A64Pilot

So long as you get more than a trickle I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s just a drain and has no other function Just be glad it doesn’t stick partially open, those can be a pain.

What’s the altitude where you livenad or where this airplane is located? Does it have a turbo? I ask as I have seen issues with getting a NA engine to seat rings if the airport is at high altitude.

We built 24 of these for a customer, initially they went with the exhaust stacks off of a King air because they look cool and many believe that there is significant thrust form the exhaust. This one had our standard exhaust which threw the exh gasses straight out. ‘Anyway with that exhaust the doors had to stay shut or CO and just plain old sulphur would burn you eyes, customer was going to supply their own AC which was good because ours woudn’t cut it,not where they were going. ‘So I ordered one of those coolers from AC Spruce, it did amazingly well. but would go though a whole cooler full of ice in about 30 mins. We strapped it in the back seat and just kept refilling it. There is a tremendous amount of energy in heat

Turbines while most will go high, they work well down low too. For an example try to find a piston powered crop duster anymore and a great many of them work the Mississippi river delta at maybe 100 MSL? The PT-6 though is an ancient not very efficient design, if the money were there, someone could do a lot better, that’s what GE is doing, but again money is the driver, according to them they could easily build a turboprop that would never come off the wing for maintenance as they call it, they have been doing so for Commercial engines for years, but not many could afford it, they have to compete cost wise with the Pratt PT-6. ‘The T-800 engine was developed for the RAH-66 Comanche which of course was cancelled, but we put one in a Huey at the test activity, we couldn’t use the HP of course as it was way beyond airframe limits, but what us dumb pilots didn’t realize was that it was so fuel efficient compared to the Lycoming the Huey came with that we had over four hours of fuel as opposed to maybe two and a half? I don’t know if that engine is being produced or not, but even though it was very efficient, I think it’s cost was so high that it wouldn’t be used in the Commercial market, sometimes fuel is cheaper.

Interesting. ‘My belief is that an electric system would be preferable, because if done right, the airplane could be cooled down while in the hanger and out of the sun, and the initial cool down is of course tough, real tough. Think of how little AC your car needs after it’s cooled down, compared to getting into a hot car. Tell us how well it works, I believe it has a good chance if the airplane can be pre-cooled

Oh, and you need two air ducts, one to suck air in and one to blow it out, both could be combined of course, but maintain separate hoses , the condensate drain could go with the air out. Some of the less expensive portable house units will only have one hose, that blows the heated condenser air out, they should be avoided because they pull air from the cooled area to blow outside and of course hot air from outside will find its way into the cooled area to replace it, the two hose units thst use outside air to cool the condenser are much better. ‘Many AC’s to increase efficiency actually will blow the condensate over the evaporator to help cool it, and that works well. Even some window units if you look at them the condenser fan will often have a ring around the end of the blades, this ring will pickup condensate water and sling it over the condenser, and help remove the heat. ‘The AH-64A’s air charge cooler would blow its condensate over the heat exchangers to cool them and it really increased cooling, not so much in the desert when there is no condensate though. The D model went to dual 7.25 ton AC’s to cool the aircraft. That’s 174,000 BTU, but it’s cooling a lot of avionics too. Cooling an aircraft is tough, even tougher than a car, due to solar heat gain and our large windows. For example the Zee airconditioning used in the Ag plane I used to build used If memory is correct is a 2 ton system, a 2 ton system is of course 24,000 BTU and will cool a small house, but it takes all of it to keep a single cockpit crop duster cool, but crop dusters operate down low in the heat and often during the hotter parts of the day. And again if memory is correct from the electrical load analysis, it pulls about 100 amps at 28VDC too, but that’s just from memory.

Well here is the site the OP linked to https://www.zerobreeze.com/pages/mark2-specs ‘I don’t see where it says BTU, and I never said it was a Peltier plate, I said many are, and those that are are essentially worthless. ‘However 2300 BTU isn’t bad at all, smallest window unit AC I’ve seen was 5,000 for example. ‘I’ve got quite a bit of experience through others with these “miracle” battery powered airconditioners with people with sailboats, everybody wants something that can get them through a hot night, or at least cool the cabin down enough to get to sleep, and unfortunately it just doesn’t exist, Airconditioning on a boat requires a generator at some time. Average smallest window unit AC (5,000 BTU) pulls after start up about 6 amps at 120 VAC, that’s about 720 Watts and that’s just under 1 HP, and that’s a LOT of power. Sure it can be decreased some by using expensive components, but not by much. ‘It’s also 60 amps at 12V, which is of course is everything a lot of our alternators are capable of producing, for a battery to supply 60 amps and not be real heavy and or real expensive for any amount of time would be real impressive. But this unit is 2300 BTU, so “only” half that, but 2300 BTU still takes serious power, 30 amps at 12V, which isn’t trivial at all, maybe 25 or so is realistic ‘Of all the small compressors available the Danfoss type has been the best for a very long time both from a service and from an efficiency standpoint, they get there by being brushless DC, which means among other things that they can be variable speed. All of the new house type AC’s, refrigerators etc that advertise they are ”inverter”units are actually brushless DC, because that’s how brushless DC motors work, and they can be more efficient, just not a whole lot. https://www.danfoss.com/en-us/products/dcs/compressors/compressors-for-refrigeration/direct-current-compressors/#tab-overview Recently Sawafugi developed a neat new tiny compressor, they call it a swing motor, it’s fascinating in its simplisticty, it’s just a piston and a spring that’s actuated by an electromagnet for the compression stroke, and the springs do the intake, then select springs who’s natural frequency corresponds to the RPM of the compressor and your compressing a gas without an electric motor and crankshaft etc. Real neat, but unfortunately it’s not more efficient than the Danfoss. But lots less moving parts and may last a very long time, bu sealed compressors like the Danfoss often run for 90,000 hours or more, so that’s tough to beat. https://www.sawafuji.co.jp/en/technology/swing_motor/ The bottom line is that unless or until there there is a large breakthrough in efficiency like LED’s were for instance in lighting, that effective airconditioning in small lightweight units, especially battery powered ones just isn’t possible. Still I’m impressed with 2300 BTU out of a 17 lb unit, but have to wonder about battery weight and expense as well as run time, because 2300 BTU takes quite a bit of power. Portable small airconditioners, especially battery powered ones are very similar to an electric airplane. It’s possible I guess, just not with current technology

None of those really cool much. it’s simply a matter of physics. to get any real cooling requires lots of power, plus as has been said if you don’t have a way to get rid of the heat, then actually your heating the area. ‘Many of them work off of the Peltier principle and if they do, then they are horribly inefficient and don’t really provide much cooling at all. An example of a Peltier cooler is one of those Coleman coolers you plug into the cigarette lighter, and if you keep them out of the sun, they may get your drinks down to 60f or so. What really does work and works well for about 30 min is one of the coolers you fill with ice that pumps water through a transmission cooler and has a fan blow air over it. Big and heavy but until the ice melts they really do cool, because they work well, they will melt a whole cooler of ice in about 30 min. I’ve never seen any of these small coolers ever quote a BTU number, often they will tell you how many CFM the fan blows, but never seem to tell you how much cooling there is.

Assuming your charger’s voltage is correct, the battery will accept only the correct charging current, assuming the battery is fully charged and your using say 10 amps then the system will only use or accept 10 amps, even if you have a 100 amp charge source. ‘This is exactly what happens with say a stock 60 amp alternator, if the battery is at a low charge initially the current will be high, but once it’s charged then the system only accepts what’s used. ‘Sometimes though cheap chargers don’t control voltage very precisely. and they can overcharge a battery because they are supplying too high of a voltage. ‘You have a volt meter in the airplane, so that’s easily checked, I’d not use that charger if you see 15V or higher. ‘I would set the charger for its highest amp selection

I’m trying to think of the airplane, but one I’ve seen had a spring that if the throttle cable broke or came loose, the engine would go to full throttle as opposed to idle. ‘I’m not saying do this as it’s not legal, just thought it a good idea.

Almost certain that your going to ship, so I’d not worry about engine shop location. ‘This is who did my engine and they are well respected on this side of the world and I believe things are less expensive over here. I believe all of his overhauls are to new tolerances and balanced to very low levels. If your engine hasn’t been run to nothing, your looking at a little more than 25K? https://www.gannaviation.com/engine-overhauls Looking at the bright side, if you had a (D) engine, that’s over 2K more. I hope you like red powder coat On edit, ship ALL of your old hoses too and they will make new ones for less than anywhere else most likely.

It’s a max pulse light controller, however I’ve never seen such a nice placard on the panel, the Maxpulse comes with a cheesey black card that goes under the switch. AC Spruce shows the cheesy card well, I’d like to know how the placard was done on your airplane. does anyone know? https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/1105737_stc.php

A way to tell what your electrical consumption is, is pretty simple, without starting the engine, turn everything on and read the amp meter, that’s your consumption. It will decrease some with the engine running as the voltage will be higher. There is about zero chance that your alternator isn’t big enough, if your not holding 14V plus or minus .2V at flight RPM, you have another issue, dirty contacts on the alternator side of the master switch is apparently not uncommon, voltage regulator or as has already been said dirty contacts is very likely in our older aircraft. Going to a 70 amp alternator is just going to waste money. ‘I’d have to see avionics pull 25 amps to believe it, modern avionics just don’t pull that much power. 100 amp alternators can’t supply 100 amps continuously, they will burn up from heat if they do, and even if they could, you can’t pull 100 amps from a single belt unless it’s a serpentine belt. Max amps a single belt can hold is roughly 70 to 90 amps, after that it slips, creates dust and of course breaks after awhile. 100 amps at 14V is 1400W, and that’s a shed load of power, a metric shed load. Alternators are not DC generators, they generate AC power that’s rectified to pulsating DC via a diode bank, and diodes create a whole lot of heat, to get 100 amps continuously out of a small frame alternator, one way to do that is to remote mount the diode bank, and I don’t think any aircraft alternators do that?

I’d expect compressions to tell more than a scope, how have they been running? 95% of asking is strong, unless it’s a real cherry and very reasonably priced, I’d expect him to fix anything found, maybe split cylinders if the engine is running good though. As a seller I’d balk at buying new cylinders if compressions are good, but gut says he’s a good guy or else he wouldn’t have shown you the oil analysis.

Not having a price offered and accepted before inspection is odd, normally the price may change some or not based on inspection findings, but I’d suspect by not having a price the seller may be counting on the buyer going in for sunk costs. ‘Look up sunk cost fallacy if not already well versed. ‘I maintained a fleet of Army helicopters all over the world for about 15 years. As the Army pretty much invented UOA or SOAP as they call it, everything was of course sampled, except for the engines. Army began oil analysis for its aircraft in 1961 I believe, so 60 years ago? ‘In those 15 years it’s likely we went though a hundred gearboxes and APU’s, but not one single time was a component pulled based off of oil analysis, it was always due to other indicators, most often chip lights and glitter in the oil that showed up between samples, sample interval was 25 hours plus or minus 3 hours allowable tolerance. We didn’t sample the GE-T701 engines because according to GE the filter was so fine that after a few passes. it was cleaner than it came out of the can, but I did have to change a few engines based on chip detector lights and metal in the sump screens. Since I’m the that I am, and the fact that the oil lab was across the street I sampled a couple of engines and had the samples ran, and guess what? GE was right, there wasn’t much of anything in the oil. We changed engine oil at phase, which is a 250 hour interval, Phase inspection is very much like an Annual except it’s tripped by flight hours and not calendar time. ‘No component ever actually failed, we found them all prior to failure. So what does the above sample say? I believe not much. ‘Of course I don’t believe the seller thinks anything bad with them either or he wouldn’t have presented them would he? What I love is all the advice given to boat people of “Make sure you have an oil analysis done so you know the engines are good” Most slap worn out motors with compression so low that they are hard to start will rerun a low metals oil analysis

Except maybe for some kind of exotic there are no actual oil sensors in automobiles. GM developed the concept that has been copied by many decades ago, it’s called GMOLS or GM Oil Life System. It’s pretty simple actually, you start with a number say 1000, each cold start decrements it x numbers. each hour operation at full temp x numbers, each below temp x numbers etc. etc until the number reaches something close to zero, then the change oil light comes on. Oil analysis is outstanding for determining exactly what’s going on with the oil, not so much of an engine analysis though and that’s what it’s marketed as, but if you want to know about the oil, you can’t beat analysis. ‘Anyway oil analysis is the best way to determine TAN (total acid number) and TBN or (total base number) 50 hours is nothing, we change our oil because it’s full of contaminants, not because it’s worn out, or it times out, over time the contaminants will degrade the oil I would be astonished if either is even close to being bad in 50 hours of operation, but analysis will tell you. ‘If you are even remotely concerned, shorten your oil change interval, you cannot change your oil too frequently, save the money spent on gadgets, laboratories etc and spend it on oil instead.

Usually consumables are not included in the basic weight, as they are consumed in flight, fuel for instance. Oil is included even though some may be consumed, it’s not much. By including the line item of what it weighs full they are of course giving you that information

It’s my understanding that Fl if you have had the asset for 6 months prior to bringing it into Fl, Fl doesn’t tax you, but for whatever reason you have to have had it for six months. Does Idaho do that? How long does it have to be in Idaho before use tax kicks in?

Truer words were never spoken, the actual leak can be several feet from where it appears, it can and will run under the sealant to pop out somewhere else. There are products made ro lay over the B2 to seal it. one we called Monkey Blood because it was red. ‘I’d advise avoiding these products, sometimes they work, but often they don’t work for long

You will find things soldered on your aircraft, usually it’s supplied components that come that way. Many want to believe that a soldered and heat shrunk joint is the best, but they woud be incorrect, it’s vibration thst causes the wire to break right at the end of the solder as the solder has no give, a crimped joint will hold up better. ‘I’m not aware of Aviation specific butt splices, at the factory I worked at they had used for years regular just crimp splices, I had then change to Ancor brand butt splices and terminals as they use hot glue lined shrink wrap. so you crimp the terminal just like normal. but then hit it with a heat gun, this both shrinks the plastic tight, but also melts the hot glue which forms an airtight seal, but also adds an adhesive bond thst helps keep the crimp from being pulled on. ‘In my opinion they are vastly superior, but be careful as there are a lot of Chinese knock offs that are much lower quality, be sure to only get Ancor brand, Amazon, Home a depot, Lowe’s and also most Marine stores as it’s primary target is boats as it’s a waterproof and therefore a corrosion proof connection. ‘If you do much wiring, you want good ratcheting crimpers and a good one may be the second most expensive tool in your box, depending on what you have in there

Probably good advice

Why would you lease it? I know several people who own aircraft and very expensive motor homes ,or actually they own a Montana LLC that owns the aircraft or motor home and do not lease it. But gut says that if you do, that the lease payment ought to be realistic or if not it sounds too much like IRS bait. Guy I bought my Mooney from had it in an LLC, he bought the LLC from someone else, and offered to sell me the LLC for the sales price of the airplane of course but it was a Ga LLC, and I didn’t want a Ga LLC. I don’t know maybe someday the Montana LLC will be shut down, but until then it seems to be the way to go to me. ‘Many yeas ago my Father’s practice owned the C-210, and he had to rent the aircraft and pay x number of dollars per hour for personal use, the dollar rate was high because he didn’t want anyone renting it, but that was 50 years ago. I see owning a Montana LLC that has assets as no different than owning a Yacht that’s flagged in another Country. The big ones will have helicopters with N numbers, but I’m certain that they are registered either with or as a part of the boat, meaning no US tax is paid. https://www.cayman-yacht-registration.com https://www.newsweek.com/betsy-devos-cayman-islands-taxes-yacht-flag-foreign-donald-trump-america-1061960

The 720 is heavier, more expensive and in some installations had cooling problems. ‘At some point a turbine makes more sense, and a 720 is pushing that point, too bad there wasn’t a turboprop cruise missile or maybe we would have had an excellent little turbo prop. ‘Piper’s Brave used a 720, and the turbine conversion for the Brave really makes it a good airplane, wakes up a lot of potential. Just about every 520 airplane there is has an STC to install a 550.

I for one will never get over the fact that the flag wasn’t flown at half mast when Neil Armstrong died, not sure what it takes to be an American Hero if he didn’t make the cut

You can live off of interest, but you had better have a large sum to do so, or be very frugal, probably both. ‘However it’s not really all that hard to live off of investments, and if structured properly and your conservative enough, you can even survive a 1929 type of depression. You just have to learn to live below your means, most can’t or won’t as their income increases so does their standard of living, and they stay perpetually in debt