my Glastar better than the old spring gear. Anyone here try this conversion?
Thanks in advance.
Mike H
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