Avstar Aircraft of Washington, Inc.

10415 172nd St. E., Hangar A1
Puyallup, WA  98374
office (253)770-9964
or (253)770-0120
email:  avstarair@att.net

A customer's quest:  The ultimate A36

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Jim, our customer, purchased a project A36; although he has a team of skilled labor at his home-drone, he enlists the help of AVSTAR for many of the the refinements.  The aircraft arrived to his airport on a truck and Mike flew over to inspect it and help Jim develop a plan.

The fuselage was basically straight, well, except for some diagonal wrinkling on the belly.

A36 belly skin wrinkling  Damage to a Beech A36  Wrinkled skin to be repaired

Right wing had some pretty good outboard damage, and both wings were abused in transport.  A decision was made to find replacement wings, which Jim took care of.

Beech A36 wings  Wings from an A36  Freight damage to A36 wings

So, 'pieces' started finding their way to our shop.  The customer removed engine, interior and instrument panel before the fuselage arrived.  We continued the disassembly process:  Pulled the gear motor and aux fuel pump, sent for overhaul.  We did the overhaul on the landing gear actuator and fuel selector.  While it was apart, we commenced a few sheet metal projects.  Cross-measurements were made and there was a definite off-set in the wing carry-through section; however, once the skins were removed, all of that relaxed out, leaving us with a few stringers to repair, then install new skins as required.

A36 fuselage at AVSTAR  Prepping A36 fuselage  A36 belly repairs  A36 fuselage belly  A36 with belly skins removed

Among the smaller sheet metal projects was a replacement upper side skin on the fuselage (freight damage) and the obligatory nacelle work.  Also, we took the time to install nav-antenna doublers on the vertical stabilizer.

Nav antenna doubler  A36 nav antenna doubler

The fuselage then went back to Jim's crew for a variety of fuselage details, including paint removal and replacement.  They also removed landing gear components, stripped, inspected and painted to taste.  Then, Jim brought that over here for assembly and servicing;  All new felts, seals, scrapers and hardware, ready for installation.

A36 landing gear  Landing gear - Beech A36 Bonanza

A work in progress, stay tuned!