Hello DGH:
What were the good/bad points of the restoration? This could be the subject of an epic tome, but to keep it brief...
Good points:
1. I made a lot of fabulous contacts - many people are readily prepared to give both their time and expertise to assist. I was quite overwhelmed with their generosity. Also, I has several offers to lend me missing components, e.g. engine frames, until I could source my own.
2. Being able to choose my own colour scheme and knowing it was as accurate as my research permitted. I quite enjoyed this activity, it got me "hooked" and Chipmunk history and markings. I wish I knew then what I've learnt now...
3. Being able to renew/"zero time" most components when the aircraft was still dis-assembled, e.g. I installed the metal 24 gallon tanks. My aim was to reduce running costs once the aircraft was flying (I would have retired by that stage).
4. Pride of ownership - that's the basic motivation, after all.
Bad Points:
1. The frustrations in trying to manage a project housed in rural Victoria (3 hours' drive from Melbourne Airport) while living in Hong Kong, 4000 miles away!
2. More frustrations with the time taken - the gent who was doing the restoration had his primary business as maintaining agricultural aircraft, all Chipmunk work took second place to this. Understandable, but it made timing/deadlines very hard to pin down.
3. Discovering that my time-expired engine, despite being (or perhaps because it was) ex-RAF was a heap of junk, better suited to being used as a boat's anchor! There are few original components here.
4. Watching the entire project "stall" with the late discovery that my undercarriage "tubes" were corroded beyond the limits. Have you priced replacement items? Frightening. A well regarded maintenance organization made two attempts to manufacture me a pair, both pairs were out of limits, but they presumably were so embaressed by the second failure that they simply didn't tell me! Being naive I assummed no news was good news - several more months lost here!
5. Having FINALLY got the project to the flying/registered stage, then being told of an unexplained tendency to savagely roll off to the right. No amount of trim tab adjustment would cure this, and having checked (and again re-checked) the airframe rigging and engine mounting alignment, my restorer (with 16 previous Chipmunk restorations under his belt) had run out of options. We called in an aerodynamics "whiz" (he designs gliders) - he discovered that one aileron was slightly deformed, resulting in a miniscule difference in the slot spaces ahead of the ailerons. A new right aileron and she flew like a dream.
6. The expense. I could have brought a late Cessna 210 for the same money, but then again it wouldn't be as much fun as my Chippy, would it?
Of course the basic question is would I do it all again? Maybe I'm a slow learner, but the answer is yes!
Cheers,
Rod.
