A64Pilot

I think that most large cities have high crime rates, weapon restrictions seem to follow closely with crime rate. And again without getting political, regulations or making stuff illegal does not seem to effect the use or availability of a product, take the war on drugs for example I don’t think any still believe it’s been effective. I think by using weapons and drugs, I’ve covered both parties, so this isn’t a political rant I promise you. I forget where I saw it, but one guy said I wish hot chicks were illegal, if they were then there would be one every corner trying to give herself away. Right after 911, every Ag pilot had to go to the FSDO and be interviewed, Lord knows why, what is a FSDO inspector supposed to do? Did they get law enforcement training or something? Boy did I ever hear stories about that. Jim Bob from Adel Ga takes his Wife with him, she isn’t allowed even in the parking lot, he has to leave his truck with his Wife in it in a high crime area, because you know I guess he could have a bomb in the truck, or his Wife could be a terrorist Great Grandma or something. Speaking about the FSDO, MIDO, ACO, whatever, anybody been there lately? Honest to God easier to get into a secure Military facility, does someone think a criminal is going to steal something? Take the FSDO hostage? About the same time, Homeland security I believe demanded that all aircraft be fitted with a hidden ignition switch, and the location was not to be recorded in the logbook. Well we know how long that lasted, I’m still waiting on the pilots license with my picture on it that also was given something like 90 days to implement. ‘Lord knows how much money was spent on putting miles of fencing around nearly every airport and many were given Humvee’s to patrol the fence, airports were required to be secured and no visitors allowed, gates with security codes etc. ‘Why? did someone think a terrorist was going to steal a 152 and do what with it? I know one consequence, as a kid many would hang out at the airport and help wash airplanes, we often got rides doing that, now no one is allowed on the airport grounds, and I learned the other day you can’t wash airplanes either? But locking the kids out is not doing aviation any good, and neither is all these security gates and fences. The kids that used to hang out at the airport are gone, the public is locked out, and that’s not good. Sorry about the rambling, but I’d hope at some time we start to return to logic and realize that 99% of the people are good and stop punishing the good for the sins of the 1%. Because the 1% aren’t going to obey any law you pass, that’s what makes them the way they are. But there has been a few instances of attempts of using a private single engine airplane to be a missile, and all that happened was the idiot pilot was killed, someone flew something into the White House some years ago, and someone flew something into an IRS building if I remember correctly. Our little airplanes just aren’t the danger some seem to think. on edit, I looked it up, the guy with the IRS crash did kill one and did some damage, but nothing compared to Oklahoma City

Well my issue was way different than your’s, I think, mine was intermittently the gear wouldn’t come down, often there was a few seconds delay and they would, a couple of times I’d recycle the switch and they would come down, they always came up though. Just about everyone I heard from that had similar problems it was either the relays or the limit switch, none had a bad panel mounted switch, so my issue was of course the panel mounted switch. At least I think it was, I have probably 20 flights since then with no anomalies ‘I think if I were you, I’d check voltage at the relay, the small control wires, if voltage is present when the switch is placed in say the up position and nothing happens, then it’s the relay, you can confirm that by listening for the click and checking if voltage is present at the proper large wires, if there is no voltage,then it’s likely the limit switch or the panel switch or of course no voltage as in a broken wire or bad CB etc. Voltage going to a limit switch, but not coming out is the switch, unless the switch is actuated by the tab of course. Check to be sure, but I’m pretty sure the limit switches are normally closed, meaning that you should have continuity through the switch until the tab pushes it open and then you lose continuity. You can check continuity with no power applied to the aircraft. I assume everything was working fine and then you broke the cable, or were you troubleshooting a problem and broke the cable? Either way, you have two choices, start changing parts and hoping you change the right thing, or get the multimeter out and start troubleshooting. ‘These electrical gear parts are apparently tough to come by and sit down when you see the prices, so I think troubleshooting is they way to go, especially as you have jacks The trick is of course getting the schematic and understanding it first, then checking the system, with the aircraft on jacks. I’m pretty sure that voltage comes from the panel mounted switch to a limit switch, if the switch is open, then it stops, but if it’s closed then voltage goes to the relay, which closes and supplies power to the actuator, and the gear moves either up or down. until a limit switch is opened, power is then removed from the relay and the actuator loses power and stops. But do not go by what I think as I’m often wrong, get the schematic and figure it out. Not everyone is an electrician so if schematics aren’t your thing, find an electrician, it’s a simple system and you don’t need an aircraft electrician if your IA is willing, many IA’s and I include myself in this are actually pretty poor electricians. ‘Many times electrical problems are a simple as a loose ground wire. ‘Sorry for all the rambling, it was thinking as I typed. Best plan I think is get the schematics, then if needed find a friend who knows electrical circuits and trouble shoot the thing

I know on an IO-520 on both a C-210 and a Bonanza high boost will make one very rich, won’t kill it at high power but will make it real rich. Apparently some Bonanza’s don’t have good baffling and some will use high boost on a hot day climb to keep cylinder head temps in check. I believe it’s likely that their fuel system isn’t set up correctly as many times on a Continental it’s not, it’s not a simple procedure and there is I believe an SB for that. Its my understanding that high boost is to keep the engine running in the event of a filed mechanical fuel pump. but I’ve seen a a Cirrus make a forced landing from a failed mechanical fuel pump and the pilot said high boost didn’t keep it running. ‘So not sure. 210 didn’t call for boost pump under normal conditions that I remember, neither did the Maule I don’t think and it was a Lycoming, but perhaps I didn’t read the POH well enough. Maule and the 210 were high wings. and that may make a difference. However he included a section of his POH for a K model, and it seems to plainly say boost on, so I think it’s tough to make a case to not follow the POH, as it’s required by at least the FAA to do so. I’ve not considered switching tanks during taxi, probably a good idea as if nothing else exercising the valve isn’t a bad idea, many of my flights I don’t switch tanks

Among other things EGT’s will follow engine compression, it’s entirely normal to see a peak of above 1600 on a low compression Lycoming engine, so you shouldn’t make generic statements Mounting location will also effect the raw EGT number. ‘What’s important is not the actual EGT reading, but is it the same or close to where it always has been, or has it changed significantly? I’ve not seen an engine manufacturer reference an EGT to set take off fuel flow, I guess they could but haven’t seen it myself. ‘I have seen fuel flow referenced to RPM and manifold pressure. ‘So far as referencing EGT on takeoff, sure look at everything if you can take your eyes off of the runway, but Manifold pressure and fuel flow are what’s important, RPM as well,but it’s likely you will detect low RPM by ear. A few have killed themselves by taking off leaned out, if you reference the fuel flow you will detect that right off. ‘I taxi leaned out, but I lean the snot out of it, I have it so lean that about 2,000 it starts missing, that way I can’t take off leaned out.

I just went through replacing both my relays and the issue wasn’t the relays. ‘I would remove one and bench test it, even a 9V transistor battery will power one, if it clicks and gives a good low resistance connection every time, it may not be the relay. Another way of course is with the airplane on jacks move the gear switch or have someone do it, you should hear a click and of course measure power where it’s supposed to be. On Edit, it seems relays are made from unobtanium, same as limit switches, and the panel mounted gear switch. ‘I presume as it was hinted to me by an MSC that’s because they are readily available from other sources than Mooney, I hope so anyway, my relays were, but they are different than yours.

The AD lists AD’s that may affect the aircraft and the resolution of them, at least the ones whoever filled out the list knows about. ‘It doesn’t list any AD’s that may have been missed of course and those are the ones that will continue to be missed if you go off others work. I’ve found AD’s over 50 years old that weren’t complied with, some pretty important like structural doublers on rudder spars etc You apparently didn’t understand by your assertion of an IA keeping the AD list.

Tru Googling the relay part number and or call an MSC. Same for the cable. What shredded the cable? I ask as I don’t want to repeat the mistake is all.

The answer is the correct procedure is boost on ‘I never do, but then I don’t touch that selector below cruise altitude either, I cringe when I see people moving that selector on downwind, but then I have had the handle come off in my hand too, between tanks of course, got it back on and tank selected before it stumbled, but what if I had dropped the thing and it went under my seat?

Did you see the one at Miami yesterday for Biden? must have been 60 NM across. What are they trying to prevent? Yeah I know, but think about it for a sec, it’s sort of like posting a no-gun area, do you think posting that will make the criminal not carry one? Does anyone think a TFR would keep a bad guy out?

As I have about 4,000 RW, thank you. I think Harry Reasoner nailed it in his article in 1973, if anyone has a full transcript I’d appreciate a link, seems it’s gone, just excerpts of it, it’s not long, maybe a full page? But RW is more demanding than fixed wing flying, especially a complex RW. ‘But that’s not the issue, part 121 is scheduled carrier, IE Airline? Issue is how does an Army RW guy get the hours and type rating etc to fly an airliner? I got my fixed wing Commercial / Instrument at Central Tx College on my own nickel years ago as part of their “Professional Pilot” program so I could get a degree to stay in the Army long enough to retire, as a Warrant Officer I didn’t need a degree to go to flight school, but even as an AH-64 guy who was critically short and paid an extra $1,000 a month I wasn’t going to make CW3 without a degree, most likely. ‘just getting the Professional Pilot degree in night school was tough, and the money required to get 100 hours in airplanes for a CW2 was tough, yes the Army paid a tiny fraction, Army paid up to x dollars per credit hour and the flying was a 2 hour “lab” so the Army portion was a tiny fraction of the total. ‘I can’t imagine how an Active Duty RW guy could possibly get the hours and ratings required, even if they inherited enough money to do so. Army can send you to Flight Safety in Dothan and you can get a King Air rating, it wasn’t open to me as an AH-64 pilot at the time but UH-60 guys could. But even then all you get is a multi engine rating and if a King Air is over 12,500 a type rating. I don’t know if one is or isn’t. But if he has a way to get there, more power to him.

Oh, and pressurized carburetors make a carb motor so they can pull neg G’s, and there is a whole lot more to it than that, go pull neg G’s in your Mooney and after landing you will see oil streaming down the left side all of the way to the tail. Yes, the Spit in its original form was actually a pretty primitive airplane, it was a old design. Ref the Spitfire, the BF-109’s would have torn them up if not for two American modifications made just before the battle, first was a constant speed prop made under a US license, (Hamilton Standard) prior Spits ran fixed pitch props, or some two speed maybe even wood props? Secondly was 100 Octane fuel, the high Octane fuel really allowed the Merlin to come into its own, I think it increased speed by 15 kts? Later on the German’s discovered the 100 Octane fuel, but the Daimler engine couldn’t make enough boost to make its use worthwhile. The German’s ran Nitrous Oxide for a quick emergency boost ‘The Merlin was made in the US of course later by Packard, and Packard made some changes and it was considered a better motor than the original RR Merlin, it’s a whole lot easier to improve an existing design that it is to develop it from scratch. Packard built I think over 55,000 motors, they weren’t Merlin’s they had a different designation V-1650’s or something

Specifically to the Maule, any aircraft that can be put on floats needs to start right now, as your floating down river backwards heading for a tree overhanging or just maybe rocks, you don’t want to be playing hot start games. Secondly a carb if your in the boonies is a whole lot easier to clean or work on period, if your a high wing airplane often with a carburetor you don’t even have a fuel pump, the fuel just drains into the carburetor. (Maule’s however have fuel pumps, two I believe for the auto gas as well as an additional air scoop I think.) Maule’s specifically were designed to be easy and cheap to maintain, the wings and flight control surfaces are put together with hardware store pop rivets for example, there is no plastic inside of the airplane, the interior is like a 1060’s car, as such they don’t look as modern, but if you live in the boonies, they are a whole lot easier to maintain with simple tools However my Maule was an IO, and I liked my IO, it made 235 HP a couple of hundred RPM less than the carb 540 did, my redline was 2400, the low compression carb motor took 2600 to make the same power I believe. The higher compression motor burned slightly less fuel too, high compression is more efficient as can be seen by its lower EGT. An older test pilot friend worked at University of Tn flight dept years ago and they flew a C-310 in testing with one engine running (gasohol) what auto fuel with Ethanol was called back then and he said it ran fine. I assume there were some fuel system mods to deal with vapor lock, but the engine ran just fine, he just flew it and I don’t think he knew if any timing adjustments etc were made or not. ‘I may have heard of someone who more as an experiment than anything else ran his IO Maule with alcohol free high test in one wing and 100 LL in the other, made takeoffs on 100LL. He experienced no difference in running, but he did run ROP and no differences at all, until he re-fueled at Deland on a Summer day and experienced starting difficulties. he was still on auto gas when he shut down. On restart the fuel PSI was bouncing around so obviously vapor lock ‘My personal belief is if 100LL becomes not available, our NA Lycomings can run off of 93 Octane car gas, if we reduce timing by a few degrees, and maybe limit manifold pressure?

You still forgot one, Test Pilot Although Retired now, so I only fly for fun. For the Rucker guy wanting to go from Blackhawks to a part 121, I don’t know how you would do that, are there Rotary wing 121 ops? I would think you would step over and become a DAC IP, as I’m sure your a Military IP, just may not have done much teaching?

That’s the thing that people sometimes don’t understand when they change IA’s, the new guy has to research the aircraft all the way back to the day it was manufactured. ‘If he or she did the annual last year, then they only have one year to research. Try as hard as you can and you may still miss an AD, for instance the airplane my have one circuit breaker of a different brand, and years ago that circuit breaker or switch or any other small part may have gotten an AD issued against it. ‘Even with good software, and I don’t know how you could do without to be truthful, but even with the software, it takes more time than many realize, and we haven’t even looked at the airplane yet. If I have never seen the airplane, it’s getting a deeper look, this thread explains why. ‘But I’m having a hard time understanding a 15K annual on an well cared airplane myself, now if we throw any kind of avionics upgrade, then yes easily.

That explains one or two, but not a whole ramp full. ‘Some get desensitized, nothing happened the last three hurricane warnings, why bother this time?

Money is relative, some will drop $5K on a night out and think nothing of it, and some will pay that to go fishing. Then others $50 is a nice night out and fishing is free.

Yes, high humidity as far as engine power is concerned is under appreciated. ‘When the air is cold, I mean real cold not Fl cold, it can hold only a very small amount of water, so an engine gets a big power increase from cold, dense and dry air. We did cold weather testing in Wisconsin in Feb 03, it was surprising to see what real cold did for aircraft performance, and what it did to aircraft systems.

Lycoming says continuous oil temp should be between 180 and 220, and seemed to indicate that he Vernatherm rated temp is the fully extended temp, not it’s beginning to move temp. http://www.yeeles.com/Reference/Hi-Temps.pdf

I see very little if any difference in speed on my J too, I will do whatever is necessary with cowl flaps to stay in the middle of the green arc myself, I don’t have a monitor.

Any thermostat has two temps, one is the cracking temp where it just begins to open and the second is the fully open temp, they are gradual devices, it’s not an on or off thing. The rated temp is I believe the cracking temp. From the oils perspective 200 is better than 180, 200 is more likely to actually cook off all the moisture. ‘Most all high performance automobiles as a example have an oil cooler, the oil cooler uses 195F coolant as the cooling medium, so it’s actually an oil heater unless oil temp is over 200, so they maintain oil temp somewhere usually between about 220F and 195F. It was Exxon that told me that they like to see oil temps of around 200 when I called asking if I should shorten oil change intervals as I ran 200+ but under 220 during Summer months. 180 is the min acceptable number. They couldn’t speak for the engine but said their oil is happy and not experiencing any degradation until temps way above the engines max temp rating. So if they are correct and as they manufacture the oil I assume they are, the oil temp limit is an engine, not an oil limit. ‘Now I assume Exxon wasn’t a super oil and Shell is similar. I ran Exxon Elite back then, and just used my last quart the other day.

Humidity plays a big part, it greatly decreases air density and therefore engine powerJust off the top of my head your density altitude at 2,000 was likely about 5,000 https://www.faasafety.gov/files/gslac/library/documents/2011/Aug/56396/FAA P-8740-02 DensityAltitude[hi-res] branded.pdf Your difference in book speed vs actual closes up at slower airspeeds as the power required is less ‘Any airplane that makes book speed is unusual, then we are pretty much left with the inescapable fact of what it is, is what it is, check timing sure it’s easy to do. A GPS is phenomenally accurate in determining speed as a shed load of measurements are averaged out, it’s way more accurate than any true airspeed display can or will be, the fancy TAS indications on the glass displays are about as accurate as the % power readings on the fancy engine monitors are. So far as flying at high power in hot weather with the cowl flaps closed, I can’t or won’t as I like my cyl head temps in the middle of the green, any higher than the middle I’ll open the flaps by whatever amount is required to keep the heads cool. ‘In hot weather I believe the maintenance manual says to adjust the flaps to where when fully closed, they are a half inch open or so, mine are a quarter inch as I will often cruise real LOP and way back on power and need them well closed fo keep the heads from being too cool. But don’t be afraid of using the flaps to cool the engine, that’s what they are for, if it hurt to have them open the POH would say so.

Read this https://resources.savvyaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/articles_eaa/EAA_2010-10_egt-myths-debunked.pdf

IF you notice your running higher EGT’s than usual, especially if the airplane just came out of maintenance, check timing, incorrect timing can raise EGT’s, and if it’s just one cylinder, suspect a stuck valve or anything that could reduce compression, broken rings or whatever. To see how timing can effect EGT, do a mag check and watch egt when you do, it will increase significantly, retarded timing will usually increase EGT

Back in the day, EGT gauges didn’t have numbers on them, and that’s the way it should be. The number is completely irrelevant, all you need to know is how much less than peak you are, so yes you need to know the graduations but not the number associated with them. Since adding temp numbers to the gauges, people have become concerned with total temp, and for a NA airplane it’s completely irrelevant, as there is no max allowable EGT. If memory is correct lower compression engines will peak well over 1600F, first time I saw that I thought something was wrong and became concerned with running the engine so hot.

For things like mountain bikes etc. it’s not so much interior space as it is the size of the hole it has to go through, and the wing it has to go over A folding mountain bike would be a real PIA, best folding bikes are Bike Fridays or Brompton’s, but you pay for what you get. Might get a Bike Friday though the baggage compt door. A Dahon is a good mid priced alternative, I have three Mariners, one motorized and haven’t tried to get any of them in the Mooney, they will fit, but getting them in and out is going to be tough. For hauling stuff, get a Maule, 130 -135 kt cruise and station wagon type doors, a good one is in your price range and nothing is cheaper to maintain than a Maule. For those that don’t understand we keep our tailwheels because they are a challenge to land, they require a skill set that nose draggers don’t and not much beats flying around with the door off or the windows open and your arm out like a car. Oh, and if any are interested the C-140 prototype first flew two days and 76 years ago. Think about that a minute, we were still at War with Japan, the first nuke hadn’t been tested yet, and Cessna is building a Civilian airplane for after the War. ‘My little 140 is 75 years old and will outlive me barring a major incident.