Fairchild Club Forum

'I keep learning more about my project from the logs and digging into more crates of stuff.
My struts are like new and they should be too. They were replaced back in 1973 and since
that time they only had about 50 hours put on them.

The logs do show reference to an approved 337 form to install all aluminum tube stringers
on the fuselage replacing the wooden ones which was done in the US back in 1971.

One thing that alarms me a bit is the useful load of only about 720 lbs. I was hoping
for more than that. I'll be building as light as possible on the rebuild for sure. Does anyone
out there have any suggestions for weight reduction? I know modern radios might make some
difference but this thing never did have a heavily loaded panel anyway. With a pile of camping
gear on board and a couple of 180 lb lads..we've only got about 250 lbs left for fuel which
translates into about four hours of fuel including reserve.

David Stroud, Ottawa, Canada
Christavia C-FDWS
F24 C-FDAE in restoration'

'Dave: My airplane is still under restoration, so I can't speak with
firsthand experience about endurance; but a lot of the people I've
talked to about endurance and range were of the opinion that three to
four hours of flying was about all you wanted to do with the average
F-24 because of oil consumption in both the Ranger and Warner powered
variants. I'm hoping my engine will be "tight" enough to run four or
more hours without needing an oil stop; but four hours is about my
bladder and leg stretch limit in a light airplane anyway.

Brad Donner
NC77605'

'On Monday, November 22, 2004, at 12:33 AM, windshieldguy2000 wrote:

> Dave: My airplane is still under restoration, so I can't speak with
> firsthand experience about endurance; but a lot of the people I've
> talked to about endurance and range were of the opinion that three to
> four hours of flying was about all you wanted to do with the average
> F-24 because of oil consumption in both the Ranger and Warner powered
> variants. I'm hoping my engine will be "tight" enough to run four or
> more hours without needing an oil stop; but four hours is about my
> bladder and leg stretch limit in a light airplane anyway.
>
> Brad Donner
> NC77605

Hopefully your endurance wont be limited by oil consumption even if you
are running a Ranger without the oil ring mods: the oil tank in my '46
has a capacity of 4.1 gallons and the minimum oil level is 2 gallons.
That allows 8 quarts consumption in flight. At a typical quart or so
per hour, fuel is limiting.

:Dan
:NC81323'