A64Pilot

That theory has sort of evolved over time, a newer theory is to trap a layer of air a few molecules thick at the surface and let the air molecules shear against themselves gives less drag than shearing against a smooth surface. I’m not sure where it came from, I believe maybe when Military aircraft began to be painted in rough and not smooth paint and didn’t slow down? Go feel CARC paint, it’s so rough it feels almost like sand has been added to the paint, the roughness is for IR suppression, no glare. An IR missile can lock on canopy glare for instance so shiny paints out. About 1980 jet ski racers roughened the bottoms of their skis and went faster. I think that was an independent discovery, discovered because you beach skis and that roughens the bottom of course. But all this is supposition. I’ve learned seen any papers on the subject

I do the same for my NA motor. for me it’s 22 squared and that’s less than 65%, above a altitude where 22” isn’t possible for every inch of manifold pressure decrease, add 1000 RPM, it’s not exact of course but close enough for me. ‘I’ll even use the mixture as a sort of throttle, if I’m just cruising around or traveling with slower aircraft instead of reducing manifold pressure, I’ll lean it out more, she will run smoothly at 6 GPH at 22 squared but not much less than that. ‘Once well LOP fuel burn determines power output

Understood, I’ve always done my own annuals and until recently I worked at an aircraft manufacturing plant, so all kinds of common hardware was free. ‘That’s come to an end and I’m still struggling with what do people do, buying a couple dollars of screws etc from Aircraft Spruce and paying $10 to ship an ounce is getting old fast.

It’s actually Garmin that’s built the company by acquisition, they got into aircraft avionics by buying Apollo, they bought Navionics to increase share in boating, and the Garmin inreach came about because they bought the Delorme product that name escapes me, they have acquired many companies, sometimes just to shut them down. Active Captain was a crowd sourced app that boaters would report everything, navigation hazards, anchorages, marina reviews, boat yard reviews, everything. It was hugely helpful. Garmin bought it, so guess what? ‘Garmin is buying uo the competition and one could argue they are better, but they have disturbing trends, the planned obsolescence is one, but for instance in boats all other chart plotters can use several different map sources, Explorer charts for instance are far away superior for the bahamas, but a Garmin chart plotter can only use Garmin maps. so you don’t have a choice if you buy a Garmin, it’s Garmin or nothing. ‘I’m sure you all know the Garmin story, who they used to work for, where the name came from etc. You can’t deny their tremendous, huge success, they killed giants, it’s sort of the American business dream

A 150 can accelerate and fly and even climb at lower density altitudes at gross weight and full flaps, although not well ‘However it can’t at high DA, many aircraft can’t. But the issue isn’t doing T&G’s, the issue is putting your self into a situation where a go around or missed approach isn’t possible, that should be avoided, try not to commit to an approach that there is no way out. If you can’t go around what’s your plan when there is a runway incursion? A LOT of cessna’s have 40 degrees flap. it’s not unusual, a 182 my Father had did for instance, Cessna went through all the trouble and expense to build those big Fowler flaps, it became sort of a trademark for Cessna to have real effective flaps. Maybe it was a hold over from the L-19’s 60 degrees of flap?

I don’t understand, what would an Experimental do for you? Surely insurence isn’t any easier for one. You don’t have to have insurence, if and when I’m refused insurence, I’ll fly without it, I’ll still try to get liability if possible, but I’m not going to quit flying just because some insurence company won’t cover me anymore. ‘Now why some have to have insurence is because they owe money on the airplane, and if your not going to pay cash for the Rocket, I’d say stick with what you have as I assume it’s paid for and you don’t have to have insurence to fly it. ‘What I have heard is that at some age, likely 70, the insurence companies are going to require a full FAA physical. I’m actually in a running argument with my broker about that, she’s telling everyone in the neighborhood to keep their FAA med and don’t go basic med because when they turn 70 they are going to have to have one. ‘I don’t understand why keep FAA med and roll the dice year after year, if insurence requires it, and you desire insurence, then go get an FAA medical when you turn 70. ‘Basic Med has in my opinion been the best thing to happen for us older guys, and I’m not giving that up. Insurence has always been what mostly determined min qualifications, not the FAA, and they are going to do it with physicals too.

Oh and it’s been a long time since we dove there, but the Riding Rock Inn has world class diving, I mean especially the wall diving is among the best in the world. Small 6 pack boats usually with just 4 or 5 divers and two dive Masters, no Cattle Boats, there is a French Resort there with Cattle boats if that’s you thing. ‘San Salvador is of course the Island Christopher Columbus first landed at, it’s definitely an out island, the Resort wasn’t quite as nice as the pictures, but it was clean and good food, but it’s the diving that you’ll remember forever. The runway is huge, 737’s come in and out ferrying people to the French Resort I think. https://ridingrock.com

Did you see the pigs at Staniel? They swim up to the boat, this one wanted pizza. right next door at Compass Kay you can swim with and feed the Nurse sharks in the Marina, compass also has a runway I think but a water taxi from Staniel is easy too. We cruised the area extensively on our sail boat for three years

At low altitude on my pre-buy flight with everything pushed forward and burning take off fuel consumption of 19 GPH, I got an average of 168 kts ground speed. ‘I thought with mods, an F was just as fast as a J? I can cruise at 155 true or so, but I’m usually 22 squared and well LOP and 140 ish kts. I can get even at low altitude 135 kts burning 7 GPH, and while I enjoy speed and sometimes use it to beat weather or something, I’m usually going slower and burning a whole lot less fuel, plus Lycoming even says an engine operated at 65% or lower power will last longer. ‘I have old 1980’s avionics, but I do have a 430 for GPS approaches, but I’m dual ILS, dual comm, what would $20,000 or more of glass give me? The thing about any Mod is on sale day you won’t recoup most of your money, the converse of that is don’t buy an airplane with the idea of modifying it, buy one that’s equipped like you like, even if that means borrowing a little money, it will be cheaper in the long run

That’s with any airplane and some you could even damage the engine if you don’t, some have manifold pressure vs RPM limits ‘I go full prop and full rich on final, by doing it on final, the RPM stays the same, I was taught at a school that was meant to produce airline pilots and they start off of course in small aircraft, and they taught to not upset the passengers, so no warning horns were supposed to go off, no sudden revving up of the engines etc, of course that’s not possible on a turbine, the props are going to speed up. ‘But they did teach differently, for instance the second you got a hold clearance you were supposed to configure for min fuel consumption because of course the purpose of holding is to waste time, so save fuel while wasting time. Going around with prop at cruise settings like taking off on one mag, many will say they won’t, they always use the checklist, but fly long enough and you’ll eventually do it. Same with carb heat if you have one

A 150 even with 40 degrees of flap at certification altitudes would go around with full flap, even if marginally. I believe the 152 had a increased gross weight and the higher gross weight took marginal to ain’t happening, so the flaps were reduced to 30 degrees or so I was told. Of course there are some airfields at an altitude that a 150 or 152 can’t take off regardless of flap setting. ‘But flap settings are sometimes other things too, for instance the piston engine Thrush crop duster has 40 degrees of flap, but the factory turbine only has 15 degrees, the reason for 15 degrees is the excessive attitude change on a full power go around was excessive so the flaps were reduced, but there are STC’s that put a turbine on a Thrush that keep the 40 degrees of flap. You don’t need flaps to slow down on a turbine, the prop min pitch can be set flat enough so that it’s a huge speed brake, much more effective to slow you than flaps, and 15 degrees on that airplane is about where you get the most lift without a lot of drag.

Yes that one. I didn’t even know of it’s existence and “found” it outside on the ramp at the museum, they also had a B-17 with horribly damaged leading edges. I asked about the damage and was told it was a fire bomber in the past, I’m not sure why fire bombing would cause so much damage? Anyway maybe because I was in a military flight suit, I got to go inside and climb around in the HE-111 They had a lot of neat stuff at the Museum, and what was really interesting was it wasn’t behind ropes and glass cases etc, I got a good look at a Gnome rotary engine for example and I’d never seen one before. It was really interesting, it had extremely weak valve springs for instance, I believe they were for starting only. the rocker arms had counter weights on them, I believe these weights provided the closing force for the valves, the faster it spun, the greater the force if I’m right, which is pretty darn smart, a lot of energy is lost through valve springs on a conventional engine, they knew that and came up with a better way, over 100 years ago. It’s astonishing how much was known way back in the day, My Wife’s Grandfather for instance was an aircraft mechanic I assume right after WWI, he got his license by a correspondence course, I have most of those books, the attached photo is from one of them where the average aircraft is shown to illustrate parts. It’s a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny. I never met him, he was gone before I came around, but his legacy if you will is still around. He later worked at Turner Air Force base in Albany Ga., and built a “drop tank” luggage carrier for some kind of aircraft there, the Col liked it and on one trip to Japan in a B-52 bought him a set of China as a gift, so now my Daughter’s set of China was smuggled into the US in the belly of a Nuclear bomber, how many can say that? Somewhere I have a Nose gland nut wrench for a YP-59 too, what surprises me about that is it’s a cast manufactured part or possibly forged, for a experimental airplane. On edit, what these books are particularly good at is wood repair as of course most aircraft were constructed from wood, it tells you how to make your own adhesives and all kinds of info that’s over my head actually as I have no experience with wood. ‘But anyway in school now we are told things like don’t use a non castellated nut on a drilled bolt, but not told why, his old books explained it was due to the drilled cavity being trapped under the nut could lead to corrosion and eventual failure of the bolt, they knew that over 100 years ago, and went to the trouble of explaining it, now we are just told not to.

I heard ATC tapes of a drunk in flight probably 50 years ago, ATC was asking things like what’s your heading and the slurred answer of west, no South etc would come back. ‘He didn’t survive, the autopsy didn’t show all that much alcohol, he shouldn’t have been that disoriented, what did it was altitude, I guess a little hypoxia and a little drunk combine to completely incapacitate you. This was back in the day when people would drive or fly after a drink or two, it wasn’t illegal or uncommon, the point was to try to show that you can be OK on the ground, but not at altitude. This was also when everyone smoked, one demonstration I remember vividly was someone on Oxygen exhaled though a lit cigarette, which promptly broke out into a serious flame of course. My Mother wasn’t happy, because my Father wouldn’t let her smoke on Oxygen anymore. You enter a different environment in flight, and physiology etc changes, and or effects different people differently

Maybe, but the FAA will disagree with you, the aircraft MM takes precedence, the aircraft manual is supposed to call out a different torque if for some reason it’s more correct in that application.

Ref cleaning off old cork gaskets, put a wire brush in one side of your bench grinder and the cork just disappears, takes about 30 sec per cover. I learned this on car valve covers 45 years ago, then we glued them on with 3M weather strip adhesive, so they were REALLY stuck on. Oh, obviously use a gasket scraper to remove most of it first, the wire brush is for the stuck on stuff. ‘Once you have that wire brush you’ll find many uses for it, for instance it will take rusty bolt threads and make them look new in just a few seconds, but be careful because it can also launch bolts and things with significant velocity

Need to fly my C-140, fly with the windows open, sticking an arm out will almost put it in a standard rate turn. Ref anti chafe tape, I use this as even putting it on both sides won’t require different lengths of Camlocs etc. I believe it’s 1/2 of a thousands thick yes, that’s .0005 https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/tefloncoatedtape.php I believe that’s thinner than paper on average?

Glad you survived, this was IMC? IMC brings down the survival rate significantly, good job. The NTSB report was interesting, at first I thought they were going after the IA, but didn’t blame him, blamed the Government for not calling out interior furnishings condition. Interesting conclusion, not one I agree with as Airworthiness is to a great extent an opinion, there simply is no way every possible thing that can effect airworthiness can be called out, and trying to is how we end up with way over complex regulations.

Touch and go’s are just that, touch and go. A touch and go has the runway cleared faster than a full stop, cause your only on the ground for 2 sec or so. I don’t understand this reconfiguring and getting the checklist out. ‘Even in a 152 I was taught touch, full throttle, take off, retract flaps to half, then fully retract after climbing some, carb heat was pushed in on short final so all you had to do was add throttle. ‘If your trying to retrim, retract flaps and I don’t know but maybe open cowl flaps and other things before you go, you guys are right, with all these steps your likely to screw something up. Touch, then go, after you go, methodically clean up the cockpit, don’t get in a hurry though, it’s not a timed event, she climbs just fine at full flaps, even with the gear down, go out and try it and see.

Before the Mooney I flew without insurence, I figured if I broke it, I was going too fix it anyway, only aircraft with a higher insurence rate than a Maule is a Husky, seems people buy an airplane and think that makes them a bush pilot. ‘However the Mooney has retracts, and I don’t care how good you are, there exists a possibility of a gear malfunction, so I’m insuring it. ‘If you insure,just don’t under insure, I saw an old guy lose his Maule that way, He broke an Oleo strut, which is not even as bad as a gear up, but the insurence company showed up and wrote him a check, and turned around and sold it for about what it was insured for. He had the airplane for a long time and never increased its insured value ‘He bought it back from the buyer, but it cost him I think about 10K, but it was fixed then.

Any Certified aircraft can have a low wing lifted by the rudder, it’s the reason many aircraft have aileron to rudder interconnects, so check the interconnect but I’d be surprised if that’s it. ‘Once your sure fuel is balanced etc. you’ll most likely end up tweaking the trailing edge of an aileron, I’ve not read it, but I’m sure it’s in the manual. But if i cruise the ball is centered the odds of it being rudder are small

Been to Mesa picking up aircraft etc many times. ‘Did you go to the museum on the other side of the airfield? They had an HE-111 when I did.

I enlisted in 1982 as a 67V, OH-58 repairer, took me almost four years and three attempts to get picked up for flight school, a few towards the end of flight school got to select our aircraft, I picked the AH-64. ‘I Retired in 2002, since then somehow or another, I’ve lost most of my trinkets, that was actually another life it seems

It was I believe 1983, I had just completed my first phase inspection of an OH-58 helicopter. Phase is similar to an annual. These were Vietnam era helicopters, so pretty old. The test pilot got in after the pre flight of course and started pulling circuit breakers, there was one or two that couldn’t be pulled. There is no inspection to check if they can be pulled, it’s not in the book, but from then on when an aircraft got inducted into phase, one of the first things I did was to pull all of the breakers. Assumption is, given enough time they may corrode in place, maybe in an overload they will still trip. but if you can’t pull it, it’s bad. ‘So, ever since then whenever I annual, I pull all of the breakers, it’s one reason I dislike the flush breakers Cessna and others use

Clean plugs pretty much rule out excess fuel and or a broken ring consuming too much oil, which does seem to indicate a leaking valve guide seal, because what else is there? Cracked head is a disturbing thought, could be I guess. I don’t think push rod tube or valve cover myself, it seems to be coming from inside of the exhaust. ‘OEM gaskets are thin sheet steel, but the gasket isn’t the problem, meaning putting new ones in won’t fix the issue, maybe hide it. ‘Have you done a cylinder leak down test? Unless it shows something I believe I’d pull the cylinder and take it to a shop that overhauls them, and have them inspect.

What do the plugs look like?