Progress is slow but happening on the nacelle rebuild. The right engine is essentially complete. I’m sure there is a detail or two yet to go. But overall it is finally done. The left engine is going much faster fortunately.
Flying an Apache
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Kent,
My mechanic used 0.32 to replace 0.25 so we went a little heavier on the gauge. He NEVER wants to work on those baffles again! Yes, in every case we used the current parts as templates for the new ones. I don’t know what my buddy that did the baffles with the compound curves for the gauge but he probably upgauged as well. I’ll have to ask him.
Annie has been in rehab but I’m not sure she is getting with the program, she is SUCH a hangar queen! However, we have made good progress on rebuilding the baffling in the nacelles. The Piper Apache has a complete plenum that encloses the cylinders and then the nacelle is around that. The plenum bolts directly to the engine and so over time gets lots of cracks developing. After 71 years it was finally time to get rid of the worst of the cracked parts. We have had to make new parts and the left engine needed the most attention. At this point we have finally made all the new parts needed for the left engine and it is being cleaned up and painted. Some work has been done on the right engine already and fortunately it is requiring way less work so hopefully a couple more weeks and the latest round of fixing up will be done. We are doing the Annual at the same time as well. And a few minor other fixes.
Test fitting final part of baffles for engine
The baffles create a box over the entire engine so they have to be fitted together.
Annie put in some good flying recently but as always she wants MORE attention… And she gets it!
In this case we had to give Annie a new aux fuel pump on the left engine. We had replaced the right one as it simply was too old, 71 years old! The right one was newer which was confusing until we realized the wiring was bad and the pump was running intermittently. So new wiring was put in along with a new pump. But there is a reason we call the Apache the A-Patch-Y… ’cause lots of patches! The baffles on the engines are all light weight aluminum and the vibration from the Lycoming 4 cylinder engines just slowly cracks the metal. So it was time to finally replace vs. patch once again.
Here is the whole process in one picture. Bottom piece is the original needing to be replaced. It is used as the pattern. The middle piece is during construction and is still being formed. The top piece is the final product ready to go on Annie. Notice the workshop bench in my buddies shop. He always has something going on. We are building a Bearhawk and we made all the parts for it in this same shop. He is a GREAT resource for fabrication when we can’t get new or used parts for the Apache.
Here is another look at a newly made baffle for Annie.
Here is a look at the back side of the completed part. This one was painted white on the back as was the original but it will be painted flat black as will the rest. That will hide dirt better!
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