While the engine is off ....

[Ed Haywood]

I'm just going off what I've been told. My partner has the logbooks, so I'm not sure what the covering is. The Citabria is a 1976, and I rather suspect its been recovered at least once since new.

I don't think any of us are interested in a recover, at least not financially at the moment. The paint and fabric seem to be in good shape, minus some minor paint cracking on the cowling. This airplane is our beat around, fly around the patch, land in grass plane. Its no museum piece but is mechanically in great working order, and cheap and fun to fly.

Guess we will see what the shop says once they get into it and go from there. Just the thought of recovering a wing made me think of this thread though, how a repair of that level snowballs.

76 was Bellanca, so original covering was identical to Ceconite. Would not be surprised if recover used same process. Hopefully so. Ceconite is super easy to work with.

You can absolutely replace the tank without recovering the whole wing. Are you or your partner handy? If so, see if you can find an A&P/IA to supervise you. This is not a difficult task.

 

[midwestpa24]

Well it's sounding like we lucked out, at least on the fuel leak issue. Mechanic found a cracked line, easy peasy.

They also found a cracked exhaust and exhaust ports on two cylinders. So two new cylinders and a whole new exhaust system. You win some, you lose some. Still cheaper than recovering a wing or more.