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- Aug 21, 2010
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Plane's in the shop for avionics/panel overhaul. Got a phone call from the shop today that no one ever wants to hear:
"We opened up the back of the plane to route the belly antenna cable, and found serious corrosion that needs to be addressed."
I'm curious to hear what you guys have to say about the severity, and what the corrective action should be.
He sent me 6 photos, attached. Two are from behind the aft bulkhead, near the battery box. I've seen this area before, and so has my regular mechanic. I've asked my mechanic about how bad this is, and he's told me, "It's pretty typical for planes of this age. Some of what you see is corrosion, and some is just residual oil from the air conditioning system that used to be back there and isn't a problem. Keep a coat of CorrosionX on it and it won't get worse. Not much you can do without very invasive repairs." So I've trusted that advice and just kept an eye on it...but to be honest, it's ugly enough that I'm not sure I could detect changes over time.
The three shots from under the rear luggage deck (one wide-field, one close-up of the inspection hole, and one with the camera down inside the volume below the luggage deck) are potentially more concerning to me. I look in there every annual, and have never noticed white powder corrosion residue before. Not sure if I'm just blind, or if that's something "new". From the stringers that are visible, it looks pretty bad to me, but I honestly don't know how to judge.
I'm someone who wants to fix things "right", so if that means replacing the belly skin and the stringers, I'll do that. But I'd also like to understand whether it's really as bad as it looks, and what caused all this corrosion (and whether I need to do something different to prevent this from happening again).
The 6th photo is the ADF antenna and doubler they removed, showing that it's really corrosion and not just some other benign discoloration.
Behind the aft bulkhead:
Three pics of the space below the rear baggage deck (note: discoloration on the deck itself is old carpet adhesive):
ADF antenna and doubler:
Whaddya think?
"We opened up the back of the plane to route the belly antenna cable, and found serious corrosion that needs to be addressed."
I'm curious to hear what you guys have to say about the severity, and what the corrective action should be.
He sent me 6 photos, attached. Two are from behind the aft bulkhead, near the battery box. I've seen this area before, and so has my regular mechanic. I've asked my mechanic about how bad this is, and he's told me, "It's pretty typical for planes of this age. Some of what you see is corrosion, and some is just residual oil from the air conditioning system that used to be back there and isn't a problem. Keep a coat of CorrosionX on it and it won't get worse. Not much you can do without very invasive repairs." So I've trusted that advice and just kept an eye on it...but to be honest, it's ugly enough that I'm not sure I could detect changes over time.
The three shots from under the rear luggage deck (one wide-field, one close-up of the inspection hole, and one with the camera down inside the volume below the luggage deck) are potentially more concerning to me. I look in there every annual, and have never noticed white powder corrosion residue before. Not sure if I'm just blind, or if that's something "new". From the stringers that are visible, it looks pretty bad to me, but I honestly don't know how to judge.
I'm someone who wants to fix things "right", so if that means replacing the belly skin and the stringers, I'll do that. But I'd also like to understand whether it's really as bad as it looks, and what caused all this corrosion (and whether I need to do something different to prevent this from happening again).
The 6th photo is the ADF antenna and doubler they removed, showing that it's really corrosion and not just some other benign discoloration.
Behind the aft bulkhead:
Three pics of the space below the rear baggage deck (note: discoloration on the deck itself is old carpet adhesive):
ADF antenna and doubler:
Whaddya think?
