Next upgrade

Mine is not a perfect paint job by any means, there are a few small spots where it's flaked up slightly and exposed raw aluminum.  If you look very carefully, you can find a few paint runs here and there.  The flaws are hard to find though, and for the most part, the paint shows quite well.  You'd have to be a nit picker to find the flaws...

Shows well right?  But I'm a nit picker... and I'm not wild about the basic American flag scheme.  I can live with it though,  but nonetheless I've been somewhat tempted to pull out the big guns and go with a top tier paint job, something ala Don Copeland.    How about something like this?

Looks sweet!  Hmmm...

Polished

Typically after I go flying I stick the plane back in the hangar and rush off, since I'm inevitably late for something.  Occasionally I take the time to wipe the bugs off, but that's usually it.  So today I had some time to go flying and instead ended up doing some much neglected hangar time.  I had cleaning supplies and a bunch of towels, buckets and miscellaneous airplane parts scattered all over the hangar floor so I went to home depot and bought a rack.  I spent some time organizing, and as I went through the cleaning stuff I found this stuff called purple metal polish.



I bought it at aircraft spruce some time ago, and so today I tried it out.  The results were pretty amazing.  Check out these spinners!

Single yoke finally

I finally got my single yoke installed.  It turned out the first one that was shipped was defective and I had to have him send another one.  The little pins inside had become dislodged during shipping or something like that.  Anyway the replacement one turned much smoother which I assume is how it's supposed to work.  I got a new push to talk switch installed on my yoke, an oil change with new filters, a new roll pin for the door handle, and I'm back in action.  Here is how she looks now...

I already noticed how much easier it is to get to the center panel instruments, and it really provides a lot more room for the front passenger.  Maybe it's placebo effect but it also seems that the plane feels lighter in roll now.

I really need to get rid of that ancient Collins nav/com though.  And I don't really need the second transponder... it was probably put in at some point when some unwitting owner thought he might run a part 135 op.  Yeah right!  Notice I also ditched the clock on the yoke.  That was a tough decision but in reality I haven't flown a timed approach since my IR check ride.  If I really need that when all else fails at some point, I'll just use the timer on my phone.  I think it makes the panel look cleaner not to have an ancient wind up clock on the yoke...