After over a thousand hours and endless weekends we’re now seeing day light at the end of the tunnel on the sanding and polishing work. It has been a long haul. In July of this year 50% of the fuselage was polished and looking good. But Dave Cano thought it could be better. Will Lamb, one of Dave’s employees, starting experimenting with the sand paper grits and sanding patterns. The best procedure that he found was using 400 grit in one direction then alternating the directions for 600, 1000, and 1500. When done properly you could complete the sanding of an area of four square feet in 4 to 5 hours. So we went back to square one and started sanding the entire fuselage over again. Even though at the time it was extremely hard to put that 400 grit to the already polished areas it was well worth the effort and time spent because the results of the final polishing are now a flat even shine that produces a mirror finish.

While the sanding and polishing has been on going other work has also been moving forward. A lot of work has gone into rebuilding the cowling. John Coker, another Cano employee, has been doing a great job on the metal work. All of the inspection doors needed to be remade which was not an easy job as it takes a lot of experience and talent which John defiantly has. Dave spent months looking on the internet for the top and bottom nose cone pieces and upon finding them John had to put his talent to work in making them fit the original cowling. It was no easy task but now when you look at the finished work it’s as good or even better than factory finish. Another project that is nearing finish is the pilot and passenger doors. The pilot door was totally disassembled and all new latch and lock assemblies installed along with a new aluminum skin on the outside. Dave was able to tap out the minimal dings in the passenger door and new door hinges were used and the aluminum surfaces are in the process of being sanded.

In Dave’s upholstery shop at Glacier Park Airport Shannon has been busy restoring the seats with the original materials. Dave first painted the seat frames even though very little of the frames are seen. This has been our theme since the beginning to protect the life of this airplane. Metal that was unexposed and unfinished during the factory installation has been epoxy painted in order to preserve the life of the metal. Since we’re using the same cloth materials that were originally installed on the seats Dave has had to apply flame spread retardants and then perform flame spread tests which are now required by the FAA and submit them for approval.

Reed Lamb, our mechanic, is ordering the final parts that we need to rebuild one of the elevators. Reed and Dave are working on the installation of the new aluminum skin on the horizontal stabilizer which is the last of the control surfaces to be skinned.

It’s been a long haul but we’re getting closer to finishing what we started over a year ago today.  Our hope is to be flying this summer. We still have a lot of work to go but everyone on the team is excited of our progress to date and really enjoying the challenges.