blaine beaven

According to the parts manual, my plane was not so high class to receive "horse hair", but was relegated to "hog-hair"... The pictures I found suggests that it should all be aft of the rear vents, however most of it was stuffed into the front vent areas. Very odd how that might have happened unless the plenum was opened up during the avionics upgrade, and something got messed up in there. Of course, my avionics shop mentioned no such thing. So my plane remains rodent free, but now I cannot properly coalesce my rain water. I am not sure how I feel about this.

That's what I thought too... I could find no poop, or fur, and it just smelled like old, dry grass.

My 1978J was in the shop from October to March for an avionics upgrade, engine work and an annual. The interior came out and I took the opportunity to replace the overhead vents with some 3D printed ones from a fellow MS’er. I have rarely used the overhead vents in my 10 years of ownership. The old plastic louvres were in poor shape and would crumble on touch. However, when I did use them, they worked well. Post upgrade I have noticed grass coming out of the vents, which is odd because there is no grass near where the plane parks. Today I pulled the eyeballs and used a pick, pliers, and vacuum to pull a bunch of grass and a weird mesh out of the plenum. I park outside. I’ve never had mice or anything like that in the plane. I’ve never seen any sign or smell of rodents. I also have no idea how they could get in the overhead vent system. Any ideas where this is from? Has anyone else had this before?

Thanks everyone! I think it is, as suggested, just too accurate of data. I’m glad to hear it’s not uncommon, so I’ll simply continue to monitor for any abnormal indications.

Hi all, I just got my 1978J with IO-360-A3B6 back from a full panel upgrade - G3X, GTN650xi, GNC355, GFC500, etc. I'm really enjoying all of the data from the EIS system. One thing I have noticed is that my fuel pressure seems to fluctuate up and down in cruise, with no other changes being made. Is this normal? Is this a sign of something I should investigate? I did not have an engine analyzer prior to this upgrade so my benchmark was a needle on an analog gauge. Attached is a screen cap from my Fly Garmin logbook. When I do a delta analysis on Savvy over a 30 minute period it shows about a 1.9psi difference average. Any groupthink is always appreciated! Blaine

My J has a good heater, but I also fly it in -25C. What I do in the wintertime is I hang a vinyl curtain behind either the front two seats or the rear seat. I have Velcro on the interior panels that matches up with Velcro on the curtain. This effectively reduces the area I am trying to hear by 1/2 to 2/3.

Buy a battery blanket or two and zip tie them around the garden sprayer filled with fluid. Plug it in for a couple hours before your flight. All the warm fluid you could want.

Byron, I’m getting some work done on my cowls (fixing cracks, new camlocks, paint, etc). Do you have a picture of this strap and angled piece of aluminum set up I can show my mechanic? thanks,

Hey all, looking for some feedback on my options here, and if I’m missing something obvious. Thanks! Idea A Nov 26.pdf Idea C Nov 26.pdf Idea B Nov 26.pdf

Next flight, throw some gold bars behind the back seat (or something else heavy) and see what you get for a deflection. I find on my 78J that the elevator position depends on how the plane is loaded.

I’m doing a panel upgrade this fall, and it has me thinking that I’m going to put three circuit breakers on the far left side of the panel: Autopilot Pitch trim Gear motor I think these are the most likely ones that need to get pulled in an emergency, so might as well make them easy to find!

Welcome to the club! I’ve got a 1978J as well here in Saskatoon. Yours looks very nice and you’ll love flying it.

I’ve always thought something like this might be great: https://elementfire.com but I don’t know that they have FAA approval. Less space, less mess, just as effective?

Thanks for reminding me why I seldom share on this site… It’s not screwed into the plastic; as noted above it’s mounted on the steel tube frame. Defrost hoses are getting changed during the panel upgrade along with cleaning up the general rats nest of old wires. 99% of my flights are by myself. When I do have a passenger, they are rarely sitting forward enough to be close to that extinguisher. It’s solidly mounted, so they would hit it in turbulence about the same as if they hit any other part of the plane. Please, drill into your spar and hide the extinguisher under your rear passenger’s legs, a far superior location…