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Ralph Keeney's UL Check out Ralph's Paint scheme, Instrument panel and Heater ! Here's some text from Ralph's e-mail:
I picked up the plane in april of 2002 in
Wisconsin from former owner, Jack Schuman, who
Unfortunately had gone legally blind. Jack told me he
bought this plane at Oshkosh and had all the papers
to prove it. After getting it home I started a
restoration project which included almost everything but
the main wings which had been recovered two years
peviously with ceconite and painted silver. The
restoration was completed in mid-June and I first
flew the plane about a week later after much taxiing.
Restoration
included recovering the elevators and rudders with
ceconite and the same paint used on the fuselage which was
also sanded completely and primed prior to painting. All
painted surfaces are clear-coated with two light coats and
really shine. The fuselage was reinforced around the front
gear opening which looked to have been damaged in some
sort of accident. I also used the bulkhead reinforcement
kit from falcon east as the fuselage was oilcanned on both
sides where it is weakest. Further reinforcement was used
around the air inlets and one side of the cockpit that was
cracked. Carbon fibre bi-directional cloth was used
for all reinforcement and held in place while curing.
Other initial mods included
fixed nose-gear from Falconeast, Strut thru bushings also
from Falconeast and the new instrument panel. The
instrument panel face is 1/4 inch cherry cabinet ply,
with from left to right, airspeed indicator, Ball
600 vario, rpm/cht, and egt. Future plan is to use a Tiny
tach/ rpm in the center and replace the rpm /cht with a
cht/egt leaving room for one more instument. The instrument
hood was formed using aluminum flashing then painted flat
black and trimmed with door edge molding from an auto
store.
The engine on the plane
had less than 30 hrs on it but had sat for a couple of
years so I had it gone through by a rotax shop and all
seals replaced. The pull starter needed repair also. All
fuel lines and of course pulse line were replaced and
fuel pump rebuilt. ALL this seems to have been worth the
time, effort and money as the engine has run perfectly
since first started. Jack always ran Amsoil 100 to 1
premix so I have stuck with it and have no problems with
fouling plugs.
Many of the bolts nuts
and clevis pins on the plane were corroded and also
replaced.
Future planned
mods include strut fairings wheel pants and rear brakes.
I originally
bought the Falcon for it's glide and sink performance and
so far have done some soaring in light conditions of
300-400 fpm lift. Cross country in this plane is a ball
and it's just a pleasure to fly and land.
Many thanks go to
Mike Fithian for the quality parts he supplies and for his
unselfish and timely advice when I needed it most!
Ralph Keeney
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