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Anatomy of a Citabria Project
In the life of a fabric-covered airplane, there comes a time to inspect, repair or replace those components and areas that cannot be easily accessed during a normal inspection. The fabric itself may still be viable, but its surfaces may have thinned enough for its protective layers may place the covering itself in danger of deterioration due to exposure to UV rays (we call it sunshine) and other pollutant. Well, Citabria N73TD (AKA "Sparky") is a 1973 7GCAA, whose internals were last seen almost 20 years ago, and it was time; the wings and tail were re-covered about three years ago, so a simple fuselage re-cover was called for. Those of us in aviation understand that there is no such thing as a simple anything. | |
Old patch on fuselage side, result of flying chair at Sun 'n Fun |
Headliner has seen better days |
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The original plan was to completely disassemble the airplane, inspect and re-paint the steel tube, then cover and paint. Then the thought occurred that this is the best time to replace the headliner, which is almost impossible on a completely covered Citabria.
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