astravierso

PM sent.

The the master and ignition switches are right where Al wanted them for the "B" model. The master switch is actually a cable connected to a blade switch which is located in the engine compartment (Old School mechanical over electrical system) to disconnect the battery. The center stack in the pic is actually an "upgrade" I did this summer. The plane had a KT76 transponder and a KY 195 Comm in it when I bought it.

Too funny

Flew a Pilots and Paws Flight from KBMC to KCDC on the 12th dropping off a couple of Border Collies going south to AZ for the winter. Wouldn't you know the female was looking over my shoulder the whole trip. It was a great day to up in the air 20K overcast with stable air underneath the whole trip. I had a nice tail wind at 11.5K on the way home (150+kt GS)

I had a trip out to one of the plants I support in the Wendover UT area yesterday. It was a beautiful day for the 1hr hop from KBMC to KENV. But the coolest thing was the courtesy car they had for me to use. In any case if you get a chance check out the airport they have a small museum showing the role of the airfield in the development and deployment of the atomic bomb in WWII.

mooneyflyer, As everyone has said generally sodium is found as an additive (corrosion inhibitor) or a contaminant. The contamination can come from multiple sources, sampling technique, sampling supplies, grease, dirt ingestion. Again this has been stated previously. I am not trying to sound like a jerk. If you would like a little more help in narrowing down the issue you may want to give a bit more info like oil type, hours on the oil, area the plane is based, other maintenance performed between samples, who pulled the sample and the technique, were there any other elements which were elevated besides the sodium on this sample or any other elements which have been trending higher over previous samples. The obvious reason for all this information is to understand the environment the engine is operating in to narrow down the potential causes Also the test which gave you the result has limitations which need to be accounted for. I believe Blackstone use an ICP unit to burn the oil (most high volume labs do). What this means is that the 24 ppm you are seeing on the report is 24 ppm at a particle size no greater than 3 to 5 micron max. any particle above that size is not seen by the test machine's optics Also as stated earlier there are other test which can be ran to help narrow down the issue. A PQ will tell you about the level of contamination in the oil (great than 5 micron), Laser Net Fines or Analytical Ferrography will tell about the type of wear particles in the oil (cutting, sliding, spallling, etc.). The choices are only limited by your wallet. You can also have them re-run the spectral analysis on that sample. While I am not sure of Blackstone's procedures, most labs will keep your sample for 15 to 30 days after they send you the result "just in case" for this reason. With all this said and given the information available, I would go with contamination of the sample IF there are no other elevate element on this sample or tends on previous samples. IF you have elevated silicon and boron (and possibly iron and other metals) I would look at you air intake system as all three elements USUALLY occur together in dirt. IF you have elevated iron and chromium only you want to look at your valves if there are sodium filled. Just my thoughts, not an A&P or an expert of any kind. Hope this make sense. Cheers, Alan

For those interested in doing something more than just cutting open your filter and looking at it on the bench there are labs out there who will process you filter and provide you with data which you can trend to monitor the health of your engine. I have done this on large mining equipment for years with great results and I am starting to do this with my "B". Below is a link to the lab I use (and no I don't get anything for putting this out here). There are other labs out there who do this as well but I cannot speak to the quality of their work. As a side note the owner of the lab and one of the Sr. Analyst's are pilots. http://www.oillab.com/filter-analysis/ If you are interested in how to do a filter cut, field flush and field analysis using a gram scale and a USB microscope to analyze what is in the filter (ferrous, non-ferrous and particle size and count) let me know. This is a gross test but can still yield some usable data if done consistently. Cheers

I use Phillips XC 20/50 with no complaints. No other additives. Oil sampled at each drain. Wear metals within "normal" range. Filter strap for oil filter changes, this and a light coat of oil on the filter O-ring and never had an issue.

CT = can't type

Quick update, getting hours under the hood and moving forward with the IR (finally) with the plan of doing a lap around the country the last week in August and first week in September with my instructor before he heads off to fly the line. Hopefully I will get some real IMC. Radio upgrade (as much as it is) to start on this Saturday. I have been fortunate enough to find an AI who is willing to supervise me (I will be washing airplanes and pulling panels for him for a long time when I am not doing my day job). I will post pictures of the progress on the avionics page. I have been flying for business (Sacramento CA two weeks ago and Helena today) . After these two trips I am so glad I didn't settle and got what I wanted...a Mooney. I mean Sac to SLC 4hrs and SLC to Helena 2.5hrs sure beats 12 and 9 hrs drives respectively or crazy ticket prices from the airlines. One thing about these trips is they have both been at times when the smoke from the fires in the Mountain West has kept visibility to slightly better than 5 mi and the horizon has been somewhat obscured which has resulted in me practicing my scan more than I normally would flying typical VFR. So I have been flying under sudo-IFR enroute @ 10.5 and 11.5K with the help of SLC Center FF (before anyone gets the wrong idea, yes I am flying VFR, yes I get my eyes outside the plane but I am more aware of altitude and heading drift and correct them immediately vice wondering all over the sky and tracking VOR to VOR (although center has asked a time or two if I was doing some sightseeing enroute, I swear I hear laughing in the background)). All in all, learning is occurring and fun is being had, both have been known to happen at the same time on occasion during this journey. I will be looking for lay over recommendations for my trip at the end of August so feel free to make suggestions. Looking to go the northern route out to MA to visit family, down the east coast (need to fly the Hudson river) maybe to Key West out to CA and Santa Monica (before the chuckheads close it down) and Catalina, up to Seattle then back home to SLC. Yup it's a bit ambitious and I haven't mapped it out yet but I have 14 flying days so we'll see. Cheers

Here are some pics from my Sunday trip from SLC, UT to Folsom CA. It was a fun trip with some interesting challenges, storms in NV, more than a few TFR's in NV due to fires and the usual thermals in the mountains during the afternoons all while trying to do some work under the hood (gotta leave earlier next time). Things got to the point where we (my CFII and I) gave up and just enjoyed the view. Lake Tahoe and the Sierra's above and a MIG looking a little rough at KLOL

All, Thanks for the info. I ended up going to KSMF due to changes in my work week and the availability for my CFII (and his needing to get back to SLC this evening). The intent was to get some training in but that went out the window between dodging TFR's for fires and T-storms. Service at the Sacramento Jet Center was good but a little spendy. On a side note the folks at the Hampton Inn in Folsom were more than willing to pick me up at Cameron Airpark (O61) if I hadn't needed a rental car. I had good conversations with the airport manager and the rental car folks at O61 and they tried to help me out but with the rental car being closed on Sunday it didn't work out. On another side note KLOL Derby is a nice little airport with reasonable fuel, nice runways, clean pilots lounge with WiFi . Thanks again for the info

Thanks, it appears that the rental place is closed on Sundays

All, I have a trip scheduled to Folsom for next week and I am looking for recommendations as to where to tie down at for the week. I will be needing a rental car while I am there that has Sunday pickup. Thanks in advance for the information.