PT20J

Plugged holes in the ribs and leaking fuel caps are the subject of AD 85-24-03. Although the text of the AD states it must be done once, the section on fuel caps references SB M20-229(A) which states that the o-rings need to be visually inspected every 100 hrs/annually, so I know that many shops interpret this to be a requirement of the AD. Whether it is or not, it's a good idea. The fluorosilicone o-rings probably last forever. But, since the small one on the shaft cannot be inspected without disassembly, I do the pressure test every year. All you need is about a 3' length of vinyl tubing that will fit tightly over the tank vent and a spray bottle of soapy water (I just use Fantastik spray cleaner) and blow into the hose with your mouth to slightly pressurize the tank while spraying the soapy water on the cap and watch for bubbles. I also keep the o-rings lubricated per the SB: Vasoline on the big one, Tri-Flow on the shaft. Tri-Flow also works well on the gascolator and fuel selector shafts.

The left instrument panel is mounted on shock mounts to cushion the gyro instruments. I understand that replacing these with solid spacers is better for digital instruments.

It’s just the cotter pins. Front first.

The vertical adjustment also moves the seat pan fore and aft. On mine, I can get the seats out if I set the height to about the middle of the range, but it’s easiest if I set it all the way down and remove the front from the rails and then move the seat all the way up and slide it to the back to remove the rear from the rails.

I'm not saying this means anything, but it is just a data point. I have sumped thousands of fuel tanks over 40 years of flying everything from a C-150 to a DC-3. I can only remember finding water a handful of times and it was always a teaspoonful or less. I only got a few ounces once in Fairbanks AK in a Cherokee. Never did figure out why, but suspect it came from the fuel truck. The few times I saw water it was clear. And, most of these airplanes were tied down outside. I've concluded that water in the fuel is not at all a normal situation.

This is correct. I noted this in another thread. The FAA-approved ICA document contains the text below. It is unusual for an ICA to include an airworthiness limitation; most manufacturers avoid that. However, this one does, and, since the limitation requires inspection of the joints after disassembly, applying lubricant externally won't satisfy the limitation. BTW, the reason for the quotation marks is that this is the exact text that the FAA requires be in an airworthiness limitation section of an ICA. 6.2 AIRWORTHINESS LIMITATIONS “The Airworthiness Limitations section is FAA approved and specifies maintenance required under §§43.16 and 91.403 of the Federal Aviation Regulations unless an alternative program has been FAA approved.” 6.2.1 Mandatory Replacement Time – None. Any collector assembly that is damaged and/or fails the pressure test described below must be rebuilt or replaced. 6.2.2 Structural Inspection Interval – At 100 hour or Annual intervals, depending on the service regime of the aircraft. WARNING: Carbon Monoxide gas present in exhaust gases can lead to pilot incapacitation and/or death. A damaged exhaust system has the potential to allow Carbon Monoxide into the aircraft cabin. To prevent such an occurrence, it is imperative that the exhaust system is inspected using the intervals and procedures described in this report. It is recommended that in-cabin carbon monoxide levels be measured periodically. Concentrations of greater than 50ppm Installation Instructions and Instructions for Continued Airworthiness Kit: PFS-16201(-GEN2) PFS-16150-00 Rev G Page 18 of 26 January 30, 2018 will require immediate exhaust system inspection and repair or replacement as necessary. 6.2.3 All slip joints must be disassembled and lubricated with a high-temperature anti-seize compound (MIL-A-907E or equivalent) at 500hr or Annual intervals (whichever comes first). While disassembled, inspect for wear or galling. This should be performed more frequently if headers seize between inspections. 6.2.4 Structural Inspection Procedure – See Section 6.6.

The SAF-AIR drains have a really strong spring making the really hard to drain. The OEM company is out of business. Someone here found another replacement more like the originals. Maybe they will come along and refresh my memory.

"Historic profitability" is not the same as "historical levels of profitability." But, I'm guessing you knew that.

In my installation, the GTN gets corrected baro altitude from the G3X (or G5 if the G3X is inop). The GTN uses corrected baro altitude for GPS integrity checking, VNAV, automatic sequencing of altitude terminated legs, and Smart Glide.

On my '78 J, I bought a leather belt the right width and just cut it to length and put holes in it for the bolts. It worked great and was stronger than the original. Check women's belts -- they come in a greater variety of sizes and colors.

It's a double-pole, double-throw switch. One pole controls the gear lights and the other the motor. So, you still need to test the other pole that controls the motor. You could do this by raising the gear and then holding the down switch closed while someone puts the gear handle in the down position (you'll have to override the squat switch or airspeed safety switch) and then operating the switch to verify that it can start and stop the motor.

I shot a LPV approach today with the altimeter set 0.15" higher than the reported altimeter setting causing the airplane to be about 150' MSL lower than indicated. I set the Baro minimums on the G3X to published DA which was 200' AGL. I intercepted the approach course about 3 miles outside the FAF. I intercepted the GP inside the FAF (because I was low) and as I tracked the GP, the descent lined up with the PAPI. The G3X annunciated MINIMUMS at about 50' AGL. So, as I expected, the erroneous altimeter setting had no effect on the GP but only caused the intercept to be at a lower altitude and closer to the MAP. In your original post you mentioned the airplane flying into Key West was an airliner with a FMS. Is it possible that they were shooting a baro LNAV/VNAV approach and the FMS was not using GPS.

OK, that makes sense.

Well, that was my point. As I understand it, the objective was to display traffic on both the IFD and FF using the Stratus as the ADS-B In receiver. The problem seems to be that FF and the IFD use different protocols to communicate with the Stratus. But, if the Stratus will pass data to the IFD, and the IFD will pass it on to FF, it would seem that you’d get traffic on both devices. It would also be possible to pass flight plans between the IFD and FF. You’d lose the Stratus AHRS though. What am I missing?

So, I still don’t understand why you cannot just connect FF to the IFD instead of the Stratus.

One think to note is that the servo finger screen is supposed to be removed for inspection and cleaning from the side where the fuel line attaches to prevent any crud from falling out of the screen and into the servo. It can be removed from the other side, but that isn't the right way to do it and risks contaminating the servo if there is crud in the filter.

I just called my insurance company (USAIG) and they handled it. That’s what insurance is for. No ding on my rates because it wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t get the FBO to deal with it, but the USAIG eventually got reimbursed by the FBO. As of six months ago, LASAR still didn’t have FAA approval for reworking nose gears after new owners moved to Oregon.

ADS-B traffic is really several related broadcast services. ADS-B Out sends your identity and position and velocity to the ground system on either (or possibly both) the 1090ES or UAT frequencies. ADS-B (air-to-air) receives ADS-B transmissions from other aircraft on the same frequency for display on your system. ADS-R detects aircraft in close proximity that are transmitting on different frequencies and retransmits position on both frequencies so that both aircraft “see” each other. TIS-B detects non ADS-B targets from secondary radar and transmits their position to ADS-B equipped aircraft. The advantage of a dual band receiver is that it receives air-to-air transmissions on both frequencies so you don’t miss any traffic when not receiving ADS-R from a ground station and it may show more distant traffic than transmitted by ADS-R when receiving that service. Here is a document that describes all the ADS-B services. MA SBS Description Document SRT-047_V5_DCR-PMO-211_11202020signed18DEC20.pdf

Check the factory, they had a batch made a few months ago. Not sure exactly the variations between models, but I suspect they are pretty much the same.

+1. It seems I get notices regularly that some place I do business with has been hacked. PayPal never has, to my knowledge, and I feel better having my credit card known only to one entity rather than giving it to multiple websites that may or may not have good security.

Let's discuss this in reverse order According to Newton's second law, F=ma, an unbalanced force will produce an acceleration. In non-maneuvering (i.e., unaccelerated) flight, lift = weight and thrust = drag. If the speed brakes significantly reduced lift, the airplane would accelerate downward. But this isn't what we want. We want a nice, constant descent rate at a steeper angle with constant airspeed. What is happening is that the extra drag causes total drag to exceed thrust. We naturally decrease pitch to maintain airspeed and this brings a small portion of the weight vector into alignment with the flight path to make up for the thrust deficit. Stall is caused by excessive angle of attack, but stall speed is a function of both angle of attack and wing area (the lift equation is 1/2pV2CLS, where p = air density, V = TAS, CL = lift coefficient, and S = wing area). If the speed brake significantly affected lift, it would be equivalent to reducing the wing area, and the stall speed -- but not the stall angle of attack -- would necessarily increase. But it doesn't. Clearly the speed brake disrupts airflow around it's location. But it is important to remember that the pressure distribution along the chord of an airfoil is not uniform. Most of the lift comes from the forward section. In fact, it is common for aerodynamicists to consider the lift concentrated along the quarter chord line as predicted by thin airfoil theory before modern CFD methods were available. Here is a diagram of the pressure coefficients on the top and bottom of a laminar flow airfoil at high angle of attack from https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/17/8757. Note that there is very little lift production aft of the 0.5 chord point. Since the speed brake dimension is small compared to the span, it doesn't affect much of the wing area and as it is located so far aft on the chord line this effect is in an area of little lift production.

EXACTLY. My point, since ground leaning was brought up, was that all this leaning that people are doing to supposedly prevent spark plug fouling was a technique originally developed for low compression engines to prevent lead fouling, not oil fouling. I'm with Ross. If your idle mixture is set right, you should only need to lean an IO-360 when at a high density altitude airport. But, it doesn't hurt anything.

One thing I have learned is that many electrical problems are caused by wiring issues. And, they are inexpensive to fix!

The ground leaning idea originated with the demise of 80 octane avgas. Engines that were designed for 80 octane began having spark plug lead fouling problems with 100LL. Leaning the mixture raises the combustion chamber temperature so that the scavenging agent does a better job of getting rid of the lead. The Cessna 152 engine was especially prone to fouling and eventually the BY spark plugs were developed to mitigate the problem by extending the electrodes farther into the combustion chamber where they run hotter. The BY plugs are approved for the IO-360 and I run them. They provide the operational benefits of the fine wires, although not the reduced maintenance, at lower cost. I don't believe that I have ever seen the ground leaning procedure in a POH.