Bob - S50

How did you take the sample? Was it the first oil to run out of the sump or did you let a little drain and then take the sample mid-stream?

Like most other cases, you rarely hear about the good outcomes, only the bad. We are happy with Spencer at KPLU.

An HSI is not a suitable TC replacement. In order for a G5 to replace the TC, it has to be acting as an AI. Eric, you seem to be pretty sure. Since there are several of us that feel pretty strongly the other way, the only way to tell for sure is to ask those in authority: 1. Write to Garmin and ask: a. If you can replace both the AI and TC with G5's. b. If you can install an AI G5 and an HSI G5 are remove the TC. 2. Then write to the FAA and ask them the same questions. Like many things in life, there are things that sound pretty good until you ask yourself if you would still do it with those in authority looking over your shoulder. I'll be very interested to see what kind of response you get from Garmin and the FAA. If I can replace the AI, HSI, and TC with 3 G5's I just might do that. But I'm not holding my breath.

We just carry a 2 step folding ladder.

In the States, when I've had problems with a business (in your case not responding to attempted contact while holding your plane hostage), I've had pretty good luck by contacting the state attorney general's office and describing the situation.

Pretty sure the STC says the G5 can be used as either the attitude indicator OR the turn coordinator replacement but NOT both. Other options for replacing the TC: Dynon D10A , uAvionics AV30 (when certified), mechanical AI, RC Allen RC-2610, Sandia 340 Quattro, ESI-500, GI275, KI300, and probably more.

I use an inexpensive card reader to update databases for our GTN650.

Here's what we do for our GTN650. We essentially buy an annual subscription for the Garmin USA Navigation database ONLY. That's $299 for the year. If you don't fly IFR and don't need approaches, you probably don't need an annual subscription to this either. Just buy a one time update every now and then just incase navaids disappear or airways change. Mountains don't move so we don't buy a terrain subscription. If I'm VFR I can usually spot obstructions, and it's pretty rare to find one that is over 1000 AGL anyway. Those lower than 1000' are only a factor during takeoff and landing phase for me anyway. If I'm IFR, following the published procedure will keep me clear of obstacles. Therefore, we don't buy an obstacle subscription. We don't use SafeTaxi on our GTN, we all have something similar on our tablets so we don't buy that either. Every few years we might do a one time update on the obstacles and SafeTaxi. That's only about $100 or so every 3 or 4 years.

I would recommend ours but he is so swamped he isn't taking on any new clients.

It would be nice if Garmin would add a free feature to the GTN series. Any time it sees the GPS AGL altitude descend through 200', it would be nice if it announced "Check Gear".

We've only worked with Greg and Ed at TTD a couple times. Happy with the service. Never worked with the MSC at BLI so I can't help with that one.

Sounds to me like two different issues. In one case you describe a problem after takeoff. That sounds like debris in the #2 injector. If it only happened once then it has probably cleared itself but it wouldn't hurt to remove, inspect, and if need be, clean the injector. In the second case you seem to indicate a problem after start. If that is only when the engine is cold then it sounds like morning sickness as pointed out by Andy. Get your mechanic to ream the guides, then start running the engine brutally lean on the ground to reduce deposits so it doesn't happen again.

I'm thinking that running relatively high MP and low RPM may be making the engine somewhat unhappy to begin with. Then when you try to run LOP, it doesn't take much for you to notice and give up trying to lean further. Both high MP and low RPM push peak pressure (PP) closer to TDC. During the climb you are very ROP which pushes peak PP further away from TDC. If you level off and then try to lean slowly, the mixture will initially burn more quickly, which will push PP closer to TDC and your engine may be complaining just a bit. You may be interpreting that as running rough. The mixture will continue to burn more quickly until you get to peak EGT. I was thinking that if instead of running 24"/2400 RPM, if you tried 22"/2600 RPM or even 23"/2500 RPM the engine might not complain as much and you might find you can run LOP.

Which, combined with low CHT/exhaust valve temperatures will speed the rate of deposits and reduce the time before the engine develops morning sickness.

A few questions. When this happened, did the engine run rough or was it still smooth? (thinking about a bad signal) Was this a one time event or does it happen on a fairly regular basis? (thinking temporary injector restriction) How long after start before you took off? (thinking morning sickness) What do you do with the mixture on the ground? (also thinking morning sickness)

First, if anything at all looks wrong to me it's your CHT's are too LOW. In the July issue of AOPA Pilot, Mike Busch says the 'sweet spot' for CHT's is 350 to 400. In his article he says low CHT's is an indication of low exhaust valve temperature and letting it get too low increases the likelihood of deposits on the exhaust valve stem which in turn leads to morning sickness. As for not being able to operate LOP, have you tried it at 2600 RPM?

We were in a similar boat with our KFC200. Pitch servo failed and it was going to cost $4000 to repair. With so many other parts that could fail and were going to be expensive to repair, we opted to replace the system. The GFC500 was not yet certified for our J. We opted to hand fly the plane until it was. Turned out to be about 18 months. I don't think it will be that long until Garmin certifies the GI275 for use with the GFC500 though. Good luck.

Regardless of how far you try to take the analogy, telling someone that running low RPM and high MP is like lugging the engine on your car, is still valid.

Agree. That was one of the first things we pulled when we got the plane.

The reason I ask is because I found that the closer I ran to square, the quicker I went through oil. So for example, if you pull the RPM back to 2500 or 2600 in the climb, in my opinion that might cause more blow by. If you cruised at lower altitudes at say 23" and 2400 RPM, again, just my opinion, that would cause more blow by than 21" and 2600 RPM. My opinion is based on the theory that anything that creates a higher peak pressure will cause more blow by. That could be lower RPM, higher MP, 50 ROP or a combination of those. Again, just my opinion.

Just a question for you. What is your normal power setting at cruise (MP and RPM)?

No I haven't. Tell me more.

When we wrote up the LLC agreement and the operating procedures, we just made it up as we went. Tried to think of everything that might be a factor and wrote it into the agreement. Over the years we've tweaked it a bit but it's still essentially the same. When a member wants to sell their share, they can sell it for whatever they can get for it. The remaining members have to approve the buyer. The new owner inherits whatever stake the seller had. So if someone has a $25,000 stake but they sell it for $20,000 they just lose money. The buyer just gets a great deal. The problem will come if I ever want to sell. I doubt anyone will want to pay as much as I have in the plane and I won't be willing to take a huge loss. It will probably either take some sort of arrangement with my current partners to buy my share down or we'll end up selling the plane and splitting the money. We split the reserve fund (based on hourly charges) in proportion to ownership so I would get most of that money. Money in the non-reserve fund (money from monthly dues) gets split evenly regardless of percentages.

I wanted to know what the performance of our J was after we installed the GFC500 so I created a spreadsheet. This should work for most other IO-360 NA powered J models. It should also work for other 200 HP NA aircraft but may require modification of the IAS to CAS calculations. Assumptions: 1) LOP. 2) LOP power is proportional to fuel flow. 3) At least for the '78 model, CAS is always IAS - 2. 4) You will use .5 gallons for start, taxi, and takeoff (STTO). 5) It takes .25 gallons more fuel during a 1000' climb than it does to cover the same distance if you were already cruising at the higher altitude. In essence, it costs you .25 gallons of fuel to climb 1000'. 6) Fuel saved during the descent will be consumed in the traffic pattern. 7) It assumes a given power setting will yield the same IAS regardless of altitude. How to use it: Climb to a reasonable altitude that has smooth air. I took my readings at 4500'. Set the engine up for LOP operation at the specified fuel flow then wait a minute or two for the speed to stabilize. Write down the IAS for use in the spreadsheet. Enter your indicated airspeeds, FOB at engine start, and your desired reserve fuel at landing. That's it. With those assumptions, here is what the spreadsheet does: You enter the IAS, the spreadsheet subtracts 2 knots to get CAS. I used my E6B to get a CAS to TAS conversion factor for each altitude. The spreadsheet takes that factor times the CAS to get a TAS for each altitude and power setting. Since power is proportional to FF, it simply takes TAS and divides by FF to get MPG. For range it starts with your FOB, subtracts your desired reserve, then subtracts STTO and climb fuel (.5 + 1.5 for 6000' for example). It divides the result by the FF to get time at cruise and multiplies by TAS to get range. For headwind ranges, it does the same thing except it subtracts the headwind component from the TAS before it multiplies. 201CB Performance.xls

Thanks for the kind words. Yes I'm lucky. I'm partnered with 3 other guys that want to fix things when they break. However, part of our luck concerning upgrades is because of how our group is structured. I really wanted to replace our inop KFC200 with the GFC500. I was willing to spend money to do that. The others were also willing, but less willing. Our arrangement allowed me to foot the majority of the cost in exchange for a larger share of the LLC that owns the plane. We all get to enjoy the benefits of the GFC. When we finally decide to sell the plane, I'll get most if not all of my money back because I'll get a larger share of the sale plus a larger share of the reserve fund.