This Old Airplane-from Aviation Addictions, LLC.

11/01/2024

Have you done you part to protect the republic yet? Don’t wait until the last minute!

Get out there and use your voice!

Don’t dally around, get over there now! You never know when life might get in the way of you wait until the last day!

10/27/2024

Please, VOTE this election!

Get your sample ballot, and spend some time online researching. Study the candidates AND the issues.

If you DON’T study, you are not prepared to vote!

It’s every citizen’s responsibility to exercise their sacred right to protect the republic.

Your vote is your voice!

06/12/2024

04/26/2023

Happy World Pilots Day!

04/26/2023

As promised! Spec sheet and price attached!

04/26/2023

On this Wednesday edition of This Old Airplane:

As promised! Lots of pictures of Centurion 52Xray! Full spec sheet and price coming soon!

04/07/2023

On this Friday edition of This Old Airplane:

It’s with a small tear in our eye, but the moment has come to pre-announce the upcoming availability of Centurion 52Xray.

She has served our family well for nearly 4 years, and over 400hrs. But, unfortunately due to life and career changes it’s time to let her go to a new home where she’ll continue to be loved and cared for!

Detailed sale ad and spec sheets (and photos!) are forthcoming, but the basics are:

1962 Cessna 210B, approx 3100TTAF, 800hrs TSMOH. Fresh annual and IFR certification completed 5 Apr 2023 (yep, just this week!) We flew her nearly 250 hours since the last annual, and she’s a dream to fly!

Hauls 4 full size adults, baggage, and full fuel (65 gallon standard tanks) with ease.

I expect the full sale ad (with pricing) to be up and running in about a week. More info and plenty of pics are already on our This Old Airplane fb page. Of course, any early offers will be seriously considered!

Currently based at KECP.

DM me if you want to know more 😉

There are also a few videos of it on YouTube, search for ThisOldAirplane :-)

02/22/2022

On this Tuesday morning edition of This Old Airplane: So, the published service ceiling for Centurion 52Xray is 20,300 feet? Are they serious? Well, I will admit that since our bird has had the Valley gear door removal mod, she isn’t quite as fast as the book says it it should be…

But I can confirm from a test flight on Saturday that it is still quite possible to get the bird up to the flight levels! I leveled off at FL190 due to having that as a clearance limit. If I had the presence of mind, I could have asked for a couple hundred more feet just to see that 20,000ft MSL round number on the screen!

Now as for practicality? Well, that’s a different story... Note the indicated airspeed versus our ground speed at that particular moment in time. This is quite definitely riding the edge between stall and controlled descent! To be honest, I was nervous enough that I really didn’t take a minute to enjoy the view!

Now, to get that supercharger STC…. H’mmm…

Tune in next time as we continue to fly and maintain our antique bird!

12/06/2021

On this Sunday evening edition of This Old Airplane: We’ve successfully refurbished the brake calipers on both MLG wheels!

The tasks accomplished this round started with removing both brake calipers from the plane and mounting a small brass wire brush (.45cal bore brush was perfect!) in our cordless drill and polishing the torque plate mounting holes.

Additionally, we jacked the wheels and inspected for heat damage, disc warpage, bearing condition and/or any other issues…

Then, after capping the brake lines, we brought the calipers to our home workshop for cleaning and refurbishment.

Cleaning was pretty straightforward, but in order to reseal the calipers, we needed to pop the pistons out of the bores. The right caliper popped right out with low pressure shop air, but the left side that gave us trouble wouldn’t budge!

It took pressure carefully applied with a hydraulic hand pump to get the pistons out of the bores on the left side. Subsequently, we polished the pistons and installed new o-rings all around. There was a mild amount of corrosion evident in the caliper bores, so we lightly honed them to get back to a clean/useable surface.

After cleaning and applying a light coat of silver lacquer to get everything fresh looking (after masking off critical areas), it was time to rivet on new brake pads and reassemble.

This afternoon’s trip to the airport had us reinstalling the calipers, flushing the lines with new fluid, bleeding and reservicing the system.

Then the fun part! Taxi testing followed by a couple trips around the pattern! Happily, we’re back up and running better than ever!

Tune in next time when we continue the adventures of keeping and flying our classic Centurion!

12/06/2021

On this Thanksgiving edition of This Old Airplane: The moment you look out the window on a night landing and realize that your left brake is not releasing properly…. I guess it’s time to completely go through the brakes! Stay tuned for the work!

09/20/2021

On this Monday morning edition of This Old Airplane! Sometimes, I think our hydraulics get no respect… This weekend we finished up a small, but significant project as we make progress in the “continuous restoration” of Centurion 52XRAY. On each annual, we pick a few actuators and hoses to reseal/replace. If you do it gradually, and keep it up each year you can always have relatively fresh parts without breaking the bank!

The challenges sometimes come when the seals that are actually “in” your actuators don’t match the part numbers that are in the illustrated parts manual! Any simple 2-hour job is only one o-ring (or backup ring) away from turning into a month-long search for the correct size parts! (And no, you can’t install the ones called out in the manual, because the book is wrong!)

Stay with us as we continue the adventure of maintaining an antique-contemporary Centurion!

04/20/2021

On this Monday evening edition of This Old Airplane: After months of planning, and careful sourcing of the correct pieces we have successfully reversed the mechanical modifications to 52Xray’s NLG doors! For those of you who have been tracking, there was simply no way possible to correctly adjust the mechanical doors so that they would close properly.

The result in our efforts? Perfectly functioning NLG doors that work as the maker designed them to do!

What is next? Well, stay tuned to This Old Airplane for continuous coverage of our adventures with Centurion 52Xray!