Hi all, my name is Casper and I just bought a 1978 Super Decathlon. The engine has 800 hours and seems fine, but the fuselage and wings need new fabric. That's why I decided to do a full restoration.
My goal is to get the aircraft in 'new' condition, and also update everything so the airplane is most similar as possible to a newly built Super Decathlon.
Besides this I'm curious if there are possibilies to turn the plane into an Extreme Decathlon even.
For this, I'm gonna need a plan. The main project will be executed by an experienced company in The Netherlands (where I live). But I'd like to make a plan myself first, to decide which parts I need to buy etc.
I am looking for people who are able and willing to give me some advice. Is this forum the right place for these kind of questions?
I'll be creating a website on which I'll post the complete restauration-project, so everybody is invited to follow.
Thanks for your reply! I'll use all the Service Letters. As far as I know the airplane already has the aluminum spar wings installed 10 years ago. The 'Extreme' plan is cancelled as of now :-) Some questions I recently ran into: - Should I replace the main landing gear by aluminum, even if the current gear is still working fine and I'm not changing to the larger TrailBlazer-propeller?
- Should I replace the propeller? Currently I think the plane has the standard aluminum cs propeller.
- I learned that I can save weight by updating the prop, gear, carbon interior etc. But this comes with a price. How big is the difference in performance with these weight-savings? (assuming that I am pretty heavy myself, 110kg / 240pounds).
Thanks!
To start with I recommend you go to the Support tab and print out and be sure to accomplish all the Service Letters that apply. Be sure to accomplish 518, Electrical system.
If you can, I recommend buying the new version of their aluminum spar wings.
Making it into an Extreme I believe would not be a very practical idea.
Good luck on the project.