cliffy

You're never too old (or too many hours ) to learn new things. Gotta say this is one good thread with a variety of experiences, risk/gain values and hardware info. I harp on O2 and hypoxia in non-pressurized airplanes to be very careful of hypoxia sneaking up on you. Just like the Payne Stewart Learjet crash, hypoxia can and will sneak up on you and you may never know it until its too late! One trip in a US Air Force altitude chamber made me a believer. What did I learn here? Using the Vue ring and a smart watch. I use a finger tip unit but I don't go above 10,500. I know my symptoms and they start at a lower altitude as the years go by. I have an old Vue ring but its been dead for years. I just may jump for a new one now. Also hadn't thought about the "pressure " breathing by exhaling. Going to test that now. My D model doesn't do well at 14,000 in the summer (high DA) 12,500' is about all it can do effectively in the summer with any up and down drafts. Not enough reserve HP. Haven't been up there since 9/11.

Pure guess but- Back Course switch? You have to follow the wires to see where they go. Maybe no where and part of an old install not removed. Also part of my guess Happens all the time.

Its very nice to fire up "Otto" and let him run the flight plan and level off at cruise altitude while I sit back and watch the world go by :-) A word of caution- rudder trim will be your biggest issue. If it is off the slightest at cruise speed you will constantly correct back to course Mind you- its very little wig-wag but enough in still air to drive me crazy that's why it trimmed mine perfect for cruise. Climb and decent will need a foot to bring the ball into the center. Rougher air you won't notice it. Another issue will be getting used to how to trim the pitch to handle the "out of trim" warning. Its very touchy but can be ignored once you learn how to trim it.

Did mine as a Minor Alteration to the mount bracket also. Also- you HAVE to modify the mount tray for the pitch to clear the flap rod (notch the flange) as called out in the instructions. Mine had a letter authorizing Minor Alterations at the discretion of an IA. My hangar neighbor did it the same way also.

Just to stress a point about "Time of Useful Consciousness" we must remember not to rely too heavily or specifically when considering TUC times. These were determined by using young healthy pilots NOT overweight 60 year-olds. EVERYONE has their own TUC times determined by their own body. Everyone has their own at rest "altitude". In other words, at sea level your body might react as if its at sea level while the guy next to you - his body might react as if he's at 3,000' already. Everyone is different. Likewise, the human bodies capacity to convert O2 into something useful decreases with age. From what I have read we are at our best (100% ability) around 28 years old, From that time on there is a basically straight line degression in lung ability to the age of 120 (down to 0% ability). IF one has been a smoker the straight line goes from 28 to around 65!!! Just something to think about

There are always exceptions to any basic "rule" but taken in aggregate cognitive issues start to decline for most everyone after 60-65, some more than others, some way less than others but slide they do. Many take no notice!

Its not only unsupervised interns- a local shop hired a newly minted A&P who promptly twisted the nose gear of a Comanche so hard it actually split the entire oleo strut housing open. Your shop sounds like a worthy shop with the way they have stepped up to fix the issue. I would even use them after seeing their professionalism on this issue. The mark of a good shop is how they recover from a problem because every shop will have a problem at some time or another.

I'm in my late late 70s and just got renewed but with a $200 kicker over last year Full coverage but bear in mind I fly 60+ hrs a year and have 19,000+ hrs retract. I've been with the same company for years. I kind of feel (no empirical data ) that advanced licenses (ATP, ME, Type ratings ) and lots of hrs helps along with currency beyond 10 hrs a year. Quite frankly, if you're not flying more than 50 hrs a year when over 70 you need to rethink doing it. Not only is flying ability a fragile commodity that dies away from low use but the thought process doesn't recover as fast after a layoff. Cognitive processes start to slide after 60 or so. You can't avoid it. Set your own reasonable limits (for me its now day VFR only) and stick to them. One might look around at some of us "older" pilots and our "personal limits" and see a trend in limiting our liability after decades of experience. There is a reason. Ya' all be safe out there.

You may still have gelled fluid inside your wheel pucks if you didn't remove them and clean out the puck cavity. In fact I'd bet on it. I've seen this before several times when the pucks haven't been out of the calipers for a decade or more.

It still comes to "Unapproved parts" and the FAAs desire to eliminate them from the supply stream Here is a cut from AC 21-29D regarding SUPs= 5.3.5 Conduct a visual inspection of the part and supporting documents to the extent necessary to determine if the part is traceable to an FAA-approved source. For detailed guidelines on the identification of replacement parts refer to AC 20-62. The following are examples of positive forms of identification:  FAA Form 8130-3, Airworthiness Approval Tag.  Repair station work order from an FAA-certificated source.  European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Form 1 or Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA) Form One, Authorized Release Certificate Maintenance records or release document with approval for return to service. 7/12/16 AC 21-29D 4  FAA Technical Standard Order (TSO) markings.  FAA Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) markings.  Shipping ticket/invoice from Production Approval Holder (PAH). Basically we as A&Ps want to see an 8130 in order to install a prop on a certified airframe. You can dig deeper into this by reading the AC itself AC 21-29D Google Fu works to find it.

It all comes out to one word---LIABILITY and who assumes it when installed on a certified airplane Go "Experimental" and the owner/builder now assumes the liability in TOTAL for everything. All "chain of traceability" for a certified part is lost once "experimental" is used on it.

I didn't know it was in such high demand :-) Actually I'm fighting a nose gear donut install problem right now. Had to order in bar stock to make a drift to get the donut bottom hole to line up with the side bars. Common issue but it needs 9/16 stock and 9/16 bolts to make it our of are not easy to find and expensive' Need to grind a ball end on so it will slide through and line up the other side to drift the main bolt in. I'll probably do a start to finish article so others will know what to expect when they do it. The main gear donuts are easy- no special tools needed.

Earth Rounders Club ? :-) @AH64Bennett Check out Honey Mooney website. He came through my home drome a few years ago.

"Brake fluid is NOT just brake fluid- Auto (Dot 3,4 or what ever) is a totally different chemical than AVITATION "Brake fluid" (5606) Due to the materials in the seals and orings in aviation hydraulic systems (for us little guys) automotive "brake fluid" will dissolve all the seals into a gooey mess thereby causing system failure. Never guess, always use what the maintenance manual says to use or approved alternates. Yes 5606 will turn to red jelly inside your calipers after a few years even if you bleed them every year. Disassemble, clean them out and reseal every 5 years or so to stay ahead of the curve. SOME very old small aircraft actually used automotive brake fluids WAY back when. And those I think were restricted to brake systems that actually had expanding rubber balloon shoe brakes. Like I said, a long time ago. Large modern aircraft (Boeings, jets. etc) mostly use phosphate ester fluids like "Skydrol" for its fire resistance. NEVER even think of using that in our airplanes. Beside one of the side affects of working with Skydrol is- as they say- "mild eye irritation" BULL CRAP! If you get it in your eyes you are blind for hours from the pain!!! Don't ask me how I know. As a small aside- Rolls Royce for decades used automotive "brake " fluid in their cars (they actually have hydraulic pumps (2) for brakes and suspension. All worked fine until the 1980s when they decided to change to a fluid very similar to our 5606 all mineral oil fluid. Many many Rolls Royce cars were damaged by using the traditional fluid rather than the newer mineral oil fluid. It costs thousands of dollars to repair a Rolls Royce if this happens. It was so bad that they designed a fluid reservoir to only accept a specific bottle hose design so the incorrect fluid could not be put in the car.

IF YOU ARE TIMING THE MAG (MAGS)- USE ONLY NEW LOCK WASHERS EVERY TIME A MOUNT NUT IS LOOSENED-PERIOD! IF YOU TIME THE MAG AND TIGHTEN A CLAMP BOLT WHILE DOING IT -REPLACE THE LOCK WASHER WITH A NEW ONE BEFORE YOU FINSH THE JOB! THIS IS A HARD AND FAST RULE IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD IT BEFORE. NEVER REUSE A MAG LOCK WASHER- EVEN ONCE. I CAUTION AGAINST USING A HARD MAG LOCKING TOOL WHEN TIMING- MANY WILL FORGET IT IS IN AND WIND UP BREAKING THE MAG. CAPITALIZED HERE ON PURPOSE- BECAUSE PLANES HAVE GONE DOWN BY REUSING A MAG LOCK WASHER.