philiplane

That's good. But if you ask around you'll find there are dozens of these going off at random every year. Customers have given up on six of them here, and switched them to Artex 345's. I've got two others that have been sent back twice for repairs. Both came back with new boards. One of those is going off at random again, and will make its' third trip home to ACK in less than two years. A nice additional "feature" of these events is that ACK gets to sell you another expensive battery. ACK also says that low battery voltage in the remote control, or corrosion in the battery case, can set them off. So when you do the ELT repairs, you end up replacing the remote battery, the horn battery, and the ELT battery. The biggest population of the ACK ELT-01 is in Cirrus aircraft. They were original equipment from 1999 to 2006. Probably 3000 to 3500 units installed. Many if not most of those were upgraded to the ELT-04. Many of the upgrades were driven by persistent G switch failures that caused the ELT to go off at random. I probably changed out over a hundred myself. In 2007 Cirrus switched to Artex ME406, and then to the Artex 1000 to add the GPS interface. So far, ACK has not charged for any of the repairs to the ELT itself, and the oldest one I've sent was seven years old.

The ACK ELT-04 is a great unit if you are lonely. It goes off at random, and you get to make new friends with people that call you to see if you're ok. ATC will check on you while you're in the air, when it goes off in mild turbulence. On the ground, people not only call you, but if you don't answer right away, they'll call your family, and then the airport manager to be certain that you haven't crashed.

the yellow hose is only good for about five years. Wherever possible, MIL-6000 hose is better. https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/mil6000.php The yellow hose should not be used in direct exposure to oil or crankcase fumes. Only for fresh air ducting.

A later model Ovation with G1000 avionics would make an even easier transition to the TBM.

As expensive as it is, the 149 NL/EC is the best starter you can buy. Airparts in Fort Lauderdale has 20 of them in stock. $1201.

It's my experience with more than a dozen MT propellers, several of which the owners have scrapped, and gone back to Hartzell. We're about to do that to another one that is seven years old with only 850 hours since new, has been resealed three times, continues to leak, and the deice boots are also falling apart. On a hangared, well-kept airplane. I think the folks who have good luck with the MT don't fly very much. On flight school planes, the MT needs work every 100 hours. Paint, filler, re-gluing the fiberglass every six weeks gets old. I've got a 2023 DA40 with 350 hours and the MT prop is looking like crap already and starting to leak. On the Cirrus forum, there is a shop gathering data on dozens of case cracks on IO-550's equipped with lightweight props. And you might notice the sharp stop and clunking when you shut down your MT-prop equipped engine. What is that doing to the crank counterweights, magnetos, and gears over time?

The MT prop is lighter because it's got wood blades inside a fiberglass wrap, with some metal glued on to keep it from self-destructing in short order. The fiberglass covers come unglued at the trailing edge. The filler between the leading edge and the blade comes off in small chunks, because those light weight blades flex a LOT. The hub is lighter because it has no bosses for grease fittings. And the way these props ooze grease, you need to take it off to have a shop re-grease and re-seal after awhile. Which means you're committed to a 5-6 year reseal at a cost of $2k. Provided they don't find any damage from the lack of grease. An MT prop will easily cost more per hour than any other prop. I've got another one laying on my hangar floor, going in the dumpster. It's less than 15 years old, less than 3 years since last overhaul, commercially operated and maintained, and was going in for yet another blade replacement, and a re-seal. MT says the internals of the hub are beyond economic repair. Probably since it leaks grease and you can't grease it? The best prop for a 180 to 270 HP engine, bar none, is the 2 blade Hartzell composite. Second best is a 2 blade Hartzell scimitar. If they make one for your Mooney, get one.

both of these alternators are sold as of today. I do have one brand new Interav (Motorola) 50 amp alternator, available for sale. $450. For Lycoming 4 & 6 cylinder applications.

Neither the prop hub, nor the engine lifting lugs, are designed for lifting the entire airplane weight. Only for their own individual weights. Wing jacks on the jack points, or airbags under the wing spars, are suitable. Wood blocks and a jack under the firewall area are acceptable to lift the forward part of the airplane's weight. The engine mount itself isn't made for lifting either, though it will take more abuse than the engine lifting lugs or the prop hub or crankshaft.

Yes. You would only need to buy the R-1224 regulator to replace your generator regulator.

In theory, flushing with avgas will remove more oil. But it will remove less particles, because avgas is much lighter than oil and does not have good hydraulic properties. Meaning, you will remove the most particulate matter by draining the oil when it's hot. If you flush with avgas after that, you will remove any remaining oil in the pan. Which is very little. But if there are particles in the pan, the avgas will not remove them. It's too light.

I'm on my second overhaul of a 1966 Turbo Encabulator and I'm still amazed at the intricacy of the divergent girdle spring installation, alongside the spurving bearing case and the lunar waneshaft. Magnificent engineering and execution!

I have one Plane Power AL12-70 alternator kit, new in the box, that needs to go. It is leftover from last year's projects, before the giant price increases came. This replaces your Chrysler or Prestolite alternator on pretty much any Lycoming four or six cylinder engine. The current retail price is $1300, plus $200 core at Spruce. Buy or trade for this one, and save a bunch over that price. Will sell for $990, shipped in the US, by Fedex. I also have one new 10-1050-1 alternator, which is the same as in the AL12-70 kit, but just the alternator, no brackets. Will trade for a O-540 narrow deck cylinder, or new Lightspeed Delta headset of equal value. PM for details.

the best place to overhaul it is http://www.haroldhaskinsinc.com/ the second best place is on the label. AHE. But the main problem is often that they don't get used often enough. Which means the fuel lines from the shut off valve to the heater, and the wick inside the heater, are dry. So the heater may not be primed with fuel. It re-primes by turning it on FAN for a few minutes, and then to HEAT. Then it should be primed, and light off as it should.

It's a great idea to have the prop dynamically balanced. It can smooth the engine/prop combination, but more importantly, it can reveal other problems that need correction. Such as engine isolators, or weak cylinders, ignition system problems... It all depends on the knowledge of the tech doing the balancing. In about 1/3rd of the balances I do, I have to recommend other corrective actions.

The inflatable seals work OK on some airplanes. But, I've removed two of them from Mooneys, because they made the doors too hard to close. Customers complained about getting the door closed, and damage to the hinges, latches, and door handle. The seal is a universal size, rather than customized for the application. It's too big for the space in the forward portion of the door opening. And the rivets in the door are located right where the seal needs to be, so the rivet heads push the seal away and add an effective 1/8" to the thickness of the seal. A high quality hollow bulb-type seal works better. And of course a well-rigged door is needed in the first place.

Herber Aircraft usually has the best price, sometimes by a huge margin. Nice people too.

Certified Engine Unlimited at KHWO has a large inventory of engine cores. Allen may be able to provide you with an overhauled engine, in exchange for your core, in whatever budget you might have. I use him for several engines yearly, and his prices are comparable to anyone. Plus his service is second to none. I wouldn't worry as much about years or hours. I maintain several engines near the 50 year mark since overhauls, and they are going strong because they've had exceptional care. No oil analysis problems, no internal corrosion as evidenced by borescope of cylinders and cams. Or course most engines haven't had the level of care that these have, but you can perform enough inspection of the internals to come up with a better idea of how soon your engine will need overhaul.

Unfortunately, not with your GNS430W alone. The lack of airways has always been a major shortcoming. You can add a Flightstream 210, which can transfer Foreflight flight plans to the 430W. Probably a $2-3K install depending on what they have to do. The GNS480 was the first WAAS GPS back in 2004, and it had airways available because it was intended for commercial operators. The newer GTN650 has airways available since it was introduced in 2012. Avidyne also has airways available in the IFD440/540 series. You can slide one of them in, but they're about $14k now. You also might want to think about swapping out the 430W while it still has some value. Garmin just stopped supporting GNS430W screen failures, and it's only a matter of time before they won't repair them at all.

On Cirrus aircraft, which have a 100 amp primary and a 70 amp secondary alternator, the primary alternator is inspected at 500 hour intervals. Most have engine-driven air conditioning, and in warm climates you'll find the brushes 75 percent worn at 500 hours. If you skip the inspection the brushes will fail at 600 hours and generally ruin the $1800 alternator. I have two clients with the all-electric Kelly AC added to their older Cirrus, and that uses a Plane Power 150 amp alternator. Those brushes barely make 400 hours and they're wiped out. Diamond DA40's have a single 70 amp alternator, which takes the same brush assembly as the 100 amp Cirrus version. DA40's will go 800 to 1000 hours before their brushes wear out. Both of these are all-electric aircraft. Put the same alternator on an older plane with lower draw, and you'll still only get 1500 to 1800 hours before the brushes are worn enough to cause problems. The key is the total average draw. If you're consistently using more than half the alternator's rated output, the brushes won't last as long. Brushes, and the time to inspect or change them, are cheap. I keep several sets in stock and I change at least 30 sets annually.

How much are the fragile discs in your spine worth, and possible loss of mobility from abusing them? That is the real question.

I have 24 of the Tempest fine wire plugs in my Aztec. Would not go back to massive plugs for any reason, even if they were free.

besides the increased life (which is 2000-3000 hours, versus 600-800 hours for massive electrode plugs), you get more power and better fuel economy with fine wire plugs. This is proven and documented by a RAM Aircraft study. Even at the higher prices, fine wire plugs pay back within 1500 hours on owner flown planes. But in training environments, they pay back even faster, by virtually eliminating the downtime and cost of cleaning student-fouled massive spark plugs. I can attest to that, since I swapped over a local training fleet more than eight years ago. They used to lose several thousand dollars each year in canceled flights and spark plug cleaning. Since switching to Tempest fine wires, they have lost nothing.

I will be the last guy to sign up for these batteries. It's a solution in search of a problem.

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