A64Pilot

I’d expect to see it in a Cirrus piston first. I guess it’s neat, but can’t imagine it being worth the cost as I’m sure it’s cost is way more than my airplane is worth.

I’ve seen case bolts be loose and cases leak from them, the real concern is that the case has “fretted” or worn when that bolt was loose. The few that I have seen stopped leaking when re-torqued, and yes you break torque on them one at a time and re-torque, so hopefully the cases weren’t worn beyond limits. ‘Many mechanics will use silk thread between the case halves, I use silk thread and Copper Coat, but I doubt Copper Coat is recommended by the engine manufacturers. I believe silk is preferred as I assume it will compress very thin and absorb a sealing compound and synthetic thread may not. Or maybe it’s just been used for 100 years The stuff used to mark bolts is called anti sabotage lacquer, a very popular brand name is torqueseal, so you will hear it called that, but I have used model airplane paint before, you want a thicker fast drying paint, the anti sabotage lacquer is more plastic like, it is the correct tool for the job. Place I worked at I had the inspection dept use yellow slippage marking, no one else in the plant was allowed to use yellow. so when you saw yellow, you knew it had been inspected. ‘Good mechanics will use it or a piece of chalk when they are final torquing whatever, it’s a way to make sure they don’t miss any fasteners

Go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and get appliance epoxy spray paint for the white tips. ‘It’s the same thing as what you buy at Spruce for a whole lot less money. It takes days to dry, several days to fully cure, it won’t stay on until fully cured. Anything that comes out of a spray can is not real prop paint, it will not last, but I figure it’s better than bare metal. I painted mine largely out of curiosity to see how much prop damage I would pick uo from operating off of grass, figured fresh paint would highlight it, surprisingly the answer is none.

It’s short people that I think would have a problem. Many years ago I and everyone in my Squadron was measured, every conceivable measurement. The desire was to determine the average pilot for future cockpit designs. Turns out that I am so 50% it’s uncanny, I am Joe Average, or was. Now I’m a fat version of Joe Average. Anyway at 5’10” I need or am most comfortable pedal wise with the seat slid as far forward as it will go, 81 J model. Anyway it has me closer to the panel than I like, but the control yoke travel is about half what it is in most aircraft or it woud be an issue. I’ve gotten used to it. ‘Now my Father was a little guy, maybe 5’4”? So how did he fly his C model way back when? Were the older aircraft’s pedals closer?

“it’s just business” Whenever I would bring up what was being abdicated was just morally wrong, or actually even illegal, that woud be the response I would get.

I have never heard of a retorque based on hours. Actually if properly built and torqued I don’t believe one is required at all. Back of the engine should be accessory case, and there are several places leaks can occur because of accessories driven off of the accessory case. Best way to find them is to throughly degrease the engine and then run it up for a few minutes and look with a flashlight and mirror and use a paper towel to see if you can find any oil. Especially if you fly it, the air can carry oil pretty far away from the actual leak

I believe it’s pretty much it, people want it to be something real complex and sinister, but sometimes it’s not. I’m talking exh valve temp, not cylinder head, although high cyl head temp will to some extent raise valve temps because a lot of cooling comes from contact with the valve guides and valve seats, how much oil flow there is in the heads is another contributor. One big reason Lycomings don’t seem to have as much of an issue if they have sodium filled exh valves, which to a great extent properly deals with the heat. But surely there must be more to it than just fitting sodium filled valves, or someone would have gotten an STC long ago and made money.

I hope not, but if you list the number of aviation assets that China owns, or own a large chunk of it’s scary. ‘They obvious implication with Icon without having to read between the lines is that they are diving it to insolvency. ‘My guess is their intent would be to then step in and buy it for pennies on the dollar, financed of course by the other owners who are going to lose their money. Cheaper than buying them out I assume. To quote the guy who ran the last placed I worked into the ground “it’s just business”

I’m not sure what you mean, right now everything is selling and for prices higher than they should be. However it’s my understanding that just a couple of years ago selling a hanger home was difficult, and will I’m sure be that way again, it’s a limited market, maybe what 1 in a 1,000 home buyers would want one? I’m pretty sure to build here you have to be a licensed pilot and a hanger has to be built with plans approved, but I do not think they can keep an owner from selling to whomever they want to. Everything is sold though one Relator that lives here and so far she has kept out any non aviation people, one guy wanted to buy the biggest and best wood working shop of all his friends, I’m not sure how she kept from selling to him.

What drives the price of Avgas is what people will pay. See attached photo, same FBO (Eagles of America), same owner, fuel source is the same, price paid for the fuel is the same. .40 c difference in price. It would be more but I’m sure they have tried that and sales fell off, so ABY people pay 40c more per gl of fuel, because they will.

Having family that are Jewish, I can tell you that they are offended by those that think “Jewish race” What about “Southern Baptist race” ? Its a religion, not a race, so why do so many speak as if it were? I’ve a friend who’s family fled S Africa many years ago, Blond, blue eyed white guy, who was born in Africa, but has been a US citizen for years. He wonders why so many who have never left the US get offended if he says he’s an African American, because he is, and they are not? BTW, when I speak of China I’m speaking about the Government as I’m certain that their businesses don’t do business over here without a large amount of Government oversight, not any person. A friend was over there supporting the aircraft we sold them, his Visa was about to expire so they said no problem when that happens we put people on a train and let them visit North Korea and that resets them so they can get another visa. ‘They didn’t understand why he didn’t want to go to North Korea

I have not had good experiences with it either

Read the article. Thsi is how China does it. held their carrot out to PWC for several Billions for civilian helicopters, just give us a little help and we will buy, buy , buy. Never happened, PWC was stupid enough to believe them, and greed got to them, China has done this over and over to many companies, even farming equipment, irrigation systems etc. ‘PWC made 2 mi, it cost them 75 million in fines, and the Chinese now have sophisticated Military engine management software, that only cost them next to nothing. https://verticalmag.com/press-releases/20959-pratt-whitney-canada-fined-75m-for-selling-tech-to-china-html/

The Chinese are slick, seems everyone who sells to them thinks they are going to get some kind of monopoly and large sales, but that never happens. In the end the Chinese seem to always get the best of the US businessmen.

It’s run out, you may get more time out of it and may not, so price it as if it needs a overhaul now. Having a top about half life is pretty common for a Conti, I wouldn’t consider it a plus in my opinion as it’s average. ‘My experience is that an overhaul at TBO is less expensive than one if you wait until it’s making metal etc. ‘My opinion is if you run one until it’s dead, it may be best to replace it with an overhaul / exchange motor usually a factory reman or zero time motor, they also add value on sale day. I’ve seen overhaul costs with a motor with a worn beyond limits crank etc exceed the cost of a factory zero time, that is what I mean by may be better

You may be right, plus getting it on a normal airfield is more important than runway alignment. ‘My home field is grass with trees around it and decent forced landing areas pretty much straight ahead, so a turn back unless in the pattern is probably not smart, except 090 runway, there is a lot of water and marsh on that heading. Still I may play with it just to get an idea. I think if I’m above 500 AHO and 110 kts I can do it, I’ll see. I cruise climb at 110 KIAS, engine seems to like it better.

I believe to get the tip of a 74” diameter prop to mach, you have to turn it at 3500 RPM on a standard day. ‘I believe this calculator is correct https://warpdriveprops.com/propspd2.html

Just going to throw this out there. ‘If you take what I hear some of you guys pay for hanger space and put that towards a house payment that has a hanger as a part of it, it solves a whole lot of issues, You can store anything you want to, wife and kids are feet away, you come home and if you want to go fly, you don’t have to drive anywhere to do so, there are no airport managers or whatever to deal with, you neighbors are all airplane nuts too. I used to think that living in an air park was beyond my means, but by the time you put hanger rent towards a mortgage payment it becomes less expensive than you may think, and believe it or not but you spend not an insignificant amount of money and time and wear and tear etc on your vehicle driving back and forth to the airport, most likely, and many times you don’t go because it’s such a hassle and or takes most of the day with travel time both ways etc. Assuming of course there is such a place near enough to your work for it to make sense, if not once retired, you can move to one.

You know I just thought of this, if your spraying a field you never just turn one direction and then twice more to get lined up, you would never make it, you would have to be much further away from the field to begin with to start the turn. If you tear drop the turn you can start much closer to the field. ‘You tear drop the turn if I use the term correctly, you first start with a small right, then a full left turn, that puts you right back where you left, most people instinctively like to turn left, think about how you used to slide your bicycle when you were a kid, you get up on the left side of a horse too. ‘I wonder why they don’t tear drop in this turn back maneuver?

Freezing rain? You fly in that? Not since Bosnia for me.

Right, correct. in Air work it makes no difference, but if your trying to return to a spot on the ground, particularly if you need to be on a set heading when you do, as in a runway or the next spray pass, the downwind turn is more difficult because it affects your path along the ground so if you maintain the same angle of bank the wind pushes you away as opposed to pushing you tighter. Doing lazy eights, chandels etc it’s irrelevant, but to maintain a ground track you will be varying your angle of bank, like turns about a point. in the upwind section you shallow your bank, and tighten it in the downwind section of the turn. Increasing the angle of bank when your low and slow is more hazardous than decreasing your bank angle, this is a ground referenced maneuver, except for the no engine part, its what a crop duster does at every spray run.

I can find all kinds of internet articles proclaiming it’s a myth, but in a whole lot of low level flying I can attest that a turn into the wind results in a tighter turning radius and a downwind turn results in a larger turning radius when the point is to return to a ground reference point, whether it be the start of the next spray run or the end of a runway. anyone trying to maintain a tight turn radius when referenced to the ground will be closer to a stall trying to do so in a downwind turn. ‘If you ignore the ground, I agree there is no difference, but the point here is a small diameter, quick reversal to get back to a set point on the ground, if you try to maintain the same diameter turn as measured by a ground reference a down wind turn will have you closer to stall. Said another way if I’m in a downwind turn to get back to the field for the next spray run, I will cover more ground doing so than I will in an upwind turn, the reason is the difference in ground speed assuming of course the same airspeed.

So then if they are such a small end user, I agree by the way, then how did they cause the problem, and why can’t they simply buy their way out? “chips” have to be a very tiny cost of auto manufacturing, even a 1,000% markup is nothing to a car, but would be huge to a video game. I’m not saying GM, Toyota, VW, Ford etc execs are meeting in back rooms and agreeing to cut production so that they can increase per unit prices by a wide margin, but. I think Companies have learned a new lesson, and that there is tremendous profits in shortages. Do you think Enterprise makes more money renting 10 cars for $30 ea with five more unrented, or renting 8 cars for $80 ea and none go unrented? The profit from almost a 300% markup plus less money spent buying cars that sit, and fewer people needed to service fewer cars, etc etc all adds up. Lumber increasing in price by 300% or more has to be good for a lumberyard. ‘I’d also expect the auto manufacturers to stop producing the cheap less profitable cars and focus on the more profitable luxury SUV’s and PU’s, if you can only build s number of vehicles, build the ones with the biggest profit margins. Plus I expect prices will never return to 2019 levels for autos, rental cars etc. A new trick has been learned and that’s don’t produce so much that it drives down sales prices.

I’ve been involved with manufacturing, and what I saw was let prices get high enough and parts start flowing at a prodigious rate, because the manufacturer starts working additional shifts and overtime etc. ‘Surely before Ford shuts down a plant, they outbid a TV manufacturer or computer etc?

yes but I bet there are several manufacturers, have we heard any reason why there is a shortage? Every shortage I can remember there is always the reason why in the news report, but for some reason I’ve not heard the cause, gas is high because the pipeline shut down etc. except maybe to blame Covid, which of course gets the blame for everything. But I have not heard due to Covid there were no workers and the plants shutdown etc. just Covid did it. ‘Again with Free Enterprise supply almost always exceeds the demand, unless there is some kind of artificial barrier, like a patent that keeps everyone from playing. ‘But then I never understood the great toilet paper shortage of 2020, what was that? Normal activity is if there is a run on something, there is a temporary shortage, but quickly manufacturing steps up to of course make a profit while prices are high, and if it is some kind of temp run like people hoarding something. like toilet paper, bottled water or gasoline when a hurricane is coming, after the hurricane passes, there is a glut, because people stop buying right about the time supply spools up to fill the demand, they use up their hoarded supply before they buy more. ‘I have friends that live in the NW that tell me the lumber yards are full, why is there a lumber shortage? Are they wrong? Dont anyone get upset, I am not saying Free Enterprise is broken, I’m saying just the opposite, it works. Normal world if widget A isn’t available some smart guy figures out a way to make widget work.