A64Pilot

Quite a few small aircraft don’t dump wing loads onto the fuselage. It took forever but I found a picture of a Thrush wing splice joint, This was a decade or more ago, to give an idea how massive this thing is, the largest bolts are 3/4” and all bolts are NAS. The spar caps are not aluminum, but 4340 steel. ‘The wing attaches to the fuselage with two 1/4” aluminum angles per side so obviously those little aluminum angles aren’t carrying much load. ‘I’ve been told but don’t know but Van’s RV’s are very similar to the Thrush design and that pretty much all the loads are carried at the slice joint. Assuming a Mooney is the same, then a Mooney’s wing if it breaks, ought to break at the center and not outboard by the fuselage?

I’ve not taken the shield off yet, maybe there isn’t a space large enough to stick a piece of to the structure under the shield? Just wondering if anyone had used it before I ordered some, but two screws aren’t bad unless they are inaccessible.

Most SCUBA shops do have 02 as Nitrox is nothing more than “enriched air” Pure 02 is usually blended with air to make Nitrox. Partial fill method can also be used, but it’s slow and a pain. Most shops unless you know the owner won’t fill an Aviation tank though, it’s just out of the ordinary, plus O2 is dangerous. even a tiny bit off oil can cause a tank to explode. A friend was filling a Deco bottle and had eaten fried chicken, when he loosened the fitting, the O2 caused the slight bit of chicken grease to burn his fingers. Purchasing breathing or medical O2 is odd, most places will insist on a prescription, I have no idea why, I didn’t know O2 was a drug? Anyway filling an O2 bottle can be dangerous, this was a few years ago but Bill was a Master pipe fitter before he opened his cave shop and knew his business and everything’s kept 02 clean, it had to be the customers bottle, some will unknowingly lube the valve threads with silicone grease and that can certainly cause an explosion. Most cave divers deco on pure 02, we drop the deco bottle at 20’ when we enter the cave, because deeper than 20’ 02 is toxic and will kill you if you accidentally breathe it If you use any lube at all, use only 02 safe lube, it’s widely available at any Tech Diver shop or of course online https://www.gainesville.com/article/LK/20040729/news/604164141/GS I’d even go so far as to put a bag over the fitting when it’s not being used, and if there is any doubt simple green is usually used to 02 clean valves and tanks in the SCUBA world Personally I’d just rent a regular O2 bottle or two at the local gas supply, just welding tanks. if you use a whole lot then you want a cascade system where you initially fill the tank with the lowest bottle then work to the highest, so you take the least gas from the highest pressure vessel, but if your a casual user, then one or two tanks is enough and just get it refilled when it’s half full or so, whatever pressure you can live with, most just exchange, so your paying for a full tank and only using half. ‘I believe our regulator fittings are CGA fittings, CGA just means compressed Gas Association,Medical amd SCUBA use other fittings, but welding tanks etc I think are CGA. that’s why a fill hose is so easily obtained for us, no special fittings. Only breathing gasses used are Tri-mix, Helium, Nitrogen and Oxygen, Air, and Nitrox which is just 02 added to air. The Commercial dive industry uses Heliox which is pure helium and 02, but us tech divers use Tri-mix

Thanks guys, I was concerned that it was a real involved procedure, glad it’s not. Not a whole lot of relevance maybe, but years ago I was impressed by my 93 Z28 glare shield cover as it was held on entirely by a form of velcro, not the soft stuff and hooks, but both sides looked like balls on the end of a hair brush that interlocked, worked really well and took 2 min to change the cover that had cracked in the sun. I just looked it up, it’s called 3M Dual lock https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/dual-lock-reclosable-fasteners-us/ I wonder how well it would work here?

Sorry, not having any luck with the search feature, I need to replace my Landing gear switch and assume removal of the glare shield is the way to go. However mine is covered in a black fabric, so I assume there are screws under the fabric? Are all the fasteners on top? There has to a removable piece behind the brace how is it held on? It appears as if someone in the past covered the shield with it in place. Is there a post that explains removal or is it pretty obvious on one that doesn’t have a cover over the top? Or is there a better way to access the landing gear switch as that’s really what I’m after. Finally from my searches it seems a company called aero comfort is the place to send it to be recovered in Ultraleather?

The 210 wasn't bent, a friend who is a flight test DER,flight analysis etc was doug the flight testing for an STC for a belly camera mount on a different 210 and ran into the same thing. ‘I’ve done quite a bit of Certification flight testing myself and you don’t have to fully stall at 75%, you stop at first break, fully stalled and or accelerated stalls are a whole different animal, the 210 dropping a wing and trying to get over other back was directly related to insufficient rudder to cancel out P factor. In short, those stall that we all train for when we get our license, and an accelerated stall and or stalls at high power are a completely different animal. I’ve also had to take an aircraft at minimum weight and 100% power to a stall. in order to determine max possible deck angle so that we could prove we had enough fuel flow

Unless you drop a wheel into a deep hole or something, your not putting much load on the tail. If you can push the aircraft by hand, the load is insignificant. ‘However I strongly recommend some kind of emergency disconnect, Having just come off of living on a cruising boat, I can attest that a stuck windlass isn’t all that uncommon, relays can and do occasionally stick, if our Starter relay sticks, we have the Master to disconnect it. Code requires a disconnect for outside Airconditioners etc within a short distance of the load, often these disconnects are in a box and just plugin, a short piece of rope connected to it and you have a quick emergency disconnect, you can get these things at any home supply. Failing that, maybe a short piece of parachute cord or similar, something that would break before the aircraft is damaged, assuming it doesn’t just get pulled into the wall, so have some kind of chock to stop that? I just use a couple pieces of 3/4 galvanized pipe and a golf cart because I have bad arthritis in my knees, if fact the first one gets replaced on Mon.

Assumption is of course that you can afford to make payments on all of those loans and still maintain a standard of living and fly etc. So why not for a short time take all of those aircraft loan payments and flying expenses and get your other loans paid off? Sure you have to delay gratification for awhile but then your in a much better position if your want a loan to get the lowest possible rate, or even pay cash, paying for a hobby is more responsible, save the loans for a house maybe, once you get into the cash position that you don’t have to have a loan, it seems then you qualify for very low interest rates. I’ll admit after almost twenty years I have a house payment now, and it goes against my best judgement, but based on advice from my advisor it was better to leave money invested and get a 2% loan than to pay cash, so there are exceptions of course, like a zero percent car loan for instance, if your getting the best price anyway it’s illogical to pay cash as opposed to a zero percent loan. I know there is a shed load of people who will cry that they have xx number of loans and do fine, but it’s my opinion if they had just delayed that for awhile and paid cash, they would have been even better off. Pair that with the belief that this economy is a transient thing, and then maybe being on a cash basis makes even more sense. ‘If you get it into the habit of living slightly below your means as opposed to slightly above them, it’s a much less stressful and more enjoyable experience.

Several aircraft won’t stall in a level flight slowly decreasing speed type of approach stall. The S2R-H80 doesn’t stall even at max aft CG, it simply runs out of elevator authority and just “mushes” at a pretty high descent rate, but you still have full aileron control etc. From memory a Piper 140 is the same way, they just mush, the wing never fully stalls. But it and I’d bet all aircraft can be made to stall if the entry is aggressive enough. Not that I have stalled all that many aircraft, but the most violent stall I’ve had was a Cessna 210 at a low cruise power. You knew the stall was going to be ugly because prior to the stall you had run completely out of rudder and the ball was slipping further out as speed decreased, and sure enough when she stalled it went completely over on its back and would have developed a spin I’m sure if allowed. Cessna’s have as a general rule a reputation of very benign stalls, but a 210 under even low power will get ugly fast, it’s not hard all to see that a real departure stall would be unsurvivable no matter how good you are. I’ve never stalled a Mooney under power and don’t intend to, ever. From my limited experience, the more modern the design, often the more difficult the stall / spin recovery, largely due to smaller less effective rudders. All the old aircraft, especially the ones with the little wheel in the back had large. powerful rudders. There is an old saying, “easy in, easy out” meaning be darn careful spinning an aircraft that's spin resistant, they have a tendency to very difficult to recover.

Didn’t know that. thanks. In this case, I missed that it was a Canadian registered aircraft, and was more speaking generically too.

Point I was trying to make is that on a tail dragger, replacing a wing is classic ground loop, the wing makes contact with the ground of course, but in a ground loop also the gear boxes are put under a great deal of stress and on a 140 the door frame is too, both known problems for 140’s. Something tripped that wing to be replaced, and that is what you need to determine, and it’s likely that something may have caused undetected airframe damage So yes the devil is in the details meaning in this case it’s likely there could have been hidden damage in the gear boxes and door post, both time consuming, expensive, difficult repairs on a 140, possibly more than the aircraft is worth. Its hidden damage that’s the a gotcha, a wrinkled skin is nothing, what’s bent, broken and twisted under that wrinkled skin, that is causing the wrinkle that’s the problem, just using a wrinkled skin as an example, but sometimes a wrinkled skin is just a wrinkled skin too.

While pictures would certainly be ideal, I bet LASAR still has a copy of the work order, plus surely there was some repair work, not just parts replacement and if so it was a major repair, and that’s a 337, which is on file at Oklahoma City and for $10 you can have a CD of all the records that are filed. Problem is do you have enough time to get them?

The further nose heavy a flight control is, the more resistant it will be from flutter, I believe that there is an upper weight limit that you can install that’s a function of structure. Add to that, their is nothing I can think of that you can do to a flight control while in service that will make it more nose heavy, I’d recommend if your rebalancing to balance towards being nose heavy. Any painting or repair or static dissipaters or an ADSB beacon etc will move a controls balance point rearward most likely Place I worked at we built two types if your will of aircraft, they were (HG) or high gross versions and standard, the HG aircraft had significantly higher VNE, the primary difference in the two was the flight controls balance. ‘It’s unlikely but possible that rebalancing flight controls could cause a CG shift of the entire aircraft, so it’s worth doing the math to make sure.

At some point you lose consciousness, I’d assume 12G’s may be past that point?

At Ft Rucker we had Stage Fields. little remote airports if you will where students and their instructors would go to practice approaches etc. No tower and no real infrastructure, just usually four parallel runways Someone moved down from up North and bought some land, and immediately started complaining about the noise, and got the Stage field shut down that had been in use since Vietnam. Locals don’t mind the helicopter noise as it supports the majority of the local economy. After Retirement I lived in Ozark, Hooper stage field is in the city, the local Mayor responded to noise complaints from some new residents by saying “I don’t know what your complaining bout, it sounds like money to me”

I don’t know how you can explain the drop in RpM, speed and rough running with an indicator problem, Rough running and loss of power means something actually happened, a clogged injector could do it. Prop governor should have recovered the RPM rapidly though.

Worn brushes will act like your describing,and are usually easily replaced. Ther isn’t much to an electric motor, brushes, holders and springs, commutator and bearings and not much more. I’m not saying you should fix it, just it ought to be fixable.

Yes, but dynamic is hard to test to, so we test static, but even static it’s only required to hold for 3 sec. Static load testing has served us well for a Century, it’s fatigue thats difficult to design for, to begin with you have to have an accepted flight profile. The FAA has been preaching for years that older GA aircraft will start falling out of the sky, they try to say the T-34 is the Canary in the Coal mine. My personal belief is that corrosion is a larger factor for the average older airplane.

I have heard that the fleet biplane also did, but can’t confirm that. A bunch of older guys usually meet every Fri morning for coffee, a few have Stearman’s I’ll try to remember to ask. From memory as long as CG is forward of neutral point an aircraft will be positively stable, whether it has a lifting tail or not, but I still think if they exist, they are as rare as Unicorns.

There is a lot of truth to that statement. I smile every time I see a 70+ yr old C-140 advertised as no damage history. I have one, but for some reason one of the wings was replaced 50 or so years ago If your buying, very often damage repair results in a 337, and while logbooks can be “managed”, 337’s are sent to the FAA and are supposedly kept forever, and are easily obtainable.

There have been in the past aircraft whose tails provided lift too. in the search for greater efficiency, range etc. Military aircraft, and I believe they got the moniker Widow maker. But yes a reduction in total lift required and therefore drag etc is one of the advantages of a Canard design. Many Airliners fly at cruise with the CG so far aft that the tail provides little downforce and the lost stability is controlled by computer, of course us little guys just live with the increased drag. Last aircraft I worked to Certify we proved that as long as you stayed within its airspeed envelope, you couldn’t over G the wing, it would stall first, but that was assuming that the G load was slowly or at least built up in a controlled manner, God knows how high the G load could go if you were at or above VNE and a rapid full control movement applied, and I believe that’s what we have here. Anything man made can be broken by a man, add however many other sexes you believe there are to be PC. If flown well behind design limits, any aircraft can be broken.

I have seen plugs short and misfire when hot, but as of course we have two that should not make a cylinder go dead, just a reduction in power. Of course capacitors in a magneto can also quit when hot, but that would be all cylinders, not just one. An induction leak under boost to completely kill a cylinder would I assume be a very large, easily found leak. Valves have been known to stick intermittently, ref Lycoming morning sickness as an example, so just a guess, that’s mine, but it’s just a guess.

I think Imron came first, maybe back in the 60’s. I think you will find many pulurethane paints, and a significant quality difference between them, Jet-Glo isn’t cheap, it’s one of the most expensive, but I believe it’s worth it. PPG is another one, and I have experience with both, and the Sherwin Williams paint was easier to apply and significantly less rework, which in the long run made the paint cheaper, even though it cost more. Now I have seen very good painters make inexpensive paint look beautiful, but given average painters the Jet-Glo consistently comes out better making me think it’s easier to apply. Paint wise, I’m a hack, I could paint farm tractors etc fine, but not aircraft, but I was responsible for a aircraft paint facility for a number of years and can attest that the paint itself can make a big difference. Like I said, nothing wrong with Imron, it was I believe the first and was for a very long time the gold standard, it just didn’t get any better, but better paints exist now. time has moved on. Imron was forever the best boat paint, I believe Hatteras boats were all painted with Imron and not Gelcoated. Perhaps a professional painter will chime in

The lower compression a cylinder has, the higher it’s EGT will be, even if you match fuel flows on an injected engine perfectly, there will always be a mis match in EGT due to variation of compression. ‘Some variation is completely normal

Just if your lean for taxi, lean so aggressively the engine won’t run above 1500 or so without missing heavily. People have taken off leaned out and been killed from an engine that won’t develop enough power to climb, but if you lean aggressively, that can’t happen.