A64Pilot

The second one most likely. ‘My C-85 does that trick too, and it took me awhile to figure it out, on the C-85 the rather large tube that the stitck goes into extends into the oil tank, and its opening is under the oil level. ‘The dip stick has a good air tight seal, so what happens is when you shut down, it’s hot and as the trapped airspace cools off if forms a slight vacuum that will pull oil up into the tube, giving a false high reading. ‘So you have to remove the dip stick, wipe it off and re-insert it to get the true oil level, and it will likely be much lower than just pulling the stick out and looking will indicate. Now I do not know that’s what’s going on with your 550, but I do know that the best way to check any engine is to remove the stick, wipe it clean, reinsert it and check. Just remembered the Yanmar 4JHE in my sailboat was the same way, on boat motors they run the dipstick tube to the bottom of the oil pan so that you can use it to suck the oil out to change oil, and it did the same thing as my C-85 Just threw the sailboat motor in as an example, not trying to say it has anything to do with aircraft engines

You guys are really only getting 130ish kts true out of your J’s ?

Except that those that posted don’t use regular alcohol Rain-X are correct, I never had any problem with it, but it apparently WILL damage acrylics. I guess I didn’t use it often or long enough for the damage to become apparent

float chargers if they are at the correct voltage for an AGM do help, but unlike automobiles which may have significant dark current, we have a master relay that disconnects everything except the keep alive power for a clock, and apparently in some models the interior light, so our batteries shouldn’t run down much. ‘I believe the self discharge rate for an AGM is about 3% per month, but if you don’t fly often, a good battery tender is a good thing to have.

If you have a real need or use for a turbo, by all means get a turbo. ‘I live in Fl and may never go over any real mountains, and if I do the J model is perfectly happy at 15,000 or 16,000, maybe higher. It just takes time to get there, and once there it’s sort of a dog compared to a turbo,but if your only going there once or twice a year or less do you need a turbo? Which is completely different of course for those that live at altitudes that I normally fly at, and have mountains nearby ‘A lot of how much more does it cost has to do with your familiarity of a turbo and your desire to use it, but that I mean if you always fly at max boost, it’s going to cost you more, really similar to a NA motor, run a NA motor at 65% power or less all of the time except for climb and at TBO it’s likely all the expensive parts won’t need replacing. I’d say plan on 20% more on motor costs, it may be less and if it is, then it’s a pleasant surprise. ‘If you don’t mind me asking, what are you spending $1,000 a month on? Flying a whole lot or upgrades? I would think a turbo Mooney could be flown quite a lot and maintained perpetually on $1,000 a month, but then I’m just maintaining old avionics and not replacing with glass either. ‘So I guess I’m saying maintaining, not improving

Don’t have a clue what your talking about, your link is to the entire manual. But then I’m not real computer literate Maybe take a screen shot and post a picture of that?

On my 550 and I’d assume here also, two minutes. 3/8’ wrench if memory serves to disconnect the line and a 7/16” deep well socket to pull the injector. ‘Mine I don’t believe came apart, I never tried but I think they were one piece, remove the injector and using the straw on a can of carb cleaner blow though it backwards to clean it out. ‘But be very careful, have a rag around it so no cleaner sprays into your eyes, because that stuff burns like fire if it does. ‘Pulling an injector is pretty much identical to pulling a plug, just a much smaller thing

it tough to figure out what’s he really saying, For instance was it just EGT? 1350 isn’t really that high? Or did he have high cyl head temps also? But “flickering” is not a word normally used for properly functioning sensors. ‘really hinges on whether or not there were high cyl head temps to go along with abnormal EGT

Detonation will also make cyl head and egt go nuts On edit if it’s a clogged injector then that one cylinder will display abnormalities during run up now. Nedd to know what was flickering between 300 and 500 though

The cyl head temp was changing between 300 and 550? Ifit was changing rapidly,I’d suspect a sensor error

Are we talking EGT or cyl head temp or likely both? I’d do a leak down test, if it passes that then it’s most likely good. I would suspect first injector then start looking for manifold leaks. Don’t be afraid to swap injectors to help trouble shoot,you can always put them back. Percent power when it acted up? And were you LOP? How long before you reduced power and did the power reduction cool it off?

Concorde also makes Lifeline batteries, they are not aviation batteries, they are AGM deep cycle batteries, and for all intents and purposes pretty much identical to the Aircraft Concorde. ‘They have by far the absolute best, most comprehensive battery manual in existence, believe it or not but their AGM batteries do best when the battery is allowed to accept all the charge amps you can feed it. As long as the voltage is correct, you cannot push too many amps into one, the battery will only accept what it can handle, as it’s SOC or state of charge increase, acceptance rate will decrease. ‘So if you have a big ole powerful charger, as long as it’s voltage is correct, you can’t push too many amps into a Concorde battery. However if it’s voltage is too high, of course you can. ‘Anyway, sit down and do some reading, as I said this is by way far away the best, most comprehensive battery manual there is, especially for AGM’s http://lifelinebatteries.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/6-0101-Rev-E-Lifeline-Technical-Manual.pdf One of the required checks during annual is to determine the reserve capacity of a battery, although it’s seldom done, but if you fly IFR much, you may want to ensure it’s done, cause once that alternator or voltage regulator quits, it’s the reserve capacity of the battery that’s going to get you down safely. I wish battery desulphators worked, but they don’t. About the only way to partially recover from sulphation is an equalization charge, how to do it is in this manual. Lifeline I believe calls it a conditioning charge, but most people refer to it as a equalization charge. ‘The Godber family owns and runs Concorde battery, they are a US company, in the US that employees US citizens and manufactures in the US. To some that may be important. ‘I had my bad Gill experience. almost cost me a bundle, I won’t make that mistake again, but to be honest it was a Gill wet cell, not an AGM

Touch some of it with a soldering iron, see if it will melt. I think that may point to a plastic, if it chars I think that may point towards something like cotton? As I said if it’s organic, I believe bleach will make it change color. I think I would get a 55 gl barrel and using the boost pump, pump the tanks dry, put an inline filter in the line, you can use cheap vinyl plastic hose you get at home depot, no pressure and your not using it for long, plus of a slug of anything goes though, you’ll see it. Inspect the inside of the tanks and using an inexpensive electric fuel pump, pump the fuel back in, again going through an inline filter. That ought to get you back to clean fuel. ‘I’m betting the person that said it came from a filter on the truck breaking down, called it. ‘Bond everything together and connect to a ground of course, don’t let the fuel air drop into the drum, put the hose to the bottom of the drum

SWR should be a lot lower than that, approaching 1to1? I believe from other radios 1.5 to 1 is good, above 2 not so good? I’ve never seen it change from one end of the Co-ax to the other, but then I haven’t measured both ends, but if it is, wouldn’t that point to Co-Ax? As I usually work on older aircraft. if I change an antenna the Co-Ax is replaced too as a matter of course. Probably some knowledgeable person could make a case that Co-Ax has a finite life. I’ve not had many antennas go bad, I’ve replaced them because the base was corroded and looked bad, but the antenna worked fine,but those were “stick” antenna’s not blades like on my J. I assume our antennas require a ground plane, and if so then the aircraft supplies that ground plane, then the electrical bonding between the antenna and fuselage may should be checked? I have question marks as I’m not stating facts, but things I believe to be true

It’s all situation dependent, I now fly a lot into small sometimes short grass strips that are of course not controlled, for those generally you want to be slow and no one is pushing you to maintain best speed. If there is traffic it’s often a Cub or something similar ‘There have been times in large airports that unless I’m in a turbine I have to say “unable”, they’ll usually vector you around, I’ve never had one tell me to go away, but dropping gear right at max speed and worrying about shock cooling just isn’t worth it in my opinion, but then I’m retired and have watch expenses, the less expensive I can make flying, the more I can fly, and the Mooney is 41 years old. The Cessna is 74 so I back off the limits some

I’m late to this conversation, but years ago the Marshallers were kids and they do as they are told. There was parking in GAC much closer but they wouldn’t let me through in my Maule on 29” tires, which of course it could do easily, but we went with the flow and just got used to the walk. ‘If you look in this Pic, you’ll see a Mooney just behind me, I’m not sure which model you guys would likely know, but the Mooney guys showed up, looked at it and flew it I assume to Kerville for a new prop as it had a prop strike. I assume it was a new aircraft, didn’t talk to the owner. Maybe they are here? ‘But of course your the PIC and responsible for you aircraft, you did right. In crew coordination training we called it the most conservative response, sure you probably could have made it, but the costs of not making it grossly outweigh the benefits of making it. to date the pic, my Son in the pic is 27 now

Have you done a hot air ballon ride? My daughter and I did when I was stationed in Germany,I knew there would be no wind because your drifting with it, but I wasn’t prepared for the silence, you hear everything, people talking, birds chirping etc. Except when the burner lights, that thing isn’t quiet. ‘Set up, tear down etc was a real pain though so I wouldn’t own one. ‘He told me a story of ballooning in Tx, near Austin, he floated over this large house with the long gated driveway etc, there was a guy by the pool drinking coffee, so he said good morning, the guy spilled coffee all over himself, hearing this voice from the sky directly overhead.

I wondered if that was the case, then just wondered how well they do crosswind

That’s what I was expecting to hear, sometimes when steel pieces circulate through the engine, they imbed themselves in the softer bearings, and I’m really surprised to hear that a tappet can be eaten up badly and leave the cam unharmed. I guess the filter caught it all? Good to hear it worked out, Christmas came early this year.

I’m a J model and like to get the gear down early before things get busy, and I prefer to be in the white arc whenever I drop gear as I believe it’s less stressful on the mechanisms, so that’s why I’m at 100 kts or so entering downwind. ‘Like others have said descending 100 ft or so below altitude and then a little climb at low power really bleeds the speed off

Looking at that takes me back. We ran a training mission on night in Tx, went to the FAARP, no truck, so of course we shut down and waited, the Col got on the phone and was giving the LT Hell about where is the truck. Well a couple of hours later the truck show up and starts refueling the aircraft. when he was done we all got in and began starting up to leave, well the Blackhawk had its APU”s shut down in a couple of minutes, all the Apache guys laughed at him and we left. ‘Turned out the truck had been in the motor pool for some work and I guess the procedure is to empty the truck and “purge” it with some kind of purging fluid, and they didn’t get all the fluid out in the rush get the truck back into service, the Blackhawk was fueled first and got a shot of the fluid, all the Aqua glow testing and recirculating fuel etc was skipped because the Col was giving them Hell. So I wonder if anything was growing or was it some kind of contaminant? Ref “bugs” growing in Jet-A and requiring liquid water to grow, first it’s bacteria and not algae etc like you may hear and while it certainly love’s a water / fuel interface it will grow in fuel without liquid water, just not as well. Fuel has water dissolved in it, even gasoline, especially if the gasoline has any alcohol in it, but I was unaware of anything that could grow in gasoline. ‘If any if you are curious, look up APPL jelly, sometimes it’s not just as simple as removing the water.

The valve should be a high pressure valve, that is they usually isolate the tank from everything else, and a leaking tank is very unusual but possible I guess where the valve threads into the tank. Sometimes the tank pressure gauge is before the valve so tank pressure is always displayed, even with the system off. ‘ A leak is easy to find, it’s accessing the system if it’s a built in that may be difficult. ‘Soapy water is likely safe and OK, but I would advise to use the special leak detection fluid for O2 systems, yes it’s just soapy water, but it’s safe soap. My luck if I didn’t I’d find some kind of soap that had oil in it. But usually it’s the tank with a valve connected directly to it, and the regulator connected to that valve, after the reg of course it’s low pressure. If it leaks only when the system is on, then it’s most likely a low pressure leak or the regulator itself of course, maybe they left a fitting to the reg loose?

Most of my just out to fly for fun is done then in any airframe, smooth air is so much more pleasant. ‘I wonder how well they handle cross winds?

I’m not saying it will be smooth or to continue flight, just that it will probably run without tearing any mounts up. ‘A 6 running on five isn’t smooth either, has you pushing the nearest button on the GPS, even my C-85 will run on three, but not smoothly, I had a bad plug and on one mag it was only on three is how I know. ‘But engines are different, blow a jug off of a 985 and it will continue to run, blow a jug on a 1340 and it won’t, so saying a C-85 will run on three doesn’t meant that a Lycoming 360 will, but I believe it will. They will run with a stuck valve or broken rings, just not well. ‘Of course you handle it however you want, just in the C-210 with its IO-520, making it run slobbering rich meant high manifold pressure to maintain level flight, couple that with the lean cylinder running excessively high EGT. After thought it was better to just let the clogged one lean out and quit, but if you don’t like that, push the red knob back in and or turn on the boost pump. ‘On our Lycomings I don’t think turning on the boost richens up the mixture like high boost on an IO-520 anyway, so all you can do is go full rich, the big Continental with high boost, you can make it slobbering rich, like a car with the choke on, so I guess that the difference. I guess the takeaway is if a plugged injector puts a cylinder near peak EGT, be careful of high manifold pressures is all, and if you can’t avoid high manifold pressures and it looks like it may be headed for detonation, let it go so lean that it can’t detonate is a way to deal with a plugged injector.

You’ll get two certificates or three if it takes that. ‘I think if my knees would allow it I’d like to try the backpack motor ones, but the big trikes I don’t understand, but sure why not, I got a sea plane rating just for fun,it’s not likely I’ll ever use it, but it was fun. Report back, I’d like to hear if it’s fun or if it gets boring ‘No, I’ve never flown a PPC