Hi
Caught wind of an auster fuse knocking about all it is, is the steal tubing frame…pretty much.
So how hard can it be to get something like that looking semi respectable?
I should imagine very very hard but i wanna see what the experts think.
I imagine it to be something to sort of do odd bits at the weekend
Ideas?
Cheers
M
By: galdri - 11th August 2008 at 16:37
Like has been said before, the difficulty level depends on what you want to do with it.
If only done to static display standards it is probably do able but is still expensive. As yours does not seem to have wings, you would probably have a little dialema if yours is an early Auster. See below.
If done to airworthy standards, you are much better off buying a flying aircraft in terms of costs. If you still want to do it to airworthy specs irrespective of cost, the Auster is not the best aircraft. Some parts are coming increasingly difficult do get. For the early Austers (Mk. IV,V and J1) Undercarriage legs, are one of them. They do show up on e-bay once in a while, but the price does make your eyes water:eek: Wingribs (and complete wings for that matter) are another part that is all but impossible to find, even for all the money in the world! Again that applies to early Austers.
By: low'n'slow - 11th August 2008 at 14:35
Hi
Caught wind of an auster fuse knocking about all it is, is the steal tubing frame…pretty much.So how hard can it be to get something like that looking semi respectable?
Ideas?
Cheers
M
Sadly, harder than you might think.
The Auster, like a Cub, Tiger Moth or similar is based around a welded steel tube fuselage frame. They can rust out, particularly at the tail.
If you are looking at the aeroplane ever being potentially airworthy again, any welding has to be carried out by a CAA-approved welding organisation – and it doesn’t come cheap.
For example, repairs to two crash damaged fuselage tubes on the BB BE-2 replica, alone came to over £1,000!
For that reason a lot of people do look towards wooden structured aeroplanes which can be more easily rebuilt under LAA supervision.
There are one or two interesting classic light aircraft projects about. PM me if you want some more details!
By: Jagx204 - 10th August 2008 at 19:24
Auster parts are about, – there’s recently been some AOP9 parts on e-Bay.
What you need to consider is they are a reasonably popular aircraft with the flying fraternity, especially now they are going onto permits.
This means unless a part is completely knackered prices reflect the possibility of its use in a flying project.
There was a very nice rebuild project offered recently at around the £5K mark, just to give you an indication….
HTH
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August 10, 2008 at 4:26 pm