Yooper Rocketman

Agree with the first statement. Don't agree with the second. Not sure I would want to land on a 2600' runway, at night, with an engine that had very marginal climbing ability (a problem if I had to go missed) when it's still making enough power to stay airborne while I figured out my options. I would have likely stayed in the airport area in the event it got worse, or until I was high enough to make it to a larger airport.

If you are talking cleaning the painted surface, both comments above would be appropriate. If you are cleaning the back side, and unpainted fiberglass, then I would stay away from mineral spirits and use acetone. I am building a carbon fiber (and some fiberglass) airplane and all prep cleaning before bonding or painting is done with acetone. Acetone will not saturate the fiberglass permanently, where as Mineral spirits will. Tom

Never mind. I played with it long enough to figure it out. Thanks,

I am beginning to regret starting this topic. Really didn't want to start this much debate. I mentored a young man from before he was 16 until he became an ATP, has taken the ATC program and passed his ATC exam. He now flies a RJ for one of the regionals, just leaving his Med Flight job flying turboprops. When I discussed the original posted situation with him, his comment was "wannabe jet pilots", and stated there were a clearly higher number of TP pilots doing "rude" practices than most other professional pilots. Just his opinion, based on how unhappy a lot of them seem to be, and seemed to match my observation over the last 20+ years as well. Again............just an opinion. There are plenty of good TP drivers, just like any other facet of our society. I am just a bit more sensitive to the "perception" of turboprop pilots, as I will be one of them when I finish my project (hopefully flying by spring). Erik, sorry for starting a thread that's created so much heat on you. I owe you a beer (or glass of wine) if you ever stop the next time you fly close to me. As far as those not thinking it's rude. No problem with me. Not everyone sees things the same. I've met some great people on this forum and look forward to meeting you. Maybe I should go work on a project and quit posting for another 2-3 month stretch. Tom

Ok Aaron, I did that. But the photo didn't go to MY album. It ended up in the main gallery of photos. Did I miss a step? Tom

I am not very computer savvy so excuse my ignorance. I want to start a new album in my photo gallery and don't see how to do it. Anyone able to steer me on this? Tom

Maybe an assumption on my part, but based on the above narrative, it sounded like he announced first. With radios that don't transmit and receive at the same time, clearly one announced before the other or Erik would not have heard their intentions. Only he can clarify this. Regardless, the TP driver knew Erik had taxied out to the proper runway, for wind, first, and elected to take the other one for expediency or to "beat him". A simple call requesting priority would have gone a long way in pilot etiquette.

No, unfortunately, since I was flying over the lake, not expecting that was the problem, and caught totally be surprise, the mag was only off for a fraction of a second. Yes, I've looked over the exhaust and since the repair have another 100+ hours on it, so really doubt there was any long term issue. Just won't be doing power mag checks again for a while. Needed to change my shorts after that flight.

Erik WAS ready to take off first. He announced he was taking off before the other pilot. I agree we should work together, and certainly respect the fuel burn and fuel cost of a turboprop. I'll be dealing with that myself in the next year. That still doesn't give the turboprop pilot a pass on etiquette. I have pulled off approaches for airports a ton of times for faster aircraft, primarily ones making a living with their plane and especially commuters on a schedule. But actions like this are the very reason so many GA pilots have little respect for turboprop drivers.

Hey Erik, Just stumbled on this thread. My project takes up a lot of my free time. Anyway, looks really nice. I will be watching for your reports as you get more time on it. On the prop governors and the full feather going to "full feather" during failure, I have a buddy with a Comanche (I think the 400) that had a governor failure during cruise flight and his failure mode put the prop to flat. He had all he could do to keep the RPM below red line while giving up 300' a minute all the way to the ground. He was able to find a small remote airport to land on, but almost ended up on a US highway. Doc can probably elaborate on this, as I am not a prop governor guru, but prop governor failures can be bad in any flight condition, not just climb. Tom

Thanks for the nice comments guys. I DO feel the things we do in life go full circle, and those of us that have had enough success in life to do the things we like to do should also share with those in need. I usually don't talk much about this, but needed to share to help deal with it. Thanks Again!!

Owning a decent sized truck dealership, and starting out as a mechanic myself, I have a pretty good understanding of this owner/mechanic relationship. Doc makes some great points. Your wrench does not have near the overhead of a shop though, and in my mind, he's not giving you the best service. I've had customers try other shops for their work, most come back. Those that don't are purely looking at price, and that's fine. I would just as soon be happier they don't. I've had customers come to us from other shops, many stay, but some go back to their original shop. So what's the point? Get a recommendation for another option and try it. There's nothing better than a comparison between a couple shops or mechanics. If anyone gets upset because you checked around, then they probably are not who you should be using. On a second note, if your guy will NOT allow you to observe, he's doing you a real disservice, especially in this industry. Granted, a shop on a commercial airport, with TSA crawling all over the place, will likely not be able to allow you in the shop, most smaller shops, and especially a guy doing it in YOUR hangar, should welcome the opportunity to educate the owner. Unlike our the big trucks coming through my dealership, if your equipment quits you can't pull it over to the side of the road to deal with it. My local FBO has always welcomed owner education and owner assist under the right circumstances. Working on, or observing him working on, your bird in your hangar is an opportunity to educate an owner for a mechanic with the right attitude. On a final note, I have a Dr. friend (very good pilot friend, but we are on opposite ends of the pole on some things) that's called me troglodytic ‎(trōglodutikós, “of cave-/hole-dwellers”) because he doesn't like my conservative views. I had to call the library (many years ago) to find out what the heck he was calling me. Neanderthal would have been a compliment.

I was flying back north from Ashville NC last summer (2014) and while doing my run up, after a fuel stop for cheap fuel in Indiana, I noticed during the mag check one side seemed a bit rough. I leaned it and it seemed to clean "the suspect plug" so launched for home. As I was over Lake Michigan (at FL170) I thought I detected some roughness. I did all the normal stuff, check fuel, tried boost pump, switched tanks, then finally thought let's do a mag check. Holy crap, the engine quit when I went to the one mag with a hell of a back fire when I went back to both. I imagine the raw fuel in the exhaust lit off when hot exhaust hit the pipe. I continued towards home base, as I was never out of glide range of an airport at that altitude and within 15 minutes of my discovery, I was in glide range to my airport as well. My mechanic gave me 3 options. He could repair it with replacement of some common parts (but no assurance this would fix it), send it out for repair, or for complete rebuild. With prices going up by level of repair, ($350, $550, $800) and already over TBO, I elected to send it out for repair. The mag shop screwed up and rebuilt it so I got a rebuilt mag for repair price. I did NOT send the second mag out, as I don't know if I will be doing an engine in the next 100 or 300 or ? hours and would rather not dump the extra money in it and possibly return it with an engine core a short time later.

I guess I probably put this under the wrong forum. I should have been put under Misc. but don't know how to move it.

I got a call yesterday about 9:30 AM with a request to transport grandparents of a 12 year old girl from Iron Mountain, MI (KIMT) to Ann Arbor, MI (KARB), about a 340 mile flight. The girl had been flown out by medivac at 3 AM due to heart issues during the night and had been receiving treatment by the university hospital (a serious brain condition with an operation about 6 months ago). I flew them down in N7245A, the organization owned turbo Bonanza, leaving KIMT about 10:40 AM and getting to KARB in about an hour and a half (mostly over 200 knots with a decent tailwind). About 5 miles out the grandfather asked me how much longer, to which I replied a couple minutes. He said "good, I just got a text and they are reading my granddaughter her last rights". I used the FBO's courtesy car to expedite the trip to Motts Children's Hospital, getting them there within 15 minutes of landing. Just found out this AM she didn't make it. We DID get the family there before she passed, but the news this AM had most my office staff in tears. She was in school on Tuesday and her mom is planning a funeral the next day. Really sucks. Just glad these endings are the exception rather than the rule. Tom

Where's the pictures?

Well I noted quite a while ago, when someone spotted the E model Mooney behind my Rocket in picture of it in our Hangar, that my hangar partner had been out of medical for a long time (3-5 years). He had been diagnosed (now determined improperly) with an aortic aneurysm which, combined with hypertension, a couple abdominal surgeries and an appendix removal (medical field performing two abdominal surgeries searching for his intestinal challenges that ended up just being gluten intolerance) created a battery of tests for every "special issuance one year" medical. Being a Viet Nam vet, he was able to get some of the tests for free, but not every year. He gave up for a while, considered selling his plane, and now that he is working with me on the IVPT, he got enthused about getting his medical back. Since it's been a while since he requested all the "FAA mandated tests" he was able to get the VA to approve for testing everything they required for his medical (clearly cost prohibitive if he was on a private health care plan). The FAA also required "opinion letters" from several of the specialist involved with these tests, and his cardiologist wrote that he feels our friend was improperly diagnosed with the aortic aneurysm, as it hasn't changed since 10 years ago when first discovered (during a routine "calcium" test) and was likely there since birth. Funny, he was good enough to send to war, but not pass a 3rd class medical. Anyway, it looks like that letter may facilitate the FAA dropping the special issuance requirement after this cycle. I surely hope so, because he took his medical exam in June, received his special issuance medical last week, and it expires in June of 2016. He clearly will not get all those tests done again next year for free. And, he's never been denied his medical, just had tons of hoops to jump through. Amazingly, his DOT physical, which I think can be more restrictive that the FAA, was never an issue and he drove in both the U.S. and Canada over the last 5 years. I REALLY THINK IT'S TIME TO DUMP THE THIRD CLASS MEDICAL!! Tom

I figured there might be another option, just never looked into it. Where do they put it? Tom

On my Rocket (TSIO520) the number 3 cylinder is the original one the factory EGT probe is installed on. It's easy for me to remember because the JPI CHT probe is attached to the lower spark plug washer. I always have to very careful removing and installing the spark plug so I don't spin the washer. We had to re-silver solder the wire end on a new washer the last annual as the washer was looking pretty funky. Still reads right in line with the other cylinders on the JPI, so must have got it right. Tom