0TreeLemur

I find the video credible and incredibly scary. In couple of decades ago the pilot of a Vari-eze was on a cross-country with his wife. During a fuel stop he incorrectly installed the gas cap. Just after takeoff it came off and struck the wooden propeller, causing the propeller to shatter. This caused severe vibration and control issues. They didn't survive. I think if a gas cap can do it, so could a drone. There is lots to fear from drones. With their MEMS based programmable flight directors and large power/weight ratio- some of them could fly up through the rotor downwash of a helicopter. I've boarded hovering helicopters before, the downwash in a hover is not that great.

Hey @DXB , just curious- is this documented somewhere? Particularly interested in Vno of 175 mph.

The problems described by @wpbarnar and @pwhicks are: (1) indicative of old wiring, which means high potential for poor contact due to oxidation, poor/loose connections, and may indicate wiring mistakes; (2) tricky to diagnose; and (3) a symptom that your aircraft's wiring is not working correctly should be looked at before flight. When we re-did the panel in our '67C last year, we replaced all the breakers and re-did all the electrical connections. That cleared up some strange behaviors. We did install an engine monitor which allowed us to simplify the wiring some. The anti-vibration lugs used to hold the pilot's side panel on have a tendency to sag over time, which may cause grounding straps to fail. Lots can go wrong. Best to get it looked at. By analogy, your aircraft's nervous system is suffering from a serious malady, and nothing good can ever come from it. It doesn't get better on its own- it can only get worse. Get it looked at ASAP. My PPSEL non A&P advice is worth the bits it is encoded in.

So, on an IFR training flight last week my instructor noted a large (~30-deg.) discrepancy between the two VOR receivers in my aircraft. The next flight we went to KMEI where there is a VOR test point on the field, and saw that the NAV receiver in the GNS430W is about 30-degrees off. The other NAV rcvr in the KX-155 is within two degrees (yeah!). Yesterday I called a nearby avionics shop and discussed with a technician I know, who told me that the GNS430W probably required calibration of the CDI it is attached to, and told me something to try. I went to the hangar, followed his instructions, which took about 5 minutes, and then went for a test flight. Both NAV receivers now agree within 1 degree of each other! Solution: press and hold "Enter" while powering up the GNS 430W. That boots it into calibration mode. About 8 or 10 pages into the calibration mode is an option to "Calibrate 150 degrees CDI". Set the CDI to 150 degrees "TO", highlight the box that says "Calibrate 150 degrees CDI" and press enter. That's it. Not sure why it was off, but it is fine now. It should all be that easy!

In these divided times, I too think that I'd like to think of ya'll as friends who love aviation as much as I do and that is what we have in common. To see non-aviation subjects lines in the "Recent Posts" section when I log into MS would be counter to one of the things that I like about hanging out here! I suspect many others would feel the same way.

If instead of clicking on the dropbox link, you click on "travel_boards.zip", you will download a zip file. When I unzip it, it seems to be corrupt. The only files extracted are: "rudder instructions.zip" and "rudder.jpg". Maybe somebody else can extract more. Luckily all I need right now are the rudder checks. I'll upload these two rudder files that I did get out of the zip file to the Downloads section. Given that the zip file is 1.9 MB and the two .jpg files are about that size, I'm guessing that is all it contains.

Brittain has been acquired by a new owner so the Accutrak is not dead yet. Not clear to me why you want an autopilot that will fly an approach- isn't that the pilot's job?

ditto.

I cannot find the NTSB after-action report for this one. I found an interview with the then 85-year Aerostar superstar that required a shovel to believe on Youtube. Incredulous- I'd like to see if maybe my B.S. detector is flawed and the PIC was actually telling the truth about the chain of events....

So we did what you suggest. With rudder pedals clamped, looking through the inspection port on the left side of the empennage, you could see some relative motion in the three bearing ends in view. No motion was apparent forward of the tail cone bulkhead including the tail cone bell crank. My A&P concluded that those three Heim bearings and/or bushings are worn and in need of replacement. Clarence, ( @M20Doc ) will you clarify your statement: "With 1/2-5/8” play the rudder travel will likely be less than specified travel which does not meet type certificate limits.", what is the specified travel? All I see on the type cert. for rudder are +-23 to 24 degree travel limits. Are you saying that this is the important spec? My A&P was worried about flutter. Thanks,.

Ok, so I see the word "vertical" in the free-play limit given on page 6-7 of the maint. manual. I do recall him telling me that with push rods, he expects the total play in the system should be less than 1/8". I suppose when a 1/8" along-axis play is converted into rotational play by the moment arm of the offset linkage at the rudder, it might easily be amplified by a factor of more than 4 or 5. That is 1/2 to 5/8" of side-to-side play in the rudder. Is that typical? If so, then my plane doesn't have a problem it seems.

During the recent annual on our '67C, my A&P flagged the rudder free-play as being out of spec. The service manual on page 6-7 lists the free-play limit as 0.08" (80 thousanths of an inch!). He observed three push-rod ends in the empennage seem to account for most of the excess free-play. Has anyone dealt with this problem? Looking at Fig. 29 in the parts manual, which is not real detailed, aft of the tail cone rear bulkhead there are bushings and possibly Heim bearings that could be worn and produce free play. Is it best to just replace push rods? Looking for experienced advice so I can start to identify what parts I might need and where they can be had. Thanks in advance, and Happy New Year!

Sheesh Hank, you have $625 labor in them! I'll have to fly to Eclectic just to see what a pair of those look like!

All done under a hood. Instructor said it included 0.6 h actual, but I didn't notice. I was under a hood that won't come off. Anybody tried prescription foggles for up-close vision?

The AHRS AI seems to be fine. Once calibrated at cruise, it behaves smoothly and generally agrees with the vacuum driven device. The "calibration" of the AoA requires specification of two numbers: cruise AoA and peak Cl AoA, which of course depends on flap setting. I went out last weekend with my son to attempt a calibration, but it didn't go so well for reasons unknown. In level flight, the AOA should be pretty close to the pitch angle which we measured with a smart-phone inclinometer app. For instance, using the input cruise AoA (3 deg.) and 12 deg. max Cl. AoA (approx.) the thing never really seemed to agree with the smart phone inclinometer. There is no separate flap setting, so I guess you might want to calibrate it for landing flaps. We didn't get that far. I'm hoping the company produces a good video explaining the process, because I either did something wrong or the algorithm in the firmware for calculating AoA from sensor data has a bug. Sorry, I'm probably not going to get any video just now, I'm in the throes of IR training. -Fred

All AV-20-S functions are working except I'm having trouble calibrating the probeless AoA function. Not sure why, it seems straightforward, but I need to contact the company after the holidays and things open back up.

In 2018 I flew 116 h, which is about 10 times more than in 2017, and infinitely more than 2008-2016. Life is good.

My A&P installed a Davtron temp. probe in the access panel that lies just forward of the left fuel tank. Minimally invasive, far enough from the fuselage to not be influence by engine temperature, and not too hard to route the wire up to the left-hand side of the panel. The probe was about $80.

Five guys with over 100,000 hours of aviation experience between them, sitting around watching dials, gauges, and switches.... Ten seconds from flare with the gear tucked snugly into their beds, and the gear warning horn switched off. Fat, dumb, and happy. Yessir-ee. Sounds like "mayhem" from the Allstate commercials. If not for an idle eye roaming over the panel! That's the advantage offered by experience, habit/routine, and non-distracted opportunity. You gotta believe that if it can almost happen to _them_, we are majorly screwed without a lot of extra attention, and even then... All it would have taken for them to miss the opportunity would have been SFO tower calling up just before the captain realized the gear were up, with: "Uh, JAL 994 heavy, were going to need you to uuuh exit the runway at the first high speed you can because we want to get our stripe painting crew uuhhh back out there." Anyone who says they'll never do it might. It won't affect our insurance rates because it is already built into the actuarial tables that determine our insurance rates! Those cats don't sell insurance when they haven't quantified the risk! I'll NEVER leave a laptop at an airport security checkpoint. I never thought I would leave a laptop at an airport security checkpoint. All it took was a cranky security employee at BDL to yell "Hey! Keep it movin'! " when I was the only person in line, and I got mad/distracted, and walked away pissed-off- without my laptop. I figured it out half way to ORD. Godspeed, ya'll, and happy 2.019E+03 But for the grace of.... Fred

O. M. G. Do us mortals have reason to be afraid? Yes. Thanks for posting the link this compelling story @PT20J

Here's what I did and you can do it too. Get your wife/girlfriend/signif. other to go up with you after you return from a trip with say less than 10 gallons on each side. Climb to a few 1000 ft AGL and orbit the field. Switch to the emptiest tank and ask your passenger to watch the fuel pressure gauge and tell you when it starts to rapidly decrease. When that happens, switch to the other tank and land. You can calibrate the senders on that empty tank knowing what zero means. Then, take it back up and repeat for the other tank. I've learned that there are two potential issues with removing the sump drain valves. First, the piece they are screwed into, which is riveted into the tank, might be corroded and can fail. Second, someone might have attempted to fix it and done a poor job. Running a tank dry is much easier, and IMHO, fun.

My confusion stemmed from the fact that the governor is an oil pump and while it does take oil from the pressurized engine oil pump, it is a tiny volume and I'm surprised that it affects engine oil pressure in a noticeable way, compared to the change in rpm. Although it was better said by @Shadrach

Man, that really kills your useful load....

I'm confused. Doesn't the drop in rpm indicate that something is happening? Isn't the drop in oil pressure just a symptom of decreased rpm?