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.

I'm a bit conflicted about this....usurping the Rifleman Creed is frowned upon unless you have earned the title. Ok had to keep the company line. Damn fine job. Good Night Chesty, Good Night Al where ever you are

Ok thanks

I guess my first question is did you ever power it up Thanks, Alan

@Marauder and @gsxrpilot, I agree having the ability to monitor, store and analyze engine data is a valuable capability. While it on my list (behind rebuilding my nose wheel, sealing the minor leaks in my tanks and installing my 1990/2000's vintage radios) the unfortunate fact is that the tax bracket I'm in nothing is cheap. The only way it moves up on the list is if I find a smoking deal on a used unit when someone upgrades their panel. But that won't be until the flying fund recovers from what I am thinking is going to be a 3 AMU hit. On the bright side the wife has already asked me if there was a way I could have been able to predict this issue or identified it while I was flying, so I got that going for me when the time comes. Cheers

Thanks Matt, This event has provide an opportunity for growth and I will be incorporating a good portion of the knowledge the board is sharing in how I conduct operations. Cheers

Thanks and I would be lying if I said the thought hadn't crossed my mind (to head north to Helena) but since I didn't know what caused the issue it wasn't the smart play. Plus I figured that the board has enough things to talk about and I didn't need it to hash out how much of a dumba$$ I was when I went down in the mountains between here and there. Your point about knowing the EP's is well taken and this event showed that as a large hole in my skills and knowledge. This will be address in short order. Cheers

I forgot the picture of Bill in the first post. So here you go.

You may be right but I am betting so mag rebuild shops may have this type of data. Maybe not by type of AC be surely by type of magneto. Sounds like a class project. As for the 500 mag inspection, I just watched a YouTube video on it and it is pretty intrusive with a lot of things that can go wrong when returning a mag to service after the inspection. I'm sure smarter people then me have thought about this, probably even some who are on this board. Cheers,

Thanks, The interesting part is that after annual the engine did sound a bit different and it did nag at me but I though it was because my plugs were cleaned as I was running the engine rich for my elevation. I guess I should listen to that little voice a bit more. As for the hours on the mags, as stated above I have no clue.

Thanks, I got into my logs and the engine was field overhauled less than 300hrs ago. It came off a Travel Air. There is no mention of if the mags were rebuild as well or if they were from the previous engine or if the shop grabbed a couple that were laying on the bench and threw them on. The only thing I know about this engine accessories is that the vacuum pump has the same hours as the engine and the starter was replaced less than 60hrs ago. I guess I can chalk this up to 1st airplane ownership learnings. As you mentioned 500hrs appears to be the magic number for magnetos and it makes all the sense in the world to stagger the rebuild for both cost and survivability. I guess I will "throw away some life" on one of them to accomplish this in the future providing that both of them reach 400 hrs. Which is when I will pull one for rebuild and run the other to 500 or so. Though it would be interesting to know how the 500hr TBO was reached. Was it reached through "tribal knowledge" or did someone gather the data, conduct a Weibull analysis of that data to get the L10 life (assuming 500hr is L10). Also what non-destructive tests are available for a mag to go from a time based replacement to a condition based replacement ( i.e. HiPot, resistance of the coil, current signature of each plug lead) Just some thoughts.