jaylw314

I don't get the Eurasia reference?

Hmm, check your POH? Your cold start technique sounds a little aggressive. Most cold starts I've seen call for priming by Throttle 1/4" Mixture full forward Boost pump 3-5 sec Mixture full aft If you turn on the boost pump with full throttle and mixture full rich, you are pretty much pumping fuel at 17 gph into the intake manifold. That's half a cup of fuel in about 5 seconds, more than enough to flood the engine and pour out the bottom. It may be less fuel since the first 2-3 seconds the fuel is simply filling the empty fuel lines, but it only takes a second of flow at that level to flood the engine. That being said, a very rich mixture on starting can partly make up for a weak spark, which may have hidden the problem for a while. For flooded start, you should pull back throttle first before messing with mixture. If you truly flooded it, you should have plenty of time to pull back the throttle to keep it under 1200 rpm. You don't need to be careful with the mixture, just push it in a couple inches. If you lean to the point of roughness during idle and taxi, you should know how little mixture you need. All you need is a little more than that to keep the engine running. I don't know if it's too late, but ask if there is anyone at your local airport who can bench test and IRAN the mag. If it's just the e-gap setting, which it sounds like, it could be as little as $250 to repair.

I stand correct, I thought only Continental published guidelines in terms of amount of metal...

Advanced Aircraft is a MSC and Greg is the person to talk to. They do good work, but do charge a bit more for work. I don't know how much they charge for a pre-buy, but they generally seem to run $850-950 at a MSC. On the other hand, a pre-buy does not technically require an IA, since it's not really an FAA inspection, it can be done by anyone, although I assume you'd want it to be at least an A&P

I had a similar problem with an IO-360A3B6 with two new Slick mags (left impulse coupling). Lycoming remanufactured at 200 hours. Would tease me with occasional puffs with normal technique, but I could eventually get it to fire with a flooded-type cold start. Problem was getting worse over time. Switching to fine-wire plugs helped initially, but kept getting worse. Once running, no problem. Mag checks at idle and on runup were ok, so I kept thinking it was bad technique. I had my A&P bench test the left mag, and he confirmed weak spark. He IRAN'd the mag, and reset the e-gap. Afterwards, starts are back to 2-3 blades before catching. I plan to have the right mag IRAN'd next year or if it fails a runup mag check.

I don't know, that sounds an awful lot like shotgun maintenance. How could the accelerator have anything to do with starting? How was the ignition lock faulty, and how could that lead to hard starting but ok mag checks? I think you are right to be suspicious of the SOS box. How was the left mag "faulty"? In my mind, just a weak left mag would be an adequate explanation. With a weak spark at low RPMs, you'd have hard starts, but with idle or higher RPMs, the problem would go away. I didn't see anything about the mags being bench-tested, just checked on runups, right? And a weak spark would be consistent with what you described requiring a rich mixture and full throttle to start.

KUAO is Aurora in the Willamette Valley, I don't remember any tornadoes here recently

Yes, that seems to be the case. You need to a lap around the pattern anyway to warm up the engine. Then you'd have to do everything--technically, he wouldn't be allowed to do ANY of the work because you're only allowed to sign off on the work you perform yourself (unlike an A&P).

Nice! Didn't think "operate" was one of those defined words..

That would suggest the OP's friend could just get one of his pilot buddies to do the maintenance and sign off. I wonder what would constitute "operate." Does his buddy need to fly the plane around the pattern before or after? Does just running up the engine on the ground to do the leak check count? Or does he even have to do anything?

Jesus. First thing is to double check how much metal your mechanic is talking about. Everyone does not have the same definition of "significant," and Lycoming does not provide any guidance. Continental does, though, and Mike Busch's article is well worth a read. Still, the fact that he found some his oil change and you found none in 3 oil changes this year is worrying

I guess the followup question is whether a non-certificated aircraft owner could do preventative maintenance under the supervision of a certificated pilot? I assume the answer is no, only under the supervision and signoff of an A&P. And then whether a certificated pilot can perform preventative maintenance on an aircraft he doesn't own? Assuming, of course, that the owner allows him to That's an interesting one for flight clubs Edit: Just to follow up, the phrase from 43.3(g) is "The holder of a pilot certificate issued under part 61 may perform preventive maintenance on any aircraft owned or operated by that pilot which is not used under part 121, 129, or 135 of this chapter." So I guess a non-owner pilot can do preventative maintenance as long as he "operates" the aircraft?

Thanks, I was looking for that one but wasn't able to remember any details!

Huh, when was that? I don't remember a tornado nearby in the recent past?

I guess I was using "bounce" as not just landing hard, but in a way that causes a pitch-up moment. My experience was a night landing where I lost depth perception and realized the ground was a lot close than I thought. I pulled the nose up in time, and landed main gear first hard enough to make me go "oof". The nose gear then came down hard, rebounded and pitched up to the point I was looking at the sky. I was already in the process of a go around, but if I had tried to save that landing, I probably would have started porpoising. On the other hand, I have landed hard with a fairly flat attitude (like with full flaps), and that does not result in a pitch-up moment, just embarrassment.

You can indeed bounce with the nose held up. Although the CG is in front of the main gear, if you hit hard enough, the nose will come down but will rebound off the rubber discs, pitching the plane up again. It's not quite the same as bouncing off the nose wheel first, or bouncing a taildragger, where the bounce itself causes pitch up, but the result can be the same. Aircraft with oleo nosewheels are probably less susceptible to this, since the oleo acts as a damper on both compression and rebound (I think). Either way, treatment is the same--go around on the first or second bounce.

While I was doing my Mooney search, one seller demo'd his and pointed out his landing technique--over the numbers at 100 KIAS! Needless to say, we floated about halfway down the 6100' runway, but he seemed comfortable with that.

Thanks! Vewy intwesting! I wonder if NOAA has access or uses any of the public sferics data for additional data, then...

That would make sense for a 60W light bulb or small heater, no sense opening up the oil filler door. The warm air will simply rise to the top, and cooler air will come out the other cowl flap. For a more powerful heater, I suppose it might be helpful to open the oil filler door to keep the accessory compartment from getting baked, but I imagine it'd have to be a pretty powerful heater!

NOAA uses the Vaisala National Lightning Detection Network. There data is proprietary, but they purport to be able to detect both cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes, and the ability to distinguish the two. They don't make clear how, though it seems ground-based magnetic detectors of some type are involved. Otherwise, there are other lightning detection networks that use sferics, but they use the same technique as strikefinders and cannot easily distinguish between cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes.

Up here in Oregon, the whole winter could be socked in with icing AIRMETS. Options are limited with mountains around

I don't quite understand--how could any facility record ground strikes but not cloud strikes? I can't think of any lightning detection equipment that would ONLY detect one but not the other?

At least based on RV work, tank sealant is applied to bare aluminum that has been roughened and cleaned with solvent. Intuitively, one can imagine applying it to primer would not have the rough aluminum surface to help with adhesion. In addition, the adhesion of the sealant would intuitively also be limited to the "sticking power" of the primer. I'm not sure if this actually results in problems or not, though

Thanks!

Heating from outside in is probably better. Less chance for condensation in the engine. Besides, running hot air into the exhaust will just heat the exhaust pipes, since it won't make it into the engine. Also, I'm not clear on how the heater works--does it actually burn the diesel and use the exhaust gas, or does it convert it into electricity and then heat an electric element? If it's the former, I'd worry about humidity in the exhaust gas condensing on cold metal parts...