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Greetings. My name is John. I am an A&P mechanic and an instrument-rated PPL living in Miami but based out of KLNA.
I am the caretaker now of two American AA-1 Yankees, both pre-Grumman. I brought one back from dormancy last year and have the use of it as a pilot. I am currently reviving the second and will likely also have use of it. This has been my first experience with these aircraft.
The flying example (red) had the regular litany of minorish fixes needed but the one I am working on now is a bit more of a project. We (myself and the owner, a decent mechanic himself) and I R/R’d both wings to reinstall landing gear after an unlicensed “mechanic” screwed it up and another A&P gave up. One wing did not want to come off. We got it off. Let’s leave it at that. After reinstalling we have a fuel leak on that wing. Don’t know if it was the result of the R/R. I will probably post a thread on repairing that but any suggestions here are welcome. That main idea here is the intro 🙂
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Two very nice Yankees. In the 37 years I have owned my AA-1B the only major fuel issues I have had was with those short rubber fuel lines that connect from the aluminium line coming out of the low point on the tank (spar) and the line to fuel sump drain. These rot out with age. The later AA-1B and C’s have inspection plates that allow easier access to these lines. This would be the first place to look at, especially if the fuel stains are in the wing root area. If these inspection plates have not been added, it would be advisable to cut them in. There is a SB or SL that covers that for the earlier airplanes. I was there when Steve Williams did that on his orange AA-1A.
The wings have not been off my plane since the factory (knocking on wood), but the next point to check is the seal on the inboard spar plug. If that is leaking, the center spar would be filling up with gas. I understand the early airplanes did not have a drain on the wing spar, so this was an issue.
Good luck, and keep us up to date on your progress! -
There is a drain in the center of the spar under the fuselage. After we replaced the wings and I hooked everything up, I put some fuel in each side to check for leaks. Noticed fuel coming out the drain. I defueled the right wing as that was the one that we had a lot of trouble removing and the leak stopped. Guess our only option is to pull the wing again. I am hoping it is easier this time.
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