A64Pilot

Try cleaning and gapping the plugs, only time I had real issues starting my old 540 with a D mag that’s all it was.

Took me a minute to figure out what that was, I was trying to figure out how it could be a valve stem. I just remove the valve stem core, but you know with GA sized wheels we are more likely to damage the wheel than ourselves. ‘Not saying don’t be concerned, just I think those big Commercial wheels at the pressures they run likely contain 1000 times the energy.

Now that I think about it, are Commercial valve stems rubber? How could they be cut off if not? I’m pretty sure the ones we had on the helicopter were metal. We had tubeless tires so the valve stem was mounted into the wheel half and sealed with O-rings, had a nut on the outside

We had a Blackhawk mechanic take a tailwheel apart with it inflated, she was hurt but not real bad. I always thought she must have been stupid because those last few bolts had to be tough to remove with I think 150 PSI pushing on them, I don’t know how many square inches a Black hawk tailwheel half is but whatever it is, multiply it by 150 to get the force in pounds, big number whatever it is. Commercial aircraft tires and wheels are huge of course and I think they carry about 200 PSI? Truck etc split rings are different, there it’s a literal ring that is pried off of the wheel, I don’t think it’s possible to pry one off of an inflated tire. Their danger comes from inflation blowing one that wasn’t seated off. Old Army trucks had them, when they changed a tire in the motor pool the tire had to go in a cage and everyone had to leave the building, it was inflated from outside. Never heard of one blowing off, but they had everyone afraid of them

Maybe I’m the only one, but I took off in a C-152 in Tx on a very hot day on one mag, yes it was a Dog. I’ve never done it again, called one trial learning Anyway that was a C-152 with full fuel mid day, Tx summer and it did fly, barely, but that was of course on only one Mag, so it lost one plug on all cylinders. In my opinion if it’s worth anything that one plug on a six cyl engine just isn’t enough to cause what I saw on that video, and in truth the pilot should have aborted takeoff because he knew something was wrong before he pulled it off the ground, and he didn’t need any kind of engine monitor, even on a smooth running six, the complete loss of a cylinder will be noticed on a Mag check so I assume either he didn’t know how to do a Mag check, didn’t do one, or more likely just thought one was fouled and it will clean itself off soon, that was I guess his first warning, second was it not accelerating normally. I see a LOT of incorrectly done Mag checks, usually done at taxi because they are in a hurry. Ref flaps, many don’t use flaps for takeoff, I even had the instructor next door tell me I shouldn’t. His point was she will climb better with no flap, and he’s correct. My answer was the POH calls for their use. Why was that takeoff recorded? Do they have some kind of automated camera that tracks and records every takeoff?

On Hartzell spinner screws I think they are “special” if memory serves take a look at one, the screw threads stop about 1/8” of an inch before the bottom of the screw’s head. Regular screws the threads go all of the way to the screw head. I think the Hartzell spinner screws are structural screws and not regular screws. This is from memory and may be wrong, and I don’t know if McCauley screws are different than just regular panel screws or not.

The self locking comes from the nut plate, not the screw. Forgive me, but self locking is a little overrated if you will, for instance most of our engines are put together without self locking fasteners for instance. Proper torque and not self locking is what as an example holds the wheels on our cars. My bet is someone just missed tightening that screw on installation, but if for some reason I were concerned about the nut plates having lost their self locking, which does happen from use, I’d put a drop of blue Loctite on the screws instead of replacing all the nut plates, because I’m lazy. I think our aircraft predate Loctite or we would see it required on some locations. Just my opinion.

It’s not, years ago the Dr that gave us the class on hearing loss that told us about the radio being loud in the morning told us that the reason why was the little hairs in our inner ear that sound moves to make us hear get knocked flat if you will by loud noise so our hearing is impaired temporarily. Over night they don’t experience any loud noises while we sleep and they stand back up, that’s why the radio in the car is too loud in the morning, but also tinnitus can be caused by these hairs being knocked down. That’s why our ears “ring” from experiencing really loud noises like gun fire, explosions etc. Hearing loss comes from these hairs being knocked down so often that they just stay down eventually, and honestly age plays into it as well, often old people who never experienced loud noises get hearing loss but of course loud noise exposure makes it worse, so you young guys are wearing hearing protection now so one day you can hear your Grandkids.

They are meant for single use, but in the Military we always put the foamy ear plugs in the little pocket on the left arm of out flight suit, the plugs sort of got washed whenever the suit was and flying every day I only went through one or two sets a week. Most often what has you throwing a set away is when they get so much ear wax on them that you don’t want to put that thing in your ear, but they would still work. Army issued reusable rubber type ear plugs, we had to wear the little box containing them on our BDU uniform. I hated those things after an hour or two the gave me ear aches. I never wore them. The most comfortable ones I ever wore were the custom ones, they were actually pretty hard, but as they fit perfectly they were comfortable. They came with a little tube of white cream that you used to lube them up to put them in, but over time you learned that you could get them just a tiny bit wet with your mouth and they would pop in, but dry would be tough, they sort of rotated for some reason on insertion. You could comfortably wear them all day and I often did. ‘If your concerned about hearing loss don’t pop $1000 on Bose headsets, they really don’t do much, instead buy the ear plugs made by the Audioologist.

My doors are translucent too, and face due East, what that means in Central Fl is they let in a surprising amount of heat, especially in mid Summer. Wife won’t let me paint them semi-gloss white because nothing else is white. They are dark brown now Previous owner had all but the top panels insulated with foam panels that have aluminum on the outsides, door is thick enough for two thicknesses of these panels. One day I’m going to have the top panels insulated too and check to see if the attic has blown in insulation and have it blown in if it doesn’t. I installed a 2 ton mini-split for humidity control, on at 65% RH and off at 60%. I can just about air condition the hangar, It does keep the humidity down, past few days in Fl have been unusually rainy even for Fl in the rainy season. Attached photo is right now, 7:48 PM. Temp never usually gets above low to mid 80’s even in August and keeping the humidity down really helps.

Factories jacked the parts price years ago, in order to stay in business, they sort of shifted from new production to overhauls after the new airplane builds dried up. After a few years the high prices jump started the PMA parts business and there were several different sources of cylinders etc because of course the profit was good and I assume but don’t know that the AD’s and other problems that popped up killed the PMA parts? In truth I don’t know why they dried up, does anyone? It would seem the shortage of angle valve cylinders etc would be a source of profit? As has been pointed out these things aren’t space shuttle parts, maybe the volume doesn’t interest China? As far as running past TBO, your allowed of course and I don’t believe that there is any substantiating data that shows it’s unsafe to do so. However it’s been my experience as a mechanic that especially a first run engine can be overhauled with only the purchase of the wear items, as in bearings etc. However if you run one until it starts making metal, most often everything is trashed and I mean everything. Your better off buying a zero time new engine. A large reason for at least Lycomings shortages during and just after the pandemic was RV builders were buying like it was a fire sale, but surely that’s no longer the case? And surely Lycoming makes more money from Certified than Experimental engines? I think these prices may be the coffin nail in a lot of older aircraft, will many pay more for an engine than the aircraft is worth?

Years ago when flying Military helicopters we had no ANR but our helmets were very good at passive reduction, a helicopter is much louder than an airplane. Anyway when I was in Savannah decades ago I had a set of custom ear molds I guess you would call them made, they can be made to block different frequencies. there is a passage in them that allows sound through and they shape that passage to block certain frequencies or in the case for musicians they block all frequencies evenly. Mine blocked high frequencies what the threshold is I don’t know. I don’t think they are special pilot ones, probably the one for people that work in loud factories etc. After the Military I flew Crop Dusters for I think 17 years, and as they have zero insulation or even any fabric interior they are louder than our Mooney’s. Cockpit is a thin metal box. I did have ANR in my helmets though and still wore the custom ear plugs made by the Audiologist. Here’s the thing about ANR, it only works between 50 and 300 Hz frequencies that are annoying and any noise causes fatigue, but the frequencies that ANR blocks isn’t really very damaging, high frequencies cause the greatest hearing loss. So headsets that are poor passive headsets and rely heavily on ANR aren’t very good at protecting from hearing loss, you need to block the high frequencies. Long story short in 40 years and over 10,000 hours flying I have very little hearing loss, I believe about what the average office worker my age does, but I’ve worn hearing protection for decades anytime I mow the grass or whatever. I do have Tinnitus though, I think it’s likely age related? Oh, and at one of our classes long ago we had the Dr tell us an easy way to determine if your accumulating hearing damage. It was when you get in your car in the morning to come to work if the radio seems loud, then it’s likely your accumulating hearing damage, if you don’t turn the radio down then your probably not.

They do have tracks, very small ones. I wouldn’t want to skate board over them but the Mooney has no issue, neither does the tailwheel on my 140 and it’s tiny. If there is a downside to the tracks it’s that over time they will accumulate some dirt and grass cuttings etc, takes about 30 sec with the leaf blower to blow them clean though. As far as drainage whoever built mine has the concrete in front of the hangar draining away for about 20 ft or so, I suspect the total drop over the 20 feet to be a couple of inches max. Then there is a drain that drains into the yard so when we get torrential rain like we sometimes do none gets into the hangar without having to have a lip at the hangar. Some will blow in, but that seems to be an issue with any door. I’ve not priced a folding door but I think one has to be a fraction of what the hydraulic or even cable operated ones cost. The tracks are flush with the floor and it seems the tire has to roll over a 2” gap.

As someone already pointed out in this thread, a 24V battery is just a box with twice as many cells than a 12V one has, so therefore voltages for a 24V battery or bank are of course exactly twice what they are for a 12V battery, and a 6V half of the 12V.

I have been told several times by a few at Concorde that essentially their Lifeline batteries are the same as the Concorde named batteries, just the Lifeline are meant for non-aviation use. The Lifeline battery manual, I guess maybe somewhat because it doesn’t have to be FAA approved is a heck of a lot more comprehensive manual, in fact it’s the best battery manual by far that I have ever read including Rolls Surrette etc. ‘Give it a read. https://lifelinebatteries.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/6-0101F-Lifeline-Technical-Manual-Final-5-06-19.pdf

Oh and 20 amps at 24V is of course 480 watts, which is actually a LOT of power, that’s plenty of charger, remember if voltage is correct then you can’t have too big a charger, your power supply ought to do just fine. Absorption voltage of a Concorde 24V battery ought to be 28.6V, so that’s the voltage you should set your power supply to for charging. 26.6 V for float

Agreed, I know it’s a PIA but if charging them to 100% and ensuring that you have no dark current I think the next step could be pulling them out, charging and testing them individually. Give Concorde a call, they are knowledgeable you aren’t given some idiot who knows nothing and has the same troubleshooting guide you do and they are friendly and helpful, besides it doesn’t cost anything and you have nothing to lose.

It should have hit and stayed at the max current, but here is the thing, many, heck probably most things now from welders to battery chargers etc have a duty cycle, real common for example for a 200 amp welder to have s 20% duty cycle, which means of course you can only use it for 12 min per hour at that current, cheap items often just burn up, better ones can and will turn current down to prevent that, and battery chargers as you say regulate current with voltage.

The only downside I see to using a power supply as a charger is it won’t drop to float and as expensive as aircraft batteries are I want to float them. I actually have seven batteries on float chargers in my hangar as we speak Three cars, one motorhome, two airplanes and the pump on my fuel tank. Motorcycle and lawn mower no float chargers. A charger is of course just a power supply, one that you cant adjust voltage on, unless it’s a “good” charger that’s programmable. Watts are of course for lack of a better term the “real” measurement of power, because amps depends on voltage, 10 amps at 12V is 120 watts, and 1 amp at 120 volts is 120 watts. Of course that’s dumbing it down, but I’m no EE either.

Start with the clamp of course but they can’t measure tiny current, that’s where the multimeter comes in. Clamp meters actually measure magnetic field of course and infer current from that, an amp or two is a tiny magnetic field, but of course even a 1 amp load will kill a 50 AH battery dead in two days

The current should not have come down, it should have stayed at 20 amps, unless as you speculate the power supply reduced voltage in order to reduce current, only reason I can see it doing that was to protect itself So why did the current come down, why didn’t it remain at 20 amps? Voltage is of course for lack of a better word the pressure that will push current into a battery, you can hook up a 1000 amp power supply to a battery and if the voltage is correct the battery can’t be harmed because voltage will hit set point immediately and the battery will only accept what it can

Most multimeters can measure small amounts of current. If you disconnect a battery cable when yiu touch it back to the battery there should be no or at most a tiny spark, if there is a significant spark then of course you have s drain. With the cable disconnected the multimeter an be placed inline to the cable and battery and will measure any current flow, everyone I’ve owned is fuse protected if the draw exceeds the current capacity of the multimeter, which isn’t large

Constant current often isn’t a “mode”, it’s simply what happens, but marketing likes to call it modes making people think their charger is more sophisticated and is actually changing modes. However even if current is adjustable, current should be maintained and voltage should increase not decrease. Most often, just like in this example it’s just the limit the charger can provide, often with good chargers charging is three stage, first constant current because you hit the limit the charger can provide. During this phase voltage is below set point and voltage slowly climbs until it hits set point, then the charger maintains voltage and amperage drops. If you have a three stage charger ideally once you hit .5% acceptance rate of the batteries rating in Amp hours the charger drops to float, but those are expensive chargers, most chargers simply drop to float based on a timer or just continue at the higher voltage because they don’t have a float mode. Many maintainers actually drop to float based on output current. However what he has isn’t a charger specifically, it’s a power supply, if the voltage is set on the power supply then that voltage should be maintained, unless of course it’s power limited. then it hits its max power output and if left connected over time the battery voltage will climb until it hits set point, at that time current will slowly decrease, but will never reach zero, but the voltage shouldn’t drop unless the load is increased. However even if current limited a power supply connected to a partially charged lead acid battery, the voltage shouldn’t drop during charging it should slowly climb. Unless somethings wrong as in bad connections or something the only way the voltage will drop is if there is a reduction in amperage or increase in load, turn on your landing light and of course voltage will drop for instance. My theory is either there is a high resistence connection somewhere or the power supply started reducing amperage due to it hitting a thermal limit as a way to protect itself from overheating.

One thing to make sure is what is the building code for wind loading, many doors won’t meet that where I live and I’m nearly certain my 21 yr old doors won’t now. Big huge hydraulic doors are cool and all, but hugely expensive. If money were no object I’d like one, they do provide shade when open after all What’s wrong with folding doors? They don’t take any longer to open than those big hydraulic doors and other than wind put very little load on the building. You do lose a few feet of usable width though as they stack up on each end, but the lack of expense, no electrics or hydraulics to break etc, make them pretty attractive to me.

That describes Deland, an uncontrolled but exceedingly busy airport with the jump planes using one runway regardless of wind so they can load without taxi time, and students from Daytona always use the same but different runway because I’m sure that’s what they were taught, even with a significant tailwind. It’s the preferred light wind runway, I think for noise avoidance. It’s not so bad in the Mooney, but when I go over there in the C-140 I don’t like tailwinds in a light taildragger. However it’s like anything else, to a great extent you can get used to most anything, Ag planes almost always land with a tailwind, the reason is to not waste time taxiing. They need and want the headwind for takeoffs because often the are literally twice as heavy on takeoff than they are on landing, most often a loaded Ag plane is a real pig, really struggles to fly. Ag planes rarely fly in significant winds though unless spreading fertilizer or something because high winds drift your spray where you don’t want it, called off target application, so they usually don’t land with high tailwinds. GAMA is nothing but an Association, it’s not regulatory in any respect, until mid 2000’s I think Thrush wasn’t even a GAMA member for example. Having charts up to 10 kts of wind isn’t in my opinion saying 10 kts of tailwind is acceptable, merely arming you with the data if like the one way strip example you have no other choice. Long time ago when I was in the AH-64 transition I was told anything that flies, lands and takeoffs into the wind. Wind limitations for the AH-64 whether tail or cross are 45 kts, but they do better facing into the wind