A64Pilot

I’d say your correct for 121.5 ELT, but not the 406. the 406 sends a signal to the RCC that says the tail number to the airplane is down and gives an exact location if it’s a better one, the old ones didn’t give a position and it took a few satellite passes to determine position. ‘But a 406 is registered, so if your 406 ELT goes off, the first thing they do is call the telephone number on the registration, if someone answers and say yes he’s out flying then they get serious. FAA never wanted ELT’s Congress mandated them after a Congressman went missing in Alaska and wasn’t found. Just trivia. https://www.aopa.org/advocacy/aircraft/aircraft-operations/emergency-locator-transmitters

I believe your correct, that is the Airframe manual supersedes the engine manual, and I’d bet that somewhere in the engine manual is a statement to that effect.

The only real glaring example of people abdicating operations not in accordance with the operations manual is one company that says buy our products and run your engine lean of peak and keep your airspeed up etc, they even go so far as to imply the engine manufacturer, (Lycoming) are a bunch of idiots. ‘So Lycoming published a paper obviously pointed at them, to have of course the company or maybe one of the others that profit from the product to write a scathing paper about how stupid Lycoming is. ‘Oh, and by the way if you read Lycomings published breakin procedure, it amounts to “fly it like you stole it” all the initial run ins should have been accomplished prior to it being handed over to the pilot.

Trust me, remove your pressure transducer and install an inexpensive automotive type of direct reading pressure gauge, use it to verify your pressure. ‘A stuck closed high pressure relief valve is extremely unlikely, and if it were stuck closed, your pressure would skyrocket on initial takeoff when the oil is cold and thick, not in cruise when it’s hot like in your photo. Don’t go mucking with your engine and adjusting oil pressure to make a bad gauge read good, verify that gauge before you touch your engine, you don’t have to fly or even taxi to verify the gauge. Too high an oil pressure is as rare in an engine with hot oil as Unicorns are, not impossible but very unlikely. ‘The best way to test the gauges with what’s called a dead weight tester, that when the transducer is removed from the engine and installed into a small calibrated pressure pump and then the mechanic can crank up the pressure slowly and compare your gauge against a calibrated one. Many smaller mechanic shops won’t have one, but a good engine shop certainly should. ‘That’s the best way

I just remembered, if that **** isn’t perfectly aligned to the panel it catches somehow, loosen both screws and see if it gets any easier, then lightly pry it to one side or the other and snug up the screws, if you find a spot that it’s not too tight, tighten down on them. Mine is much tougher to flip than the others, I assume it’s because it’s actually two switches, or maybe mine is going bad too? ‘The split Cessna switch would probably work, our Master isn’t split though, the Cessna one side is alternator and the other the battery relay, I believe we are the same, but don’t have the ability to turn off the alternator with a switch, we would have to pull the field CB. ‘Maybe Cessna does it that way as usually you can’t pull their breakers? Oh, I have an 81J so I assume we are the same.

You don’t replace them when they are dead, the replacement interval is based on being able to guarantee X number of operating hours in a cold environment. 121.5 / 243.0 ELT’s are worthless as those frequencies aren’t even monitored anymore by rescue coordination centers. 406 on the other hand, works and works well.

I believe it’s just a double pole, double throw switch with spade connectors, if you wanted to temporarily install something that would work if you can’t get the correct switch for awhile

Read the second paragraph of the link I posted, the Supreme Court and the FAA disagree with your definition of Shall.

That makes me think he’s getting a zero time motor from Lycoming. ‘Manufacturer’s or their designee’s can zero time, designee’s are rare, but it’s allowed

By using the words “It Is Recommended”. that means you should, but don’t have to. If it were mandatory, it would say “The following parts MUST be replaced”. It can even get more vague when the words “Will, Shall and May” are used. https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/plain_language/articles/mandatory/ Having said all of that, your foolish not to replace those parts, especially if your a professional.

I’m thinking if it’s a combo manifold / fuel flow gauge, it’s actually a pressure transducer, most combo gauges are actually pressure gauges marked in GPH as pressure can be used to determine fuel flow, not as accurately as an actual fuel flow transducer, but accurate enough

Thanks, The hardware that holds the balance weight in is called an “Iron Flat Head Rivet” I’ve not heard of such a thing before.

Have any of you guys seen that filter, and the inside of the vacuum instruments from when people used to smoke in the airplane? That was nasty

I bet it’s the gauge, I’d temporarily install a direct reading gauge and verify that the engine oil pressure is correct. ‘Don’t do anything to the engine until your sure the oil pressure is actually high.

Thanks for the link, I downloaded it. ‘However I can’t find in the manual how the weights are installed as in what is that that looks sort of like the bottom of a Huck bolt that’s attaching the weights? I know it’s not a huck bolt of course, is it some kind of rivet that I’m unfamiliar with?

Yes, exactly correct

This is what I’m talking about, it would solve some issues for me, it’s a complete Mode S Xponder with ADSB out , doesn’t even need a blind encoder, everything is in the tail light, but it weighs 5 oz, and as far back as the tail light is on a J model, I’m sure I would have to rebalance the rudder. and yes of course that means it comes off. https://uavionix.com/products/tailbeaconx/

No, no You NEED a new autopilot. and to give me your old one, or sell it cheap Seriously, what is it you want an Autopilot to do that the Century doesn’t do now? Looks like the Cats meow to me.

You really should change oil once a quarter. The acid comes from moisture from burning fuel and the chemicals in the fuel. mostly sulphur I believe, it’s not from carbon in the oil or filter. Acid is I believe Oxygen, Sulphur and Hydrogen, sulphuric is I believe H2SO4 for instance, those chemicals aren’t in carbon I don’t think. Now I’m normally against oil analysis, as people want to think it’s an engine analysis, and it’s not, it’s what it says it is, oil analysis. ‘So one of the better uses for it is determining oil condition, so take an oil analysis and specifically ask for TBN and TAN, which oddly isn’t in a normal aircraft oil analysis I don't think. ‘Anyway TBN is Total Base number, which is a measurement of the oils ability to neutralize oil, a good TBN number means the oil is still providing good acid protection. TAN is Total Acid Number, which is exactly what it sounds like. ‘It was Diesel engines back in the day burning high sulphur fuel that really created acid, but TBN and TAN will tell the acid story of any engines oil, there are other factors of course but they don’t really come into play with little use,15 hours isn’t going to “wear” out oil. But bottom line is oil is the cheapest thing about an aircraft engine, don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. In my opinion it won’t hurt to change filters every other time, just don’t put more than 50 hours on a filter. (just an opinion) ‘A filter should have an anti drainback valve that does what it says it does, in other words draining the pan even for a week shouldn’t drain the filter. The valve exists so that at every engine start your engine gets oil pressure quickly,if it had to refill a drained filter, then it wouldn't. If I were in your position I’d seal the intake, exhaust and crankcase vent trying to prevent moisture from entering the engine. ‘Some will put desiccant filters on the crankcase vent, and that may be a good idea. I’d want one that you could dump the desiccant and dry it out and reuse it though

At the factory I worked at we broke side windows and door windows pretty regularly, so I went on a crusade to cut down on wastage, There are special bits made specifically to drill plastic, helped a little, maybe, we tried dulling bits and grinding our own cutting edge on bits etc. Nothing worked as well as a uni-bit, you know AKA Christmas tree bit. ‘I have a theory as to why, drill a hole in thin sheet metal with a normal bit, see how it distorts the hole, puts a twist in it? That’s what’s busting the plastic. ‘Drill a hole in thin metal with a uni bit, the hole isn’t distorted, there is no “twist” in a uni-bit to distort the hole. So buy a unit bit and be done with it.

I wish my Century worked, when you remove it, remember me.

Actually a multi question, looking at a tail strobe -x which weighs 5 oz. That's enough I feel sure to require adding weight to the nose of my rudder, because flutter is probably the only thing that scares me worse than fire in IMC. So I need a copy of the maintenance manual, where can I get one? The manual will give me the max weight of the trailing edge of the rudder measured at a certain point from the hinge line I’m sure, but how does one go about adding weight? Is weight added to existing weight or do you purchase a heavier weight? If so what is the source of supply? Manual will I’m sure answer most of that.

So far as removing something if control oscillations occur, maybe, if your lucky. The Test pilot is a friend of mine, it’s was a test to VD, velocity dive speed. The elevator got into flutter, an oscillation. The accident was recreated in a wind tunnel, from the onset to total destruction of the empennage was less than 1 sec. .7 if I remember correctly. The aircraft had been tested to VD I believe 7 times, successfully with no problems, what was different this time was the test pilot had run the trim to full down so that he didn’t have to hold excessive force on the controls, the test was a 1” “pulse” of the elevator, as soon as the pulse was accomplished the tail came apart, Ralph got out. He said his feet were in the corn when the chute opened, the flutter Engineer that was in the aircraft, didn’t. There is more this story of course, https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/2731

At the Army Test Activity, we had a specially equipped CH-47 helicopter with a large retractable spray boom like a crop duster, it was used for ice testing. ‘I can’t find it, but there is a picture of a C-17 tucked uo in trail with that CH-47 being covered in artificial ice. We even had a specially equipped King Air with all kinds of instrumentation and the Chinook could pump air into the water it was spraying and create all kinds of different forms of ice that you will fly into naturally. So once in a while you may see a CH-47 with a very different aircraft flying on its tail. The time I saw it, it was February in the Upper Peninsula of Wisconsin, we were based out of an old abandoned Air Force base. I found a clip of it, the Chinook has three APU’s two to run the spray system https://www.waff.com/2019/05/10/redstone-test-center-training-upcoming-icing-test/

Formation flying, take off and landings are three different things. ‘For example a Mooney can fly formation with my C-140, but landings and takeoffs would be problematic. These two can fly together, but landings and takeoffs would be more difficult.