A64Pilot

You would think that’s how they work because that’s how the thermostat in a car works, but it’s not. The way an aircraft works is in cold temps the oil flows though the cooler and bypasses it too. when the oil temp gets hot enough the bypass is closed off and all oil goes though the cooler So if it’s really cold, enough oil is still flowing through the cooler so that it never gets hot enough to close off the bypass. The easiest way to get the oil temp up is to remove some of the coolers ability to cool, easiest way to do that of course is to block some of the air flow I believe it works the way it does because if it kept oil from flowing though the cooler until it got hot enough, when the valve opened you would get a cold slug of oil through the system. but if oil continually flows though the cooler, then all the oil is kept at the same temp, that my theory anyway.

I believe that wasn’t all that uncommon, the Wright Flier I’ve heard was pretty unstable in pretty much all axis. Even the P-51 with its fuselage tank filled was prohibited in maneuvers due to aft CG. Aft CG, doesn’t usually become much of an issue for an experienced pilot. unless they are IMC, then it can become a more serious issue.

Over the years I’ve read over and over that it’s only the big bore turbo motors used in higher performance twins that can’t safely run on 94UL, which is what you get if you take the lead out of 100LL I suppose of course that includes the same motor in a single. They could of course run well if boost was limited, but that would impact useful load and I assume min single engine speed etc pretty badly. Same articles also point out that majority of fuel is burned by the minority of aircraft, those high power twins.

If they are big ole boys, it may be 2 kts, but 2 kts on a cross country race may be the difference in winning and losing. Many older Mooney people used to swear that a Mooney would “get on step”, that is if you climbed a couple of hundred ft above assigned altitude, the leaving climb power in descend to assigned and reduce to cruise power. They were certain that your stabilized cruise was faster than if you climbed to assigned, reduced to cruise and just held altitude . I don’t think so, but so many were so certain, that maybe? The big boys, as in airliners will cruise right at the stick force neutral point with stability being computer augmented because they burn less fuel there. How much I have no idea, but even tiny savings add up. The negative lift from the tail is very similar performance wise to the aircraft being heavier by the same amount

One of the things that drives aft CG limit is called the stick force neutral point, aft CG is actually in front of that point. It amounts to the point where zero effort is required to change pitch up or down, it’s a very unstable aircraft at that point, release the yoke and the aircraft will most likely go to full travel either up or down, the stick force neutral point will I believe correspond to the point where the horizontal is producing no lift. Not sure of that though. ‘Anyway the further aft the CG goes, the less stable the aircraft becomes in pitch, so approach this aft CG ballasting with caution. ‘It’s pretty normal if racing an aircraft to ballast to the aft CG limit, the greater the arm, the less ballast required of course.

Ref removing screws, spitting on the driver tip and sticking it into scrubbing powder like Ajax or similar really helps keep it from slipping, ideally you want the scouring powder without chlorine as chlorine is very corrosive. If that still eats out the screw as mentioned a vise grip if you can get it on will often remove the screw, if a vise grip just can’t get a grip, take a dremel with a cut off wheel and cut a straight slot in the head, and use a regular screwdriver. If that still won’t get it, at that point I drill it as I’m out of ideas. On the ratcheting screwdrivers, it often helps if you put a box end wrench over it and push down hard.

I do have an LED, but happen to have several old bulbs, even car headlights will work if your a 12V airplane. A few ft of wire and a couple of alligator clips and Voila, you have a load bank, just connect to battery directly. ‘I’m sorry if I sounded like I indicated to use installed landing light, I feel that may melt the cover if left on too long with no airflow. Attached picture is of a load bank used for aircraft certification as we had to load the starter / generator to 100% and show it didn’t overheat, all it is is a bunch of 600W landing lights, they were in a tank filled with water as that’s a lot of heat.

There are extenders for those, couple of different types though. Look close when ordering. When I fly with bigger people, I leave their seat all the way to the rear, or our shoulders would overlap as I’m bigger than I used to be. Airplane flies fine though.

If you have your own hanger you can install a 2 ton mini split for not a whole lot of money, then get a humidistat to run it. I set mine to turn on at 65% RH and off at 60%. Many mini-splits are very efficient. It will go for days and not run and then on a rainy day it will run most of the time, but it doesn’t add as much to the electric bill as you might think, and I’m in Central Fl. where it’s pretty humid. In Winter I run a 90 pint dehumidifier.

Isn’t running on lower voltage bad for avionics? Something makes me think low voltage means greater heat? That would in reality work, but a battery is rated in amp hours and your looking for rated capacity, which may or may not be one hour of avionics. But then there is the counter argument of I don’t care what it is in amp hours one hour of avionics is more than enough for me. As an A&P I wouldn’t count it as a Cap check, but as a pilot I can see as how it’s all that matters, or said another way I wouldn't do it to someone else’s airplane. I think as a pilot I’d see if the amp load of the landing light is about the same as my avionics, and I’d run one of those instead, if it’s half as much, then run it for2 hours etc. 250W bulb is 20 amps at 12V

If a Concorde fails the Cap check there is a recovery procedure in the manual that often will recover capacity, especially if it’s been deeply discharged and left at a low charge for awhile. Basically it’s an equalization charge which does to some extent remove some sulphation, batteries die from sulphation, keeping a battery fully charged always pretty much stops sulphation, that’s why minders work, but they have be at float voltage, if left at charge voltage they will cook a battery eventually. ‘If a Concorde fails a cap check, especially if it was at an avionics shop, follow the procedure in the manual, I’d be surprised if it didn’t recover enough capacity to pass.

I think your right, I think I remember them, if memory serves they were small and held on with one screw?

Simple 12v timers can be bought that when a switch is turned on they allow power for an adjustable amount of time, then even with the switch turned on, they break power. To make the light work again,I believe the switch has to be cycled. I bet Amazon has some. I don’t know if either is usable but feel sure an inexpensive off the shelf timer exists, I am so far out of date electronics wise as to be nearly useless https://www.amazon.com/Miniature-cycling-Cycling-Industrial-control/dp/B015Z2EQCU/ref=sr_1_24?crid=1U0SFRLMYDVST&dchild=1&keywords=12v+timer&qid=1635420609&qsid=144-9655445-7727701&sprefix=12v+timer%2Caps%2C216&sr=8-24&sres=B07CQGP6LT%2CB00WR0ELCO%2CB0090MTLFO%2CB07VLXR7Z1%2CB076XQNSDM%2CB071XNY72Q%2CB06X3YSXY9%2CB01N05TP18%2CB07CV676VH%2CB01MRWKVM0%2CB07H7L9W3T%2CB00H4XP7QS%2CB08HRY8P55%2CB01B165XZS%2CB012FSL2GK%2CB07XTBX6X4%2CB015Z2EQCU%2CB083HN673G%2CB07DFT2WDS%2CB07VL772P5&srpt=TIMER https://www.amazon.com/DROK-Controller-Delay-off-0-01s-9999mins-Switching/dp/B07DFT2WDS/ref=psdc_495340_t1_B07JC38GLS?th=1

if the side window is open you can easily reach it through it, that’s how I get my headset out to fly the 140

LFP’s are too new to know, but come with several issues, one of which is once fully charged they need to be disconnected from the charge source, this is difficult to do. Usually quoted to have a 1500 cycle life, but we don’t really cycle a battery Some of course like the motorcycle LFP’s don’t, and I assume just accept a much shorter life. Lead acid is old tech, problems solved decades ago, extremely tolerant of abuse and relatively inexpensive, and meets the needs. For deep cycle large banks use, LFP’s have enormous advantages,not so much for smaller starter batteries,lightweight is about it there and not every installation can use the lighter weight. many would require ballast if you removed a lot of battery weight. Many, many people in the Cruising boat world have gone LFP. and need pretty complex systems to keep them healthy, but the advantages are real and many who can afford it think they are worth it.

I went out this morning and flew, first on run up, my prop hit full governed RPM at about 25 to 26 inches, so at full manifold pressure which was for me today about 28 inches or so I was definitely on the governor before the aircraft moved, I didn’t video that as in my neighborhood I was right beside someone’s house and didn’t want to spend much time at full RPM due to noise. Anyway went out and flew and shut down the motor and very, very slowly decreased airspeed until the prop stopped, it wasn’t a stall, but it wasn’t far off either. I’m in the country and it took forever for my phone to upload, I’ll try to upload here, but no promises, it’s a cell phone video so it’s not very good etc. A few opinions, First I don’t really see it being of much good to extend the glide, reason is your rate of descent and glide distance are pretty bad when approaching a stall, and recovering airspeed back to best glide, it’s unlikely in my opinion that the increased glide distance from a stopped prop will overcome the altitude loss from stopping the prop. Maybe if your at the flight levels flying over one of those big lakes you guys have up North and need every foot of glide distance, then maybe? Secondly with the prop stopped your giving up on the engine coming back on its own, while unlikely it’s possible the engine quit due to a slug of water etc and it could come back once it pumps the water through or whatever, plus when stopped you lose your vacuum, sure it’s low at low RPM windmilling, but at least there is some, stopped there is none of course. Of course IFR I wouldn’t pull it close to stall myself. It’s only a 2min 43 sec video, but apparently an enormous file size, even seems to be slow motion at times? Can one of you smart guys fix it? Its not much to look at really, Once prop was stopped it took 120 kts to get it going again, and even with the cowl flaps closed, the cyl head temp drops off of the scale 77DA4875-86AC-4385-83CF-EF016A16F295.MOV

Sheep skin is great, many Military and Commercial aircraft have them, however it’s pretty thick and does make you sit higher, so if your pushing head room now, you may not can use them. I bought some for our first Miata way back when and couldn’t use them as even at 5’10” they put my head in the roof. Sheep skins won’t hurt leather but as you say you should still condition the leather. My belief is that they would protect the leather and make it last much longer, opinion of course

Being wary shows your intelligent. No one can learn much about anyone on the internet. Listen to your instructors they know you, your abilities etc as opposed to us internet folk. There is no harm at all in being methodical and taking all the steps, shure some get away with skipping a few steps, and some land gear up too, or stall in the pattern and smite the Earth. Not that my opinion is worth anymore than anyone else’s, but my opinion is that every different airframe you get to fly and get checked out in, you learn something and it’s often knowledge that’s usable in the next airframe. it’s experience, gain as much experience as you can as you climb the ladder

Never seen the mod, but duct tape in other aircraft is the gold standard, just plan a short flight to ensure you haven’t covered too much first. No it’s not legal I’m sure.

See if there is a wire or something that could catch under the panel. ‘I wouldn’t fly it again until I found it, or was darn sure it’s not anything in the control system, especially with the kids.

The governor plays into that too of course, What your saying would be correct if and only if your prop hit it’s RPM set point when the engine was at full throttle. but I bet it will hit that point just prior to full throttle, once governed RPM is hit the governor will of course control RPM with pitch. I have way more experience with turbines and on those we would adjust the flat pitch to obtain desired braking force when the engine was reduced to idle, the flatter pitch of course gave the most drag. You have “beta” nuts on a turbines prop so min pitch is easily adjusted simply by turning one nit per blade. On a piston engine the pitch can’t be too flat as the aircraft has to be able to maintain flight with a failed governor.

When forced to penetrate thunderstorms, ask ATC for a block altitude and slow to Va, maintain Va and let the updrafts and downdrafts do as they will, just don’t get going fast to keep from climbing. I’ve had to slow to Va a couple of times, once ferrying an aircraft down South and going through the ITCZ and once with the family on board going to San Salvador Bahamas. Of course if I had the option I would have diverted and or landed, but over water sometimes that’s not an option. Never intentionally penetrate a thruderstorm. If a thunderstorm can kill Scott Crossfield, it can kill anyone. A thunderstorm can shred an airplane. even fighter jets have been shredded by them https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2007/september/27/ntsb-releases-final-report-on-crossfield-crash

“Corinthian Leather” Pure marketing BS, but it was real leather, just not any different is all https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_leather

Sure it does, but there are many different grades of Ultraleather too, I forget the name of the grade I put in the boat, but it was made for areas like airport lounges, waiting rooms etc. high traffic areas. Sort of like car tires, they all look remarkably similar Real leather does have a feel and smell that the plastic stuff just doesn’t replicate, the plastic is usually softer and more comfortable though, and if your sweating like in an airplane or on a boat it doesn’t absorb the sweat, or spills or sun tan oil or whatever. Even ink from a pen cleans right off of Ultraleather,it will outlast real leather. ‘Both of our current cars have real leather interior. both of them are 15 years old, and of I wasn’t treating them regularly with “hide food” I’m sure they would be all cracked up by now as leather dries up in the sun and heat from a vehicles interior. https://www.connollyengland.com/products/connolly-hide-care-n-a You can get it on Amazon, it’s good stuff. However on almost all cars the only part of the seat that’s leather is the part you sit and recline on. the sides. back and head rests are plastic

I’ve lived in that part of the world and yes the winds ALWAYS blow, out of the North in Winter and out of the South in Summer. Live there for long and you will become comfortable with crosswinds. The joke used to be, “climb and maintain 70” referencing OAT of course, enroute altitude in Summer was determined by OAT. However there are more flyable days weather wise than almost anywhere else in the Country, every few years the Army talks about relocating their flight school from Alabama to West Tx, but politics shuts it down. When I fly that route, I fly with lots of water in the baggage compt and a 406 PLB, if you have a forced landing without water it could be bad.