With fabric covering and a few difficult-to-source parts, even simple, modest types like this Taylorcraft demand a certain level of hands-on knowledge and expertise to own.
MAINTAINING YOUR AIRPLANE Part 1:
Cessna 172 Skyhawk Avionics Repurposing serviceable material to fly again has always been a thing with GA owners.
by Richard Scarbrough
T here comes a time when social norms fall out of and then back into favor. Take, for example, recycling. In the early days of frontier America, folks had to make do with what they had. Neighbors helped each other and reciprocated when the circumstances warranted. What was once one person’s old barn became anoth- er’s two-wheeled cart, and so forth. In the manufacturing boom of the Industrial Revolution, inexpensive goods flooded the mar- ket, and advertisers beckoned us to drop the old and replace it with the new. This seemed to work well until the 1970s when certain people de- spaired over the landfills filling up, and a new age of convenient curbside recycling emerged. A subset of the population kept the old frontier spirit alive in America, and that would be the general aviation airplane owner. Reduce, reuse, and recycle is not just a slogan for these men and women: It is a mantra. I have personally witnessed the repair of a $45 flight bag handle using CherryMAX blind rivets (I may or may not have had a hand in that, depending on who’s asking).
Out with the Old When researching this article, I wished to find the origin of the phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” As it turns out, the inter-webs attri- bute it to no less than seven individuals on the first page of search results alone. Given that, it is most likely that no one is exactly sure who initially said it. For all we know, Fred G. Sanford said it at some point on the 1970s sitcom Sanford and Son. Oh, and the G stands for “Get up to the hangar and get this stuff.” Do you remember Corey Sampson and his project airplane, a 1966 Cessna 172H? Well, Sampson and I are back at it again. 2024 is a new year with a fresh set of maintenance evolutions. In October, we spoke with Sampson about his maintenance plan, and one of the projects highlighted was an in- strument panel upgrade. Sampson’s current setup is a throwback to days gone by. His audio panel is a King KMA 24, with Narco MK12D comm radios, King KN 64 DME, and Arc RT-359A transponder. As an A&P mechanic, I leave the avionics stuff to the experts, but I recall seeing these components throughout my 35-year career. Functionally, everything works fine, but Corey is ready to upgrade.
12 Aircraft For Sale | April 2024
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