Ironflight

Ironflight

VAF Moderator / Line Boy
Mentor
Call them "Arbitrary Parts", "Parts of Opportunity", or "Just Because" parts?.I bet that a lot of folks have these things on their airplanes! What am I talking about? Well, those things that you have on the airplane for reasons other than pure and simple engineering or design logic. For instance, I frequently get asked why I went with the Piper "blade"-style pitot tube on my RV8. Well, of course, I think it looks cool, it's accurate, the mount is rugged - all those good things. But the truth of the matter is that I happened to have one laying around - it was left on a shelf in a hangar I rented many years ago, and has been bouncing around in my junk box ever since. The heating elements worked, so heck why not use it and save the money I would otherwise have to spend on an expensive heated pitot?

So it is "arbitrary" - I used it because I had it - no real good reason other than that! Some folks have a radio that they got from another plane, others have a harness they got a good price on. ANd some have been known to paint their plane a certain color becasue they had gallons of that color paint!I'm just curious what others have used in their planes for similar reasons?chime in, we all have these little skeletons in our closets?.;)

Paul
 
Dual GRT screens.

Heated pitot.

Lasar ignition.

Really expensive circuit breaker/rocker switches.

Andair fuel valve.

3 blade MT prop.

All came with the project I bought, none were on my planed list.

I am sure there is more.
 
I had a Narco AT 50 transponder.

After my phase I, I took my plane to the shop to get the pitot static check done and found that the AT 50 was broke.
Of coarse it wasn't worth fixing so I bought a replacement. Bought another Narco because it would slide in the tray.

If I hadn't tried to reuse the AT 50, I would most likely chosen a Garmin.

Kent
 
I have, what I think is a good looking black stripe on my plane.........

because after painting, there was one rivet that stood out like a sore thumb. I don't know how we missed it! :D

To see what it would look like, I painted on this stripe in Microsoft's paint program, to cover the rivet area. The stripe is now on the plane, and it makes a real good dividing line between the gray and yellow of the aircraft.

The stripe that wasn't there:



L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
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