A64Pilot

Current TCDS for the R-1340 is dated I believe 1974, but back when the engine was first produced I don’t believe 80/87 existed. R-1340 dates back to mid 20’s I think, and lead in aviation fuel didn’t happen until about 1930 or so I think, but I can’t find the first date 80/87 was produced. 80ish octane fuel was the standard until WWiI and I believe only the US produced 100. I feel pretty sure that just before the Battle of Britain that US supplies of 100 octane arrived and that along with allowing the Brits to produce a variable pitch prop under license really made the Spitfire a capable aircraft, without the fuel and prop it’s unlikely that the battle would have gone the way it did, RADAR or not. I think the fuel alone added 3o kts to the Spit and the prop greatly increased climb rate, before these modifications, the Spit was really sort of a dog compared to the ME-109 The Germans flew with 87 Octane. Anyway I believe the R-1340 was Certified prior to lead in fuel and 80/87 and was Certified to run on 73 Octane. I believe that was in the Maintenance Manual, also where you found the procedure to toss into the carburetor Bon-Ami scouring powder if the engine was consuming excess oil. I’m assuming with no evidence that 73 octane fuel was some kind of 1920’s standard fuel. On edit, my C-85’s TCDS is dated 1973 and it’s min octane fuel is 73, so maybe I just confused the two. The 985 or Wasp jr was a “better” engine, only 400 HP but more reliable and would run apparently with a blown jug, while it’s 600 HP bigger brother would not. About 10 years ago we did a production restart and resurrected a 1340 crop duster and built about two dozen for a contract, that was all my radial engine time. ‘I just realized that I have never been “checked out” in any airplane turbine or Radial, only flew with an instructor in airplanes with little flat motors.

How did a a photo get an address? I did post the field name I’m sure, but how did that get an address?

If anonymous mode isn’t on, that’s true, and most don’t have anonymous mode on, or they aren’t equipped with it.

I don’t think you can find me with ADSB though as it only transmits VFR when the xponder is 1200, it’s only when I’m assigned a squawk that it transmits a tail number.

Yeah, you found it. I assume you redacted it? how did you get it?

Do any of you remember those wonderful cars of the 1970’s? You know when lead was taken out of the fuel and knock sensors weren’t installed yet, well remember every one of them, especially in hot weather would “rattle” when pulling a hill if you lugged them even just a little. So what was the fix for the rattle? downshift, let the RPM build and the rattle would go away, you know what that rattle was don’t you? ‘Any of you own Diesel trucks and have a pyrometer? Well when EGT gets higher than your comfortable, the way to cool it down is to add throttle and force the transmission to downshift, and EGT drops immediately. In those examples neither will “kill” a motor but over time if repeated over and over the belief is that it shortens the life of a motor. Some engines are built to be run oversquare, you really don’t have any choice, and those of course it doesn’t harm. ‘The R-1340 for example a comfortable cruise where you weren’t running it too hard was 30/20 30” manifold and 2000 RPM, as it was supercharged it was designed for oversquare. ‘Guess what it’s minimum octane fuel allowed was? Being supercharged it had to have high Octane right? The Pratt R-1340 was Certified to run on 73 Octane fuel, I don’t know where your going to find that low of octane, but the 1340 was designed to run on it.

The theory of oversquare being more efficient it two fold, one reason is at lower RPM, there is less internal engine friction, the other reason is at lower prop speeds the prop is more efficient, both are proven actually it’s not a theory. ‘However my last airplane I installed an MVP-50 in it, and it had been multi point calibrated so it was very accurate. I had 14 temp readings, 6 cyl head, 6 exh, one oil and the OAT, and after sitting in a hanger for days, all 14 would read the same temp within 1 degree. ‘Anyway I tried several combinations of RPM and manifold pressures, I used speed to determine percent power, I didn’t care if I was 66% or 64%, I was after it being the same, and identical speed at identical atmospheric conditions means the power is identical. ‘Long story short, while I’m pretty sure low RPM and high manifold pressure is more efficient, the difference wasn’t measurable and the MVP-50’s fuel system could be calibrated to be very precise. It would keep track of what it measured the burn total to be, then you would enter actual burn volume and it would correct the K factor automatically, do that once to get real close, then burn a few tanks keeping up with the total of course and then enter it again, using 100 gls or so got it real, real accurate. After that I would pick an RPM that felt smoothest, and a manifold pressure that woud give me the speed I wanted. ‘Actually in truth most of the time it was mute as I liked to fly high, which meant that the throttle was wide open, which brings up another point, wide open is more efficient because there is no vacuum loss AKA pumping loss. Guess what I couldn’t quantify that difference either.

If it takes money to find out, then it was successful, but often times especially on the internet money is charged for data that’s readily available for free. ‘Lots of that find an old heart throb type of stuff is that way I’ve heard.

I never said this, but there are a few Automotive electrical shops still in existence, a good one can overhaul an aircraft alternator as most are based on automotive parts, actually simpler as most automobile alternators are internally regulated. One near Ft Rucker Al, you just had to tell him it came off of your tractor ‘Anyway an alternator who’s armature was polished and new brushes and bearing installed is as good as new, if you wait until it fails, then of course it’s likely your buying parts other than just the brushes and bearings. I’d have the diode pack replaced too seeing as how your there. I’m sure not all aircraft alternators parts are available.

I woud never use silicone as it’s not fuel safe or oil proof for that matter. ‘I’d be real suspicious of liquid electrical tape, I have some myself but don’t know if it holds up to fuel and oil. ‘For a temporary repair for something like that, I’d go to B2 every time , that’s what many call fuel tank sealer AKA Proseal, as I’m sure everyone knows it’s available as either A or B, the A is thinner than the B, the number is available from 1/2 to 2. that’s the number of hours it’s pot life is, so of course 1/2 sets up four times faster than the 2. We know it’s fuel and oil proof, and anyone who has removed it from a fuel tank can attest to how tough and resilient it is. ‘I’d think painting a layer of A on the boot would at least work as a temporary repair, certainly better than tape or silicone. ‘B2 is an extremely useful thing to have, it’s not classified as an adhesive, but try to get parts it’s holding together apart and make up your own mind.

There have been a couple of discussions on ADSB tracking and taxes etc. Plus I’m uncomfortable with data published by our government that attests to the fact that I’m not home etc. I guess I’m sort of a privacy “nut” So I formed a Montana LLC and it bought my aircraft, and I registered my aircraft with the FAA LADD program. Some of you stated that an LLC does nothing, it’s so easy to find out who owns the LLC, and I learned that LADD is only partially successful that agencies other than the FAA collect and disseminate ADSB data, although God knows why. Anyway my tail number is N1141N, for those of you that know how, see how easy it is to get my personal data like home address etc if you don’t mind. I’d appreciate it, curious as to whether I was at least partially successful or not. On edit, I know of course that a law enforcement agency etc. can easily obtain the information, I’m not trying to stay incognito to smuggle drugs etc. Just wondering how difficult it is for I guess those “aircraft spotters” and that type to find my personal data like address, name etc.

Sometimes your off the ground and committed before the loss of power. I was reading of an accident at my home airfield with a Bonanza that I believe fit that bill, it seems he took off leaned out is my guess, the passenger died on impact, the pilot burned to death. I base that guess on that the levers were intact and the mixture was pulled about an inch out. I figured that out by the toxicology report, he had 17% CO in his blood, and I was thinking how do you get that much CO in your bloodstream taking off? Then thought you get it by burning to death. Hell of a way to go

Not enough water flow, the amount of heat removed is substantial, plus as the water gets more than warm, efficiency tanks, so you need only cool or cold water. ‘GE used to build a heat pump water heater, but I think it didn’t sell due to cost, people don’t want to save energy anymore as evidenced by the number of SUV’s and pickups on the road. Ground source heat pumps used to be the rage back in the 70’s after the energy crisis, they had either a whole lot of buried pipe and recirculated the water or two wells, pump out of one and discharge into the other. I had two wells at the old house and considered it. But air heat exchangers due to size and materials and construction techniques pretty much wiped out the efficiency gap and the ground source pumps had maintenance issues, wouldn’t think so, but apparently they did. ‘A heat pump as it’s not creating heat, but moving it, achieves greater than 100% efficiency. You can depending on where you live bury a lot of pipe and pull air though it, SW Ga for instance the average year round temp is 68F. I used to do a lot of cave diving, the water was always 68f regardless of the time of year.

By redline, RPM. cyl head temp or? I know you can run one at 500F, but it’s going to last longer if you don’t.

You know, I’m going to say maybe even then, my 1946 C-140 has an air scoop for avionics cooling, and I’d think in 1946 what there was, had tubes? back of the scoop has a small hole in it to let out water, and it seems to work

Blower is pretty easy to find, it’s that small box with likely about four red hoses coming off of it, they could be black hoses too. ‘Except for accessing the thing, it’s easy to R&R. However they are sold by the number of ports they have, so look under there and count them before you try to order. but I believe it’s OK to cap off any unused ones too.

You actually can cause issues with over square, but it has to be pretty excessive to get there, ‘The issue is with too low an RPM with too high an MP, but we are talking about 29” manifold and 2000 RPM or similar and it takes time to get the heads too hot too. It’s essentially lugging the motor Probably every single fixed pitch airplane there is, is over square during take off and climb A lot of things are really not so much do this or you’ll trash your motor, they are more of a do this and your motor will last a good long time. ‘It’s really just like not running a cylinder head temp of over 400, because the redline is 500, so I’m good at 490 right?

Be careful with Amazon butt spice connectors, I’ve gotten some that the crimp barrel was shorter than Ancor and was soft aluminum, which doesn’t retain the wire as well. ‘Ancor barrels are longer and made of tin plated copper

Often electronic doesn’t mean digital, and often analog electronic devices can be quite inaccurate. It dives me nuts that people will buy something that displays to two decimals so they are sure it’s accurate to that, and that’s not always true. I have no familiarity with your tach though, but if it’s a hall effect digital system, it really can’t be off, unless of course the sensor’s gap or whatever is off, and that usually shows erratic readings. not a steady inaccuracy

Peltier coolers are great for small things that need some spot cooling, only moving part is a fan, and you don’t need cold, just cool Vapor Cycle is still the most efficient, that’s what our regular AC’s are, the major cooling comes from the change from a liquid to a vapor, then the compressor compresses it back into a high pressure but makes it hot doing so, so a condenser is used to cool the compressed gas down to a liquid again, then evaporate it into a gas and repeat. There are also airconditioners that work off of just compressed air, a charge air cooler, air gets cold as it expands, anybody who has drained a air compressor has seen that. ‘The A model Apaches air conditioner worked that way, and down in Southern Alabama it would spit ice at you as it used the water that condensed to help the cooling, but it was overwhelmed in the desert heat where there was no humidity, it was less efficient, but much lighter than a vapor cycle system. 400F air came in one end, and just below freezing air came out of the other end. ‘I think but am not certain that Commercial jets “air pacs” work off of bleed air and there is no compressor or refrigerant.

1 Ton of airconditioning is 12,000 BTU, I have no idea where that number came from, could be a ton of ice I guess. So the D model with its 7.25 ton AC’s had 87,000 BTU per side, it could operate on one, but they were actually very reliable, I never had one break. ‘Average house has about 2 1/2 tons of airconditioning or said another way 2 1/2 tons is good for a little over 2,000 sq ft, depending on where you live and how well the house is insulated and it’s thermal mass. There are “tricks” to increase efficiency, for example a fixed orifice used to be the standard for causing the big pressure drop to get the liquid to evaporate into a gas and absorb heat, then a variable orifice called a thermal expansion valve was used and based on temp could control the size of the opening and more closely match the demand, now it’s a digital sensor that runs a stepper motor that controls that orifice, and on heat pumps there are now two of them. So same thing, just now digitally controlled and more precisely metered. ‘Also what helps a lot is to increase the size of the condenser, the bigger you make it, the more heat it can give up and that increases efficiency. Remember not too many years ago a house AC was just a small box with the condenser on one side, now they are tall towers with the condenser wrapped all the way around the tower. That greatly hurts small, especially portable AC’s because you have to keep them small and can’t have a big condenser. ‘The latest greatest thing is “inverter” compressors, they are actually just DC brushless motors, but they can be run at variable speeds. slow one down in effect makes it smaller and then you have effectively increased the condenser and evaporator size, so the efficiency increases by quite a bit, plus you can keep cycle time at optimum by varying compressor speed based on heat load, so it can idle all night long, but in the heat of the day it can actually go into overdrive if needed on an unusually hot day. The aren’t gimmicks, they work and its old proven technology, my next house heat pump will be a inverter system. So just like car engines for instance where you can increase efficiency by digital controls by quite a bit, your still limited by the inherent limits of what an otto cycle engine can deliver, same with airconditioning, until or unless something game changing like LED’s were for lighting , small portable battery powered effective airconditioning just isn’t possible

When I bought my airplane last month it had a dead KN-53. I bought one with an 8130 for $900 with new faceplate, glide slope board and display. I know displays are no longer made, but there were so many made that there is still some NOS stuff, but I agree it’s going away, sort of like magnesium ruddervators for a Bonanza, there is some, but rare and they bring a premium. It had a KT-76A that worked, but looked rough, a KT-76C was about $600. That admittedly was more of a cosmetic upgrade than anything, That A is 41 years old and still working, that means something to me, and I have a spare now ‘The Sl-40 in my little Cessna 140 was installed 4 years ago, and almost immediately after install the aircraft was preserved and sat in a hanger for four years under bed sheets. The plastic faceplate has delaminated, which I found out is extremely common, most all do. Guess what Garmin wants to fix it? They won’t sell the part, right it’s the same if lightning had hilt it and burnt the internals up. Oh, and Nav 1 in the Mooney is a Garmin 430W, and by the time it will need repairing, I expect Garmin will have orphaned it., and the replacement device to fulfill the same function may be $10,000 by the time it’s installed Now if I were Garmin, if I orphaned something, I’d offer a generous allowance for a trade up to whatever the new device is, but they don’t. ‘I suspect it’s due to the way our culture has changed, used to be you had shoes repaired, and TV’s etc. Today’s culture is a throw away one, you don’t have your cell phone or computer fixed anymore, you buy a new one.

Between trees and water, I’ll always go for the water, but I’m real comfortable in the water, if I couldn’t swim, it might be different. ‘Local guy crashed his Ag plane in between two oaks, it stopped immediately. the engine and hopper etc ripped loose and kept going, he unbuckled his harness and stepped out straight forward, everything in front of the seat including the instrument panel was 50 feet ahead. ‘Trees are tough. ‘A retract airplane is much, much better off ditching than a fixed gear, a fixed gear it’s pretty violent, assuming not huge waves, it’s often not for a retract. Check out that video of the TBM ditching, of course it looked like he was very lightly loaded

You know a hard enough hit to shear off the wing and of course break the spar off, had to spin the aircraft. I believe it’s still pointed roughly in the direction of travel? If so then he spun a full 360? Had to be one heck of a ride.

Bendix / King stayed the course, just like most everything else in aviation. Story I heard was either Gary or Min, maybe both tried to convince the owners of Bendix / King to build a GPS navigator and they refused believing that the VOR system would still be dominant, so they left and made history. ‘Of course Garmin didn’t really build a GPS navigator to start with, they bought Apollo, which was or is a great box but for whatever reason flopped and they had been bought by UPS, you know the brown box package people. Why they bought Apollo I have no idea, I guess to sell it? But I’m an old guy now and I trained on Bendix / King stuff, know how to use it and it’s familiar, if you ever get task overloaded in bad weather, simple / familiar is very important ‘My Father used to drive me nuts because he would never set the clock on the VCR, while I as a kid would learn each and every feature of any new device. ‘Now I’m my Father, while 20 to 30 years ago I flew the most complex and advanced aircraft in NATO inventory, but now I’m happy with my 40 yr old avionics. especially when there are hundreds of places that can take it apart and solder in new parts and the repair cost is minuscule compared to Garmin’s one price for any defect, and no one but them can repair it, because there is no repair, it’s just swapping cards. ‘The point of the old BK stuff is that you don’t have to have new, it works just as well as it always has, and you can get it repaired, you don’t have to spend the cost of a new automobile every dozen or so years because what you have is orphaned, and you can’t get it repaired or new software for it