57 Cessna 172 straight tail
 

My dad owns one of these fine machines...almost no body damage whatsoever...just a few what he refers to as "hanger rash" istances.

THe plane is great, flys nice, trims perfectly, controls easily...all of its great! Except the compression on the jugs...as the last annual mechanic said "that compression is low, I mean real low..."


Now the question at hand is this, do you think he ought to rebuild the engine on his own? (something he is perfectly capable of doing...I dont know how many car engines I have watched him rebuild) Or should he just bite the bullet and buy the factory rebuilt? Currently running a Continental.

depends on how original he wants it. if the entire plane is original, rebuild the engine. totally original vehicles have amazing resale value.

if it's not all original, then go with a new one. it will run a little better and i would trust it a little more. you can never be too careful when you're that far up in the air.

Isn't there laws in the united states governing the maintaince (like that) on aircraft? I know that ultralites and other small aircraft are a grey area but I think there might be legal concerns with a 172. Just something you might want to check into.

I'd buy the factory and then rebuild the original and crate it up. Then if you wanna sell it as all original, just throw the original engine in there.

Like spidervenom says, there are a lot of FAA regulations that you want to check up on. Im pretty sure that you would not be able to do this kind of thing yourself, unless you are a certified airplane mechanic. Even in the airplane shop i work in, the most we ever usually do is ring jobs and rarely cylinders. Most of the engine rebuilds are done in the form of replacing the engine with a factory rebuild one. Remember, if something breaks in the engine, you cant just pull over off the road--youre screwed!

I know the regs pretty well (al you need is a book titled FAR/AIM), and as long as an AP checks it over, it can still fly no problem. He could even put a different engine in it (such as a subaru diesel conversion a lot of people do) and fly it, but it would become rated as expirimental.

Also for resale purpose it would be worth more with the factory rebuilt...people know who did the job that way, I know my father can do it, but a buyer will not.


Lastly, the higher you are in the air the safer you are...If you lose an engine you don't drop like a rock, you glide, and the higher you are the further you can glide...Almost no deaths from engine failure, actually when the FAA looks into most crashes, it is almost always Pilot Error, or a mechanical/electrical failure followed by Pilot Error.