Hello all!
I hope this is all right. I tried posting on the various Aeronca forums but they don't seem to have much activity. I have been looking at a 1946 7AC near me. The basics: 1586 Airframe Total Time. Continental A-65-8F with Millennium cylinders. Overhauled in 2002 by Pine Mountain. TTE: 2049. SMOH: 545. Sensenich Prop, Slick mags, and a Reiff preheater. So far so good! The plane has a wag-aero toe brake STC. I own and fly a 172 so have club's for feet
I will be keeping the 172, and like having toe brakes in both planes.
I had my mechanic come and do a pre-buy of the plane. Most things are good, some things are a little ehh. I come to the experts in search of clarity!
1. The plane has a 9 gallon wing tank, only in the left wing. Have you all ever heard of something like this? The owner states it's from the factory. All my research has pulled up no information. It is placarded 5.5 on the wing, but is apparently 9. Any information on this would be appreciated... pictures from the tank during the 2002 rebuild are shown below.
2. Both wings have what appear to be thin aluminum angle cross bracing. I wish I had a picture, but for some reason do not. You could see it through the inspection holes. It is maybe 1 wide thick piece of thin aluminum. It looks like the wing lacing above. On the RH wing, the aluminum is intact. On the LH wing, the aluminum is cut. It looks maybe as if to clear some rigging? Or maybe due to wing tank? If this makes any sense to anyone, please do let me know.
3. The rigging appears somewhat slack. I flew the plane (but have 0 other hrs in a Champ, and only 4hrs in a J3) and it flew fine to my untrained eye. When looking through the inspection covers, the rigging overhead seemed to touch each other, and one of the wings had what looked like electrical tape to prevent chaffing.
4. The RH oleo strut sits two fingers high, the LH strut three or four fingers high.
5. Lowest compression 61. It has been sitting for three months so I believe these will come back up with use.
Other than the above, I like the plane. It is priced at $22k. It's going through annual now and will have the mags freshly redone, they are at 500hrs. With no other 7AC experience, I don't have anything to base this on. Should I walk away? Run away? Go for it and have fun? It has very complete logs, including the first test flight back in February of '46. Any advice appreciated -- thank you!
I hope this is all right. I tried posting on the various Aeronca forums but they don't seem to have much activity. I have been looking at a 1946 7AC near me. The basics: 1586 Airframe Total Time. Continental A-65-8F with Millennium cylinders. Overhauled in 2002 by Pine Mountain. TTE: 2049. SMOH: 545. Sensenich Prop, Slick mags, and a Reiff preheater. So far so good! The plane has a wag-aero toe brake STC. I own and fly a 172 so have club's for feet
I will be keeping the 172, and like having toe brakes in both planes.I had my mechanic come and do a pre-buy of the plane. Most things are good, some things are a little ehh. I come to the experts in search of clarity!
1. The plane has a 9 gallon wing tank, only in the left wing. Have you all ever heard of something like this? The owner states it's from the factory. All my research has pulled up no information. It is placarded 5.5 on the wing, but is apparently 9. Any information on this would be appreciated... pictures from the tank during the 2002 rebuild are shown below.
2. Both wings have what appear to be thin aluminum angle cross bracing. I wish I had a picture, but for some reason do not. You could see it through the inspection holes. It is maybe 1 wide thick piece of thin aluminum. It looks like the wing lacing above. On the RH wing, the aluminum is intact. On the LH wing, the aluminum is cut. It looks maybe as if to clear some rigging? Or maybe due to wing tank? If this makes any sense to anyone, please do let me know.
3. The rigging appears somewhat slack. I flew the plane (but have 0 other hrs in a Champ, and only 4hrs in a J3) and it flew fine to my untrained eye. When looking through the inspection covers, the rigging overhead seemed to touch each other, and one of the wings had what looked like electrical tape to prevent chaffing.
4. The RH oleo strut sits two fingers high, the LH strut three or four fingers high.
5. Lowest compression 61. It has been sitting for three months so I believe these will come back up with use.
Other than the above, I like the plane. It is priced at $22k. It's going through annual now and will have the mags freshly redone, they are at 500hrs. With no other 7AC experience, I don't have anything to base this on. Should I walk away? Run away? Go for it and have fun? It has very complete logs, including the first test flight back in February of '46. Any advice appreciated -- thank you!
;-)
