By me
All photos me too
Cleaning, complaning and cursing me and Dean T.

Deciding to be useful for once, I offered Dean T. – who’s always been my man for the job for access round Lučko – to come one day over the weekend and help out with the various odd jobs that inevitably pile up around the field. And sure enough, I had just arrived at 10 AM one Saturday when I saw him pulling an old, neglected Skyhawk out of the tall grass. An odd look and a couple of questions later, it had transpired that the aircraft – on the ground for the past 6+ years – was probably going up for sale and needed to be spruced up as much as possible…

It was a warm and humid day and, in need of refreshment and fun, we threw ourselves into it.  However, a quick survey of equipment showed our total inventory at just three sponges, some detergent and a special wiping cloth. Not much to go on, given the magnitude of the task…

We were curiously optimistic about the task, as it soon transpired that much of the dirt on the wings and fuselage was quite easy to wipe off. A bit of an oddity really, but it made our life considerably easier :). The only problem was that we couldn’t get at all the tiny places and openings normally found around the controls – and lacking a high-pressure water source, we couldn’t even try and wash them out with by brute force…

The major constraint was that this was basically a cosmetic, outside makeover – which ruled out any possibility of opening a panel or two to check out the structure and control lines underneath. I has also wanted to crank the engine to give it some air and clean out the cylinders, but a quick yank on the prop – which had gone round surprisingly easy despite the magneto switch being off – scratched that as well. Upon further questioning and investigation, I had found out that, aside from a full oil tank, the engine had no alternator, starter, magnetos or battery. While we could have done without the alternator – and even the magnetos – we’d need the starter and battery (an external power supply wouldn’t have helped, as it has to go through the battery itself).

And, if the more eagle-eyed readers noticed, we had to change the position and orientation of the aircraft every once in awhile due to a very short water hose :). Having to manhandle it around the tail and landing gear, we though it simpler just to re-orient the whole aircraft.

And five hours, one pizza and two liters of coke later, we reckoned we’d done it! Though the faded paint job was a distraction, we felt it came out beautifully in the end – cleaner at any rate than some of aircraft that fly every day :).  And by a twist of irony, half an hour later it was back in the same place it spent the past six years, still waiting for a buyer…