A64Pilot

You get more power if you add more air even LOP because our engines develop power by the rapid expansion of air when it’s heated, if you have more air mass to heat you will get more power. Of course there is a limit as to how lean you can be and still get combustion, that’s the difference between us and Diesels. It’s not a whole lot of power and often it’s masked by the power loss of being too lean and uneven combustion. ‘Internal combustion engines do not get power from “exploding fuel” there should be no explosions, just burns, explosions are detonation and we know what that does. To get an idea how spark ignition engines operate LOP, it helps to have an in-depth understanding of the Diesel engine principles, Diesels only throttle fuel, there is no air throttle, they are the ultimate LOP engine if you will, even turbines throttle air through inlet guide vanes, bleed valves etc. There is never any vacuum in the intake manifold of a Diesel, if you put a manifold pressure gauge on an NA Diesel regardless of throttle setting and RPM/ load, at sea level it should always read about 30”, even at idle. A turbo Diesel will have a max pressure limit often controlled by a waste gate, but other than that the engines gets all the air it can even at idle.

Once your rated, get your complex endorsement, fly with current aircraft owner until your both comfortable. ‘I feel pretty sure insurence is going to require you to have x number of hours Mooney time before they will cover you anyway, current owner is covered so fly with him until you get those hours. ‘Now many seem to believe that touch and goes are for some reason unsafe, but in my opinion they are an important part of training.

If you can’t keep it well below 400, something’s wrong. Higher power and increased airspeed sometimes can be cooler than lower power and slower. What is your takeoff fuel flow? What engine? Shade tree answer, but I like to see just under 10 GPH per 100 HP, so 19 or so for a 200 HP, and 28 or so for 300. NA motors, turbos are different.

OK, aircraft on jacks so I can retract and clean limit switches. Sprayed the contact cleaner and actioned the switches, ran the gear up and down several times and it seemed fixed, then it failed, then failed again. I found that I could wiggle the cockpit switch and it would start going down, did that more than once so now I think it is indeed the cockpit switch. Sprayed the deoxit in the switch and actioned it with the battery off. ‘Since then I have run the gear up and down probably a dozen times and no failures, not knowing if there is a duty cycle I let it sit for thirty minutes or so after about three cycles.

No, it’s not as simple as 100 FPM climb rate, and many especially smaller aircraft hit the engine performance limit before they hit a structural limit. on edit if memory serves it’s actually a climb gradient an angle, not a rate. ‘I think pretty much all smaller single engine Cessna’s do and I’d assume Champs, J3’s etc are the same. ‘It’s not that they have a 0 MSL service ceiling, it’s that at it’s gross weight it hits its min performance limit, which is not it’s service ceiling. ‘Even service ceilings are not always when you hit 100 FPM climb at gross weight, it often is but sometimes it could be other limits, one may be that’s as high as the manufacturer chose to certify it to. ‘I did engine performance testing at FL250 in one of our model of crop dusters that was the basis of a military variant, but it’s Certified ceiling was 12,000, because why Certify a crop duster above 120,000? But Certified ceiling isn’t a limit anymore than max demonstrated cross wind velocity is, unless of course it’s in the POH as a limit,then it is.

No, there are aircraft that if loaded to the structural limit won’t get off of the ground, they don’t have the power available, so Gross weight in their case is an engine performance limit, because there are climb requirements you have to meet too. ‘Some aircraft it’s a function of 61 kts stall, the airplane has the structure and the HP. but any more weight raises the stall above limits, even CG, we manufactured an airplane that the fwd CG limit was when it stalled at 61 kts, due to a lack of elevator authority, so it wasn’t really a stall, just couldn’t hold the nose up and that’s not uncommon ‘However it’s a lot more complex than just that because speed plays into it, it’s easier to load G up on a fast airplane than a slow one, when we went for 10,500 lbs on the S2R-H80 we had to raise flap speed and some other speeds, had to do with turbulence and I think stall, to be honest I never really understood exactly why, just did it. Then as was noted in the post above, the Rocket has a big ole motor and goes like stink, is much heavier even empty and has a gross weight increase, with apparently no additional structure. ‘I’m not abdicating go fly it like it was light, no if you think your heavy, fly it like you would drive an overloaded truck, no hold my beer watch this stuff Your allowed to determine strength by analysis, but the scatter factor is much higher, meaning you don’t get nearly as much credit as if you actually pulled the item, if memory serves ultimate load is 150% of design limit, a part is allowed to deform at ultimate, but not break, in fact you ideally want it to deform, that gives a warning. ‘That’s one reason why I don’t like composites, especially carbon fiber, oh it’s strong, but it has a tendency to completely fail when it does and does so without warning, no bending, no loosening of rivets etc. just ”pop” But bottom line is don’t load up an airplane with a history of structural failures, but don’t worry so much on one that has no history, assuming of course it’s a model that has history and not a new design. Now I’m going to ramble a bit, the Huey has no G meter and has no G limits, it’s rotor system simply can’t develop enough lift to break the thing. The AH-64 has a G meter and has G limits, but I went looking for the over G inspections, there aren’t any, the G limits on that aircraft are aerodynamic, exceed the limits at the specified gross weight and something bad may happen like a blade stall etc. But your not going to break it.

I don’t think you will legally get the gross weight increase without paying Mooney. ‘But honestly who really cares? Gross weight really doesn’t worry me as long as I have enough power to make the trees at the end of the runway, CG on the other hand will hurt you if you don’t respect it, or can hurt you anyway. Speaking of an 200HP Mooney now, I think we are power limited, not structure, the big motor guys may be different

I did a little search as of course you can too, I was seeing that wide band sensors last over 100 hours and narrow band 300 or more. ‘For accuracy you want wide band But even 100 hours is in excess of needs, if you were really into this kind of thing, 10 hours is more than enough to develop a graph that will tell you stoichiometric A/F ratio at different density altitudes and varying combinations of manifold pressure and RPM, so you would know peak without having to go through the trouble of finding it. ‘I usually do it the way it’s been done forever, the way I was taught to lean as a student pilot. lean it until it gets rough, then enrichen just until it smooths out again, that puts me well lean of peak

A manufacturer can issue an STC, but as they are the TC holder it’s not required. ‘I believe they actually may amend the TC, but there should be POH changes and placards if there is one in the aircraft that specifies weight, as well as recorded by the manufacturer so they amend the TC. This is one that was done where used to work that increases gross from 6,000 lbs to 10,500 lbs, it’s not particularly well written for instance in one place it says it’s a field approval, and it’s not. It’s a “Custom Kit” https://www.thrushaircraft.com/getmedia/c64a571e-d4f4-45d8-90d6-fe647b0eeb09/CK-AG-45-Rev-B-7-6-18.pdf So nothing stops you from reading the Custom kit and changing any parts necessary, but at least in this instance, the gross weight increase isn’t completed until you fill out the card and send it to QC, and if you didn’t buy the “kit” your not getting the gross weight increase, if you could do it without buying the kit, I can assure you that no crop duster would ever buy the kit. ‘They used to play fast and loose with the turbine conversions, making a logbook write up that they had complied with the kit, but they never bought a kit, they scrounged parts from wherever.

That needs qualification, how much ROP? How much power? Because as you know if high power being rich is the only way to keep temps in check, it’s why we take off so rich. ‘Plus as you know you can get air speeds ROP that you can’t LOP, because the HP limit LOP is much lower than ROP. ‘Also be careful of enriching until you get the temps you want, if your LOP percent power is an important variable in that equation, although if you set the limits low enough that ought to keep you safe. The fuel control must have some sort of compensation for air density, if I open the ram air it increases fuel flow significantly, enough so that if I want to stay well LOP I need to lean. ‘I really don’t use the ram air, or only rarely do.

what you would want is an O2 sensor, that will tell you mixture ratio accurately based on remaining oxygen, of course it’s how computer controlled automobiles precisely trim fuel. I know someone with a Maule that has one, put it in as a field approval, it is a monitor only of course, it does not control anything But here’s the thing, leaded fuel is supposed to kill a lambda sensor in a hurry, but last I heard it hasn’t yet. When it does they are relatively cheap and as easy to change as a spark plug There is a whole lot of misinformation “sold” about LOP, like “excess” air cools your cylinder heads etc. So tell me how does exhaust thats 25 degrees cooler than peak cool anything? Cylinder head temp is function of power, it’s the lower power that makes the heads cooler. Flame suit on. On edit, airflow sensors are easy the more modern ones are just a heated wire, air mass is measured by how which the wire is cooled, the older ones were a door, but it’s air mass you really are measuring, and that’s of course what you want to measure, by measuring mass, it autocorrects for density altitude.

Yeah, but it’s still not fixed, it did it again the other day. I’m now going to limit switches, I have a can of de-oxit and bought an engine hoist yesterday. I plan on borrowing a neighbors wing jacks if they will fit. ‘I figure it’s the down limit switch as if I understand the system it’s the switch that needs to be closed for the gear to come down, but it appears to be a sealed switch, the up limit switch is a standard looking micro switch.

Some woud have just jacked your price to what the Cirrus guys are paying, way I see it he did you a favor by telling you he couldn’t take your work anymore.

Long time ago I attended a Cockpit coordination class the Army bought from an airline. The one thing I took away from the class was the acronym SLOJ. ‘The FAA apparently long ago was trying to determine why it was that a very experienced, very professional pilots just did something stupid, something way out of character for him, this was back when there were essentially no Her’s. ‘Anyway a whole lot of money was spent on grants to Colleges etc to study why, and all they eventually came up with was the acronym SLOJ. SLOJ is sudden loss of judgement, it seems that any or all of us are not immune to just very rarely doing something stupid, we are well rested. not stressed, every thing is just fine, you have been driving the same route to work for 20 years, and today you run the stop sign that you have stopped at for 20 years, or the super experienced 747 driver lands long and runs off the runway in beautiful weather. ‘The Commercial guys have a second in command and they and the pilot have been briefed over and over that the SIC has a vote too etc., It’s very unlikely that both will get SLOJ simultaneously Single pilot aircraft about the best defense is rote memorization and strict adherence to checklists, and even then that’s not infallible, it seems the call out and answer checklists, just answering takes the place of doing mentally, so answering gear down can reconcile in your mind they are down, when you never touched the switch. Several automatic systems have been installed. I believe it’s Piper that if you fall below a certain airspeed, the gear come down automatically, seemed like a good idea, but it’s caused problems too, so most are disabled now I believe. ‘I’ve got a pretty good bit of C-210 time, I’m so paranoid about gear that I don’t think I will forget. The thing I do forget is the stupid boost pump for some reason.

Also take a chair and put it so it’s just touching a blade and double check mags off and rotate the prop. all blades should just touch the chair. It’s a shade tree way of checking blade tracking. ‘Anytime there is an airspeed change in the aircraft, there will be a pitch change in the prop, assuming it’s not against any stops, which it shouldn’t be in normal flight. ‘If you don’t find anything you may want to get an A&P or a prop shop to use a prop protractor and check prop pitch of all three blades, but if one is slightly off it usually gives a constant vibe. That yellow line on the back side of the blades purpose is to give a identical point of all blades to check pitch as the blades of course have a twist.

Single stage is easier to repair in my opinion, and longer lasting and more durable, but maybe not as pretty and you can’t have metallic etc paints My swag is that new aircraft are still usually single stage, be interesting to know. We did some custom base coat / clear coat and it looks pretty When I first took over a manufacturing line, we were having all kinds of paint issues on new aircraft, turns out we were using automotive paint, and cheap automotive paint at that. ‘So I started researching aircraft paint, I found out that Air Force one, the Blue Angles and Thunderbirds all used the same brand and type of paint, that was Sherwin Williams Jet-Glo and our paint problems ceased when I switched us to Jet-Glo, and also even though the paint was much more expensive, the re-work went almost to zero so it in fact saved money buying the high dollar paint, Later the new owner switched to PPG to save money and some of our old problems resurfaced. A very high quality paint is easier to apply and doesn’t require as much skill to get a quality job. ‘Now PPG is I’m sure a fine paint but I believe it takes more skill to get good results and we didn’t have the required skill level apparently, because I have seen some gorgeous PPG paint jobs. Maule uses I believe U-Tec automotive single stage paint with the additive for rubber bumpers to make the paint flexible so it doesn’t crack on the fabric parts of the airplane. This is a neighbors RV-8 and it’s automotive paint, I doubt he could do that in aircraft paint. ‘Automotive paint most of it anyway has become extremely conscious of VOC’s and I don’t believe aircraft paint has yet, and losing the VOC’s and keeping the quality is tough.

Often as has been said tapping frees up the brushes in their holders. but it could also be a bad spot on the armature. ‘If you can have it overhauled it’s likely that it will go for several more decades trouble free, but if the brushes are worn eventually that’s going to arc the armature and you may end up buying a new starter. There is nothing wrong with the old starters or generators for that matter, they have been working reliably for thousands of hours and decades to still be going in 2021

First year for Sherwin Willams base coat - clear coat was 2008, took a few years to catch on as us old school guys didn’t trust it, I still don’t So I’d assume someone tried to spray automotive clear coat on old aircraft paint to give it a shine? If so I’m afraid any polishing you do is sort of like the lipstick on a pig thing, meaning it may not be much of an improvement, but why not try.

I’d bet money it doesn’t have a clear coat, clear coat is a recent thing for aircraft and that paint doesn’t look recent. You can tell by taking a rag with a little lacquer thinner on it and rub the paint, if it gets color on the rag, it’s not clear coated. Yes it can be fixed sort of, at least you can restore some of the shine, it will last as long as the wax lasts, if kept hangered quite a while. To buff a airplane I use a Makita buffer, not a random orbit polisher, that will take forever. Don’t use compound unless you know what your doing, use a fine polish, yes it will take longer but your far less likely to cause damage, with compound you can damage paint very quickly. ‘This buffer has a newer model is all, pretty much the same, you can see I bought the machine glaze to polish my Mooney after I bought it Best idea is find an old car even a junkyard car or an old boat to practice on, then do the airplane once your comfortable Get the foam pads too, the wool cuts faster than foam does. After it’s polished I like Collinite fleet wax, it’s old school airplane and boat carnauba wax Oh, beware of miracle paint restorers / rejuvenators, it’s going to take work, but the polishing machine will make it a whole lot easier

Not meant to pick but most aircraft are Semi-Monocoque meaning that there is structure other than the skin, formers, stringers, ribs etc. Monocoque is when there is just the skin. One extreme is a fabric covered airplane where the skin is no structure, and Monocoque is the other extreme where the skin is 100% of the structure. In Monocoque construction a dent can be a serious issue, it can cause the whole thing to fail.

Rechargeable batteries don’t seem to leak, but I think in AA size only NIMH are available, if you can find Li-Po they should outlast Alkaline. ‘One of my head sets uses a 9V, and 9v’s are stupid expensive so I’m using rechargeable li-Po 9V’s that you plug a mini usb into to recharge

No one has run auto fuel have they?

Didn’t we train for partial panel?

The alternator should be locked to the engine, it should not spin freely. ‘I woud start there.

Back years ago in the Army since we reported aircraft readiness by the hour and if you broke it at 9PM but it wasn’t worked on until 8 AM you lost 11 hours on each breakage, so we stared flying very early in the morning and returning after sunrise, that way if it broke the mechanic could immediately start work, readiness rates improved. ‘But we found out the incidence of Inadvertent IMC was much higher, ground fog and apparently low ceilings are more likely around or just before dawn especially in Winter, so while it’s always best to be prepared for IMC if flying at night, it seems more likely in the early morning hours.