Great White Hunter

The day has finally come to  move my  Piper PA-28 to it's permanent home in Upstate New York. Taking advantage of the fact that we had a forklift, we lifted the plane into the bed of my truck. Although it was only a few feet off the ground, the sad thought had occurred to me that this was closest thing to actually flying that this plane will ever be again. Posing for a few pictures with my plane in the air, I couldn't help but compare my self to the big game hunters of Victorian times, posing with a lion or rhino.

Thanks to John, James and Helen for helping to load the plane... and helping me after I locked my keys in my truck!

Great White Hunter

"CRUISING ALTITUDE"
ATC: "PIPER 2PQ, CLIMB AND MAINTAIN 5 FEET"

"CLEARED TO LAND"

Hardware checkout

New parts arrived today. Two yokes and a oil temperature gauge. All from a salvaged Piper. The yokes are identical to the one I already have, except a little nicer, and will require an adapter to fit a 3/4" shaft.

The oil temperature gauge was made by the Stewart-Warner company and is 1-1/2 inch square. The face is thin aluminum and in very good shape.

The movement consists of a thin, counterbalanced indicator. Two electromagnetic coils pull/push on the counterbalance.

A very simple system.

Photos of N22PQ at LAL

Photo Credit: Terry Fletcher, ©2012. http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000745506.html

It turns out that there are quite a few images of this aircraft online. This is how my plane looked on March 31st, 2012 when it was still flying. It was apparently based at, or spent a lot of time at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport (LAL) in Florida. Thanks to Terry Fletcher who gave me permission to post this photo here. He posted it to www.airport-data.com, which is a great plane spotting resource. There are about 10 other photos of this aircraft that I'm waiting for permission to use here.

A Blog is Born

Welcome to my flight simulator blog with which I will document the restoration of a Piper PA-28 Cherokee as a fully functioning flight simulator. Planned work includes fully functioning instruments and controls, a fully restored interior and a partially restored exterior. The platform will be capable of simulating a wide variety of aircraft in the Piper PA-28 family but primarily the PA28-140 and PA28-180 models.

I've completed a fair amount of work so far, so expect a few retroactive blog entries in the upcoming days. Special thanks to Mike Sullivan of MTS Global Aviation from whom I was able to purchase this wonderful aircraft, and to Robert Guarini for providing temporary storage and work-space for the summer.